Advanced Si IC and Solid-State Devices
Course Number: ECE 426 // ECE 621
Semester: Spring 2026
Times: MWF 8:30-9:20
Location: Holmes Hall 242
Context and prerequisites
Parallel teaching of ECE426 (undergraduate) and ECE621 (graduate) - revival of ECE426, and second year of ECE621, after a long hiatus.
Topics: Particle and radiation detectors, avalanche diodes, photodetectors, heterojunctions, solar cells, solid-state LEDs, lasers, optoelectronic / photonic circuit devices, 2D materials and spintronics, carbon nanostructures, solid-state systems for quantum dots and qubits.
Prerequisite: ECE324 most importantly, ECE327, or consent. If an override is needed, please contact me and provide your UH ID number.
NB. The Manoa course availability system is expected to be offline Dec 11 - Jan 3 due to a Banner upgrade. If you decide in this time period that you would like to take one of the sections, please send me an email so I can keep an eye on the tentative number of students. Seating is allocated to 10 + 10, but the currently assigned room has some more seats.
Format
This time, we will try without midterm or final exams.
Lectures: to introduce new materials, properties, and devices; apply previously taught content to devices
Homeworks: to ensure practicing of new concepts and better absorption of content than semi-passive listening in lectures. On a 400-/600-level course, the homeworks may also actively be used to explore content which was not directly covered in the lectures!
Device modeling project using Synopsys Sentaurus TCAD: research- and industry-level simulation of solid-state devices with a commercial software. This will occur throughout the course, possibly with some breaks to accommodate laboratory work, but it is anticipated that one of the three time slots every week will be used as a technical working session. License is provided, but a computer which can at least provide access to the virtual machine running the software is needed. We will start with the provided example projects, and from there learn how to define device structure, processing if applicable, electrical and optical processes simulation, and data extraction/visualization. The choice of device can be tailored to the student's interest - e.g. high-e mobility transistor, photodetector, ... .
The following to be confirmed when size of class is better known, and will distinguish ECE426 and ECE621
Device characterization laboratory sessions, relevant data analysis and reports: link theory and concepts to practical application and actual laboratory measurements! Due to the availability and nature of the available devices (I do not currently have anything convenient for graphene or a quantum circuit!), these will focus on the first half of the course. Laboratory reports are counted similarly to a homework and/or may replace a homework on a given week. Tentative plan:
- silicon pin and low-gain avalanche diodes: current-voltage characteristics, depletion, forward & reverse bias, response to light
- silicon photomultiplier: charge transient = signal with laser injection, readout electronics
- solar cell: IV curve, open-circuit voltage, J0, power generation
Student presentations: ca. 15 min oral presentation on a choice of topic, e.g. a specific device type, material growth method, or - this perhaps most likely - a characterization method.
Literature or conference review: review of a selected set of articles in scientific journals on a given topic, OR: I have also piloted 'conference reviews' - write an overview or a survey of the technical sessions, tracks, key words, trends, materials and devices that are presented at a large conference in a relevant field. E.g. EU-PVSEC, SPIE Medical Imaging, IEEE NSS-MIC-RTSD, ...