Semiconductor Devices & Integrated Circuits
Summary
An integrated circuit chip is a small square piece of silicon, less than a centimeter across, which contains anywhere from a few transistors to billions of transistors embedded in the silicon. The transistors are all wired together into a single circuit by microscopic wires made of thin films of metal. The ability to cheaply construct a circuit containing millions or even billions of transistors and wires in a small space accounts for most of the power of present day electronics.
The microprocessor that powers a P.C. is an integrated circuit containing several hundred million transistors. The individual transistors and wires in it are too small to be seen with a visible light microscope. If it were magnified enough that all of the details could be seen, it would look somewhat like the map of a large city. The circuitry in a cell phone is almost all in integrated circuit chips. The circuitry in television sets, radios, ipods, computers, and video games, is likewise almost entirely in the integrated circuit chips.
The number of transistors that can be put in a single integrated circuit chip has been doubling about every year and a half or two years for the last 40 years. This observation has come to be called Moore's law. Because of Moore's law, the complexity of the electronic devices that people can purchase and own for the same price doubles every couple of years. This has been one of the main driving forces in the ever increasing power of computers and of personal electronics. There is no indication that Moore's law will end any time soon.
The following two specialties are the main subdivisions within integrated circuit design.
- Processing - A process engineer studies physics, chemistry, and material science. The process engineer designs the physical and chemical processes that are used to create a semiconductor device or integrated circuit. His work is mostly applied physics and chemistry. The process engineers are the men and women who are responsible for the transistors and wires on chips becoming smaller every year, so that more circuitry can be put on a chip each year. It is their work that drives Moore's law.
- Chip Design - A chip designer designs and lays out the circuitry on an integrated circuit chip. The physical and chemical processes used are given to him by process engineers, and he or she designs the circuitry on the chip and does the physical layout. In most cases the circuitry of a chip containing tens or hundreds of millions of transistors is designed by teams of engineers working together. The circuitry is too complex for any one man or woman to do it all.
Research on Semiconductor Devices & Integrated Circuits at the University of Arkansas
The following Electrical Engineering faculty are doing research on semiconductor devices & integrated circuits at the University of Arkansas. Details on their research and their labs can be seen by clicking on their names.
- Simon Ang is doing research on chip design.
- Alan Mantooth is doing research on semiconductor device and circuit modeling and on chip design.
- Hameed Naseem is doing research on semiconductor processes.
Courses for the Semiconductor Devices & Integrated Circuits Specialty Areas
Recommended Undergraduate Elective Courses
ELEG 4203 Semiconductor Devices
ELEG 4233 Introduction to Integrated Circuit Design
ELEG 4243 Analog Integrated Circuits
Additional Graduate & Undergraduate Courses
ELEG 4223 Design and Fabrication of Solar Cells
ELEG 5213 Integrated Circuit Fabrication Technology
ELEG 5233 Solid-State Electronics
ELEG 5253L Integrated Circuit Design Laboratory I
ELEG 5263L Integrated Circuit Design Laboratory II
ELEG 5293L Integrated Circuits Fabrication Laboratory
ELEG 5313 Power Semiconductor Devices
ELEG 5323 Semiconductor Nanostructures I
ELEG 5333 Semiconductor Nanostructures II
ELEG 6213 Semiconductor Surfaces
ELEG 6233 Solid State Electronics II
