Course Description
The course will present the physical concepts required to participate in (or gain appreciation for) the field of high performance, high speed semiconductor devices used in telecommunication systems. Topics include: basic semiconductor energy band structure, low and high field transport in semiconductors, ballistic transport, the depletion approximation and beyond, heterostructures, band line-ups, lattice mismatched heterostructures - strain as design parameter, charge recombination, operating principles of modern semiconductor devices such as SiGe or III-V HBTs, MESFETs/HEMTs, photodetectors, quantum well lasers.
Prerequisites
Students wishing to take this course must have the permission of the instructor.