Semiconductor Fundamentals Certificate Program

Start: (Winter 2024) – Tue Jan 9th

These three topics offer fundamentals to the principles, material structure, fabrication processes of semiconductor devices.

Topic 1: Semiconductor Materials and Devices

This course on semiconductor basics will cover the following topics essential to semiconductors and microelectronics: semiconductor crystals; charges in semiconductor; energy bands of the charges in semiconductors, equilibrium and non-equilibrium states of charges in semiconductors; semiconductor-metal contacts; semiconductor diodes; bipolar junction transistors (BJT) and metal-oxide-semiconductor field effect transistors (MOSFET).

Topic 2: Semiconductor Fabrication Technologies

This course deals with basic and advanced manufacturing technologies for conventional and modern semiconductor devices and integrated circuits (IC). The topics covered: Crystal structures of semiconductors; photolithography; oxidation; impurity doping and implantation; physical and chemical vapor depositions of thin films; integration and packaging of semiconductor systems.

Topic 3: Building Blocks for Integrated Circuits

This course provides fundamentals of analog and digital circuits in integrated circuits. The topics covered in this course include: diode rectifying circuits; BJT and MOSFET linear amplifiers; IC biasing; reference sources in ICs; methods of improving IC performance; gates and logic ICs; wave-shaping and oscillation circuits.

The design of semiconductor devices and ICs involves comprehensive understanding of the devices structures and the technologies used in device fabrication. Electronic design automation (EDA) tools are also crucial in implementation of the design. Courses in this area offer such coverage with trainees’ hands-on experience in circuit design using Cadence – a mainstream EDA platform for IC design.

Topic 1: Analog and CMOS Circuit Design Fundamentals (10hrs)

This course covers basic circuit blocks that determine major performance parameters of analog and digital circuits. In addition to the fundamental building blocks of ICs discussed in Course 3 of Area 1, frequency responses and timing of digital gate circuits; power design; interconnect; combinational and sequential design approaches; transmission lines;  and models in ICs will be introduced.

Topic 2: Digital Circuit Design with Cadence (30hrs)

This course provides trainees with hands-on chip design using Cadence. The coverage includes: Introduction to cadence design platform; technology and cell libraries; schematic capture; Verilog simulation of circuits; Layout of the designed circuit; Post layout simulation and validation; Design with standard cells.

Topic 3: Multi-Physics and Integration Technologies for Semiconductors (10hrs)

There are multiple physics involved in all semiconductor devices. This course offers multi-physics approaches to semiconductor design and analysis. Integration technologies at various levels will also be introduced. The topics covered include: Thermal effects in semiconductors; physical and mechanics simulations of semiconductors using multi-physics and finite-element method (FEM); effects and failure mechanisms in semiconductor devices; semiconductor operational limits; integration approaches such as SiP, SOC, etc.

Semiconductor Faults Injection (Transient and Permanent) Analysis using Cadence

Affects and failure mechanisms in semiconductor devices; semiconductor operational limits; integration approaches such as SiP, SOC, etc.