Scribd
Upload
5 views

R0101

The document provides an overview of semiconductor devices, detailing the history of transistors and integrated circuits, including key figures like John Bardeen and Gordon Moore. It discusses Moore's Law, the scaling of integrated circuits, and the various units used in the semiconductor industry. Additionally, it outlines potential career paths within the semiconductor field.

Uploaded by

tkoulong
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
5 views

R0101

The document provides an overview of semiconductor devices, detailing the history of transistors and integrated circuits, including key figures like John Bardeen and Gordon Moore. It discusses Moore's Law, the scaling of integrated circuits, and the various units used in the semiconductor industry. Additionally, it outlines potential career paths within the semiconductor field.

Uploaded by

tkoulong
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 15

EEE436

Overview of Semiconductor Devices

R0101
60 Years of Progress
John Bardeen Walter Brattain

William Shockley

Bell Laboratory - 1947


1 Transistor:
Germanium point contact BJT Motorola PC 620 - 1997
7,000,000 Transistors

Intel 62-Core Xeon Phi


5,000,000,000 transistors,
2012
IBM's POWER 6
790,000,000 transistors
4.7 GHz, 2007
First Integrated Circuits

Robert Noyce Jack Kilby


Fairchild Texas Instruments

First IC at Texas Instruments


First IC at Fairchild 1958
Semiconductor, 1958
Si Valley History
Moore’s Law
 In 1965 Gordon Moore of Fairchild Semiconductor noted that the
integrated circuit density had doubled in complexity each year; in
1959 50 transistors per chip (G.E. Moore, Cramming More
Components onto Integrated Circuits, Electronics 38, 114-117, April
1965)
 He predicted 6,500 components per chip in 1975. In 1975, Moore
updated his prediction and proposed that density until that time had
doubled every 2 years and would likely continue to do so (G.E.
Moore, Progress in Digital Integrated Electronics, IEEE IEDM Digest,
11-13, Dec. 1975) Gordon Moore
 Equally important was his prediction that the
manufacturing
costs of ICs
decreased at a
rate inversely
proportional to
the component
density  IC
cost ~ constant
Information Storage Capacity of ICs

 How a model 1970 automobile would perform, had it improved at the same rate
as integrated circuits
Transistor Density and Cost

Cost/Chip ~ $ 10.- for many years !


Transistor cost reduced by ~109 over 50 years !
Worldwide Semiconductor Sales
Units
The semiconductor world uses a mixture of units
• Device dimensions usually given in microns (micrometers)
• Oxide thickness is given in angstroms (Å) or nanometers (nm)
• Wafer diameters are given in millimeters (mm) or inches (200 mm wafer is often also called
eight inches)
• Sometimes mils are used for wafer thickness or chip size
1 Å (angstrom) = 10-8 cm = 10-10 m
1 nm (nanometer) = 10-7 cm = 10-9 m
1 m (micron) = 10-4 cm = 10-6 m
1 mil = 10-3 inches = 25.4 m
Powers Of Ten
1024 yotta Y 10-1 deci d
1021 zetta Z 10-2 centi c
1018 exa E 10-3 milli m
1015 peta P 10-6 micro 
1012 tera T 10-9 nanon
109 giga G 10-12 pico p
106 mega M 10-15 femto f
103 kilo k 10-18 atto a
102 hecto h 10-21 zepto z Fingernails grow about 1
101 deka da 10-24 yocto y nm per second !
Nanotechnology
The Semiconductor Industry is Nanotechnology

From R. Chau, Intel, IEDM 2009


Careers in the IC Industry
• Process engineer (EEE435, EEE439)
• Device engineer (EEE436)

• Test and Reliability engineer


• TCAD/modeling

• Digital design (EEE425)


• Analog/Mixed Signal design (EEE433)

Pentium 4
Careers in other Semiconductor Areas
• Optical devices and optoelectronics (EEE437, EEE448)
• Photovoltaics and solar energy (EEE465)

• Power devices and power electronics (EEE470, EEE472)


• Microwave high frequency systems (EEE455)
Summary
• History of the transistor and integrated circuits (ICs)
• Moore’s law and scaling

• Units
• Nanotechnology

• Careers in the semiconductor industry

Pentium 4

You might also like