Semiconductor Characterization

The goal of this course is to review the fundamentals of semiconductor materials, p-n junction diodes, and MOS capacitors. There are many semiconductor technologies based on different material systems, but the most important is complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor, or CMOS for short. This course will focus on semiconductor materials and devices relevant to CMOS manufacturing, but the concepts can be applied much more broadly. Many of you may have already completed a semester-long class focused on devices, perhaps even more than one. However, if you took that class a while ago or have only the minimum exposure to semiconductor devices, we have developed this short course to review the fundamentals you will need to be successful in this specialization.

Course 2 begins with the definitions of resistivity and sheet resistance of semiconductors and metals and emphasizes the importance of working with the correct units for each. We see how to calculate the sheet resistance of a thin conducting film once we know its resistivity. A method to determine the contact resistance using the transfer length method is described, along with the definition of the specific contact resistivity. Current-voltage (IV) measurements of p-n junction diodes are used to extract key device parameters such as the ideality factor and series resistance. The course project explores how process monitor blocks are used to maintain manufacturing integrity.

Optical and X-ray techniques are powerful ways to characterize semiconductor thin films. They can be used to measure film thickness, purity and crystalline quality, and for compositional analysis. Modern techniques are fast, turn-key, and generally non-destructive, allowing for rapid assessment of material properties. This course describes the fundamentals of optical and X-ray characterization and provides real-world examples of how they are used in semiconductor manufacturing.

Electron and ion beams are widely used for both qualitative and quantitative analysis of semiconductor materials and devices. They can be used to image structures with sub-nm resolution and to provide information about elemental composition and dopant concentration. This course describes the fundamentals of electron and ion beam characterization and includes a project that analyzes the surface roughness of a solar cell.