Fundamentals of Modern VLSI was one of the first subjects I took and I was excited. I always wanted to pursue my masters focused towards VLSI as it became the strongest growth area in the semiconductor industry. I thought that continuously moving to smaller sizes components, higher packing density, higher speed, and lower power consumption would be something included in modern VLSI. The coursework did cover theories related to the semiconductor devices and its performance however, everything was theoretical. As it was my first semester, I was looking for something more practical and intriguing.
Dr Wie did explain everything from the basic planar MOSFETs to 3D FINFETS that are currently being used in the industry. The subject started with learning the basics of transistors and physics behind it. Concepts of Band Diagrams, Fermi Energy Level, PN Junctions and MOS Devices were made clear. I did enjoy the later part of the coursework in which we designed CMOS devices, on paper, and measured the performance factor.
The most arduous part of this coursework was the mathematically challenging homework. The homework always reminded me of my High school days when I used to do complex integration and differentiation problems. We solved the complex Poisson’s equations to get Depletion Width, Surface Potential and derived it for four different conditions – Accumulation, Depletion, Weak Inversion, and Strong Inversion. We were also taught how to draw the band diagrams for each of these conditions and comparing them. This homework did give me an insight of how different current-voltage equations are derived but I never practically implemented them.
Dr Wie always tried to keep the environment of classroom joyous and session interesting. He also prepared an interactive Java Applets. The professor had designed different java applets on PN Junctions (Forward and Reverse Biased Mode, Band Bending, Band Diagrams, etc.) and MOS Devices (Accumulation, Depletion, Inversion, etc.). These interactive applets helped me in visualizing the flow of electrons and their behaviour under different conditions inside a semiconductor device.
Scaling semiconductor device is a crucial factor in modern chip development and if not practically, this course taught me to design a device mathematically on paper. At the end, I could recommend EE588 course to the incoming students at UB, who want to start with the theoretical knowledge of MOS and semiconductor device and have an interest in mathematically solving all the parameters.