Introduction to Microelectronic Circuits

ECEN3250: Introduction to Microelectronic Circuits

Inventions of the PN junction (1939), the discrete transistor (1949), and the integrated circuit (1958) have led to an accelerating engineering revolution that we experience today. Applications of microelectronic circuits continue to dramatically affect all aspects of our lives, from computers to communications, from medical devices to renewable energy sources to space exploration, from entertainment and simple life helpers to scientific instrumentation. It is now possible to manufacture transistors less than 100 nm in length, and to put more than 100 million of such devices on a single chip. Improved fabrication technologies or entirely different physical concepts are likely to accelerate this already immense scale of integration much further, with no end in sight. 

ECEN3250 is the course that has the important responsibility of introducing you to the world of microelectronic circuits and opening the possibilities for you to participate and contribute in the ongoing engineering revolution. The emphasis in this course is on the fundamentals - the basic engineering principles and methods needed to understand and successfully design circuits that consist of active devices such as MOS (metal-oxide-semiconductor) and bipolar transistors. Transistors are active devices that can be used to amplify electrical signals or to operate as controllable switches. The signal amplification is the fundamental aspect of analog microelectronic circuits, whereas switching is the fundamental aspect of digital microelectronic circuits. Both of these aspects of transistor operation and applications are emphasized in ECEN3250.

The course syllabus gives a detailed course outline based on the Sedra/Smith textbook. In short, we will cover the following topics:

   (1) Introduction to physics, characteristics and models of semiconductor devices, including diodes, MOS transistors and bipolar transistors

   (2) Analog microelectronic circuits where the devices are used as signal amplifiers:

DC biasing principles and circuit realizations

Small-signal linearization, small-signal models and analysis of small-signal equivalent circuits

Analysis and design of transistor gain stages, including gain, bandwidth, size, matching and power trade-offs 

   (3) Digital microelectronic circuits where active devices are used as switches:

Transistor-level configurations and operation of digital logic gates and memory cells

Analysis and design of digital circuits, including propagation delay, scaling, size and power trade-offs

If you follow the lectures and the textbook, and do your job to prepare well for the assignments, you will be able to earn a good grade in ECEN3250. However, I would like you to do much more - to really dive into microelectronic circuits and experience the challenge, the excitement, and ultimately the beauty of one of the most important areas of electrical engineering. 

Looking beyond ECEN3250?

Of course, there is much to learn and do beyond ECEN3250: below are a few pointers for you to consider.

Courses:

ECEN3320 (Semiconductor devices): learn much more about the physics and fabrication of semiconductor devices. This elective has several follow-up courses at the senior and graduate levels, including ECEN4375 (Microstructures Lab), ECEN4555/5555 (Principles of Energy Systems & Devices) and ECEN5355 (Principles of Electronic Devices 1)

ECEN4827/5827 (Analog IC design): learn much more about analysis and design of analog integrated circuits. The follow-up to this course is ECEN5835 (Mixed-signal IC design) that explores the challenges of combining analog and digital circuits and systems on the same chip.

ECEN4109 (VLSI System Design): learn much more about design of very large scale digital integrated circuits. This course is also related to a number of other courses in the computer engineering and VLSI areas.

ECEN3170 (Energy Conversion 1): introduces principles of electrical energy generation and conversion, including renewable energy sources, electromechanical systems, and power electronic circuits where semiconductor devices are used to process power.

ECEN4797/5797 (Intro to Power Electronics) introduces analysis, modeling and design of switching power converter circuits and systems where semiconductor devices enable smart and efficient processing of power. ECEN4517/5517 (Renewable Energy and Power Electronics Lab) is an electronic design lab where practical switching power converter circuits are constructed and tested. The lab includes a solar power system project.

ECEN4573 (ECE Capstone Design Lab) and ECEN4610 (EE Capstone Design Lab) are semester-long project labs where all of the ECE and EE disciplines, including microelectronic circuits, are combined.