1 - Introduction To Microelectronics LMSver

MICROELECTRONICS
An Introduction
What is Microelectronics?
Microelectronics is a subfield
of electronics, which relates to the study
and manufacture/fabrication of very small
electronic designs and components.
Many components of normal electronic

design are available in a microelectronic
equivalent.
How big is a nm?
Historical Perspective
The First Computer
- Early 19th century, Babbage envisioned large-scale
mechanical computing devices, called Difference
Engines. Proposed paper in 1822 to the Royal
Astronomical Society entitled "Note on the
application of machinery to the computation of
astronomical and mathematical tables".
- In 1823, the British government gave Babbage

£1700 to start work on the project
- The Analytical Engine, developed in 1834, was

perceived as a general-purpose computing machine,
with features close to modern computers.
- Besides executing the basic operations (addition,
subtraction, multiplication, and division) in arbitrary
sequences, the machine operated in a two-cycle
sequence, called “store” and “mill” (execute), similar
to current computers.
- It even used pipelining to speed up the execution of

the addition operation
- Unfortunately, the complexity and the cost of the

designs made the concept impractical.
The First Computer
[http://www.computerhistory.org/babbage/]
- The electrical solution turned out to be more cost
effective.
- Early digital electronics systems were based on

magnetically controlled switches (or relays).
- Examples of such are train safety systems, where

they are still being used at present.
- The age of digital electronic computing only

started in full with the introduction of the vacuum
tube. It was realized early on that the vacuum
tube was useful for digital computations as well.
- The era of the vacuum tube based computer
culminated in the design of machines such as the
ENIAC (intended for computing artillery firing tables)
and the UNIVAC I (the first successful commercial
computer).
- To get an idea about integration density, the ENIAC

was 80 feet long, 8.5 feet high and several feet wide
and incorporated 18,000 vacuum tubes.
- It became rapidly clear, however, that this design

technology had reached its limits. Reliability
problems and excessive power consumption made
the implementation of larger engines economically
and practically infeasible.
ENIAC (1946)
The first electronic computer
- All changed with the invention of the transistor at Bell
Telephone Laboratories in 1947 by John Bardeen,
followed by the introduction of the bipolar transistor by
William Shockley in 1949.
- It took until 1956 before this led to the first bipolar digital
logic gate, introduced by Harris, and even more time
before this translated into a set of integrated-circuit
commercial logic gates, called the Fairchild Micrologic
family.
- The first truly successful IC logic family, TTL (Transistor-

Transistor Logic) was pioneered in 1962. TTL had the
advantage, offering a higher integration density and was
the basis of the first integrated circuit revolution.
Transistor Types
http://tekcroach.blogspot.com/2015/04/4-electronics-lesson.html
http://www.learningaboutelectronics.com/Articles/Transistor-types-hierarchy
- Bipolar digital logic lost the battle for hegemony
in the digital design world for exactly the
reasons that haunted the vacuum tube
approach: the large power consumption per
gate puts an upper limit on the number of gates
that can be reliably integrated on a single die,
package, housing, or box.
- Although attempts were made to develop high

integration density, low-power bipolar families,
the torch was gradually passed to the MOS
digital integrated circuit approach.
Transistor Revolution
The First Integrated Circuit
Intel 4004 Microprocessor (1971)
Intel Pentium4 Microprocessor
(2005)
Intel Core2 Microprocessor (2006)
Moore’s Law
• In his 1965 paper, Gordon Moore noted that the
number of transistors on a chip doubled every 18 to
24 months.
• He predicted that semiconductor technology will
double its performance every 18 months.
• It is not actually a Law; it is merely a
prediction/observation.
• However, it has gained
traction and is now used as a
baseline throughout the
industry.
http://www.itnews.com.au/feature/is-this-the-end-for-
moores-law-406814
Moore’s Law: The Engine of Computer Technology
Heat Dissipation Challenge
Not enough cooling leads to…
Not only in Microprocessors…
Design Abstraction Levels
Basic Physics of Semiconductors
SEMICONDUCTORS
Semiconductor Materials
and Their Properties
Charge Carriers in Solids
- electrons orbit
the nucleus in
different
“shells”.
- atom’s chemical
activity is
determined by
the valence
electrons
Bandgap Energy
- minimum energy required to dislodge an

electron from a covalent bond.
- the “bandgap energy” is denoted by Eg , this
minimum is a fundamental property of the
material.
For silicon, Eg = 1.12 eV

Modification of Carrier Densities
 Intrinsic semiconductors: “pure” type of

silicon, suffering from a very high resistance.
 The controlled addition of an “impurity” such
as phosphorus to an intrinsic semiconductor is
called “doping,” and phosphorus itself a
“dopant.”
 Providing many more free electrons than in
the intrinsic state, the doped silicon crystal is
now called “extrinsic,” more specifically, an
“n-type” semiconductor to emphasize the
abundance of free electrons.
Transport of Carriers
Drift
- Movement of charge carriers due to an
electric field
The acceleration due to the field and the collision
with the crystal counteract, leading to a constant
velocity for the carriers.
v = μE
where μ is called the “mobility” and usually
expressed in cm2/(Vs).
 mobility characterizes how quickly a carrier can

move through a metal or semiconductor, when
pulled by an electric field.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electron_mobility
 For example in silicon:

μn (electron mobility) = 1350 cm2/(Vs),
μp (hole mobility) = 480 cm2/(Vs).
 Of course, since electrons move in a direction
opposite to the electric field, we must express the
velocity vector as
Velocity Saturation
 mobility of carriers in semiconductors is

independent of the electric field
 the velocity rises linearly with E according to
v = μE
 if the electric field approaches sufficiently high

levels, v no longer follows E linearly. This is
because the carriers collide with the lattice so
frequently and the time between the collisions
is so short that they cannot accelerate much.
Velocity Saturation
 velocity varies
“sublinearly” at high
electric fields, eventually
reaching a saturated
level, vsat. called
“velocity saturation,” this
effect manifests itself in
some modern
transistors, limiting the
performance of circuits.
Diffusion
 the movement of particles from regions of high

concentration to regions of low concentration.
 the movement of molecules or atoms from a
region of high concentration (or high chemical
potential) to a region of low concentration (or
low chemical potential).
PN JUNCTION
The PN Junction
 Also known as the “diode”

 this device finds application in many electronic
systems, e.g., in adapters that charge the
batteries of cellphones.
 is among the simplest semiconductor devices,
thus providing a good entry point into the study
of the operation of such complex structures as
transistors
 the pn junction also serves as part of transistors.
The PN Junction
Depletion region (depletion layer)
 an insulating region within a

conductive, doped semiconductor material where the
mobile charge carriers have been diffused away, or have
been forced away by an electric field.
 a region in a semiconductor where no mobile charge
carriers are present.
a particle or object carrying a net (nonzero)
charge creates an electric field around it.
with the formation of the depletion region, an
electric field emerges
the junction reaches equilibrium once the electric
field is strong enough to completely stop the
diffusion currents.
Reverse Bias
Forward Bias
QUALITY METRICS OF A DIGITAL DESIGN
References
 Digital Integrated Circuits— A Design

Perspective, Jan M. Rabaey, Anantha
Chandrakasan, and Borivoje Nikolic
 Fundamentals of Microelectronics, Behzad

Razavi

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MICROELECTRONICS

Many components of normal electronic

- In 1823, the British government gave Babbage

- The Analytical Engine, developed in 1834, was

- It even used pipelining to speed up the execution of

- Unfortunately, the complexity and the cost of the

- Early digital electronics systems were based on

- Examples of such are train safety systems, where

- The age of digital electronic computing only

- To get an idea about integration density, the ENIAC

- It became rapidly clear, however, that this design

- The first truly successful IC logic family, TTL (Transistor-

- Although attempts were made to develop high

- minimum energy required to dislodge an

For silicon, Eg = 1.12 eV

 Intrinsic semiconductors: “pure” type of

 mobility characterizes how quickly a carrier can

 For example in silicon:

 mobility of carriers in semiconductors is

 if the electric ﬁeld approaches sufﬁciently high

 the movement of particles from regions of high

 Also known as the “diode”

 an insulating region within a

 Digital Integrated Circuits— A Design

 Fundamentals of Microelectronics, Behzad

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