Semiconductor Fundamentals Certificate Program

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

Module 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).

Module 2: Integrated Circuits and Building Blocks

This module addresses fundamental device structures and functional blocks in integrated circuits. Compared to discrete devices, various special effects are involved in integrated circuits.  Accordingly, the circuit design and individual device implementations are different from circuits built with discrete semiconductor devices.

Topics:

• Transition and requirements from discrete semiconductor devices to integrated circuits
• Structures of BJTs and MOSFETs in integrated circuits
• Digital gate and logic circuits
• Building blocks of digital and analog integrated circuits such as active loads, cascoding, current mirrors and DC biasing techniques, reference sources and IC performance improvement
• BJT and MOSFET linear amplifiers

Module 3: Discrete and Integrated Circuit Design Using Cadence

The design of semiconductor devices and ICs involves comprehensive understanding of the device structures and the technologies used in device fabrication. Electronic design automation (EDA) tools are also crucial in implementation of the design. Module 3 offers such coverage with trainees' hands-on experience in circuit design using Cadence - a mainstream EDA platform for IC design.

Topics:

• Major performance parameters of analog and digital circuits
• Frequency responses and timing of digital gate circuits
• Power design
• Interconnect
• Combinational and sequential design approaches
• Transmission line
• Device models in ICs
• Hands-on experience with Cadence for circuit design and simulation such as platform configuration, technology selection, chematics and simulation, layout, post layout simulation, design optimization, tap-out procedure

Trainees will use OU SECS's Cadence platform through remote access.

The Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at Oakland University supports a variety of renowned researchers, eager to shine through their students. Specifically, the Semiconductor program includes a set of specialists with decades of experience with the cutting-edge technology.