This is perhaps the most comprehensive undergraduate textbook on the fundamental aspects of solid state electronics. It presents basic and state-of-the-art topics on materials physics, device physics, and basic circuit building blocks not covered by existing textbooks on the subject. Each topic is introduced with a historical background and motivations of device invention and circuit evolution. Fundamental physics is rigorously discussed with minimum need of tedious algebra and advanced mathematics. Another special feature is a systematic classification of fundamental mechanisms not found even in advanced texts. It bridges the gap between solid state device physics covered here with what students have learnt in their first two years of study.

Used very successfully in a one-semester introductory core course for electrical and other engineering, materials science and physics junior students, the second part of each chapter is also used in an advanced undergraduate course on solid state devices. The inclusion of previously unavailable analyses of the basic transistor digital circuit building blocks and cells makes this an excellent reference for engineers to look up fundamental concepts and data, design formulae, and latest devices such as the GeSi heterostructure bipolar transistors.

Contents:

• Electrons, Bonds, Bands and Holes
• Homogeneous Semiconductor at Equilibrium
• Drift, Diffusion, Generation, Recombination, Trapping and Tunneling
• Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor Capacitor
• P/N and Other Junction Diodes
• Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor and Other Field-Effect Transistors
• Bipolar Junction Transistor and Other Bipolar Transistor Devices

"This is then an outstanding compendium by a scientist and engineer who really knows his material of classical (silicon) semiconductor physics. All teachers or lecturers of semiconductor theory will need to have this book beside them and it is at a price they can afford ... it has a place as a scholastic effort of real merit."

"A pedagogical masterpiece recommended to anyone who has completed first-year chemistry and second-year physics and the mathematics that accompanies these courses, in preparation for the study of solid state electronic devices ... the quality of the work and the unbelievably economical price from the publisher make this book a must for anyone interested in this subject."

"This book is probably the most comprehensive text ever published that clarified the VLSI device properties with respect to fundamental physics. The breadth of the discipline covered by this text would challenge even experienced professors that have taught the fundamentals of VLSI."

"... a very nice textbook not only for undergraduate courses on Solid State Electronics, but also graduate courses on Advanced Semiconductor Electronics."

"The appearance of a book on solid-state electronics by Professor Chih-Tang Sah is certainly no ordinary event and naturally raises high expectations. The structure of the book is intensive rather than extensive, emphasizing the teaching of fundamentals ... There is little doubt that the book will be a book of lasting importance, to be treasured not only by students, but also by teachers and practising engineers engaged in solid-state electronics."

"This is the work scientists have been waiting for a long time from Professor Sah ..."

"The book is primarily designed as a teaching manual and will be welcomed by many Universities, Colleges and centres of learning, for the thoroughness for which the volume has been prepared ... It is a massive work and will be of lasting value to students who are taught using this book."

“This textbook is a milestone in the literature on semiconductor devices, written by an expert in the field. It is a comprehensive guide to fundamental topics in CMOS and bipolar devices, with very deep insights. It also includes several exclusive topics, of which the subject matters were pioneered by the author; such as Sah-Noyce-Shockley diode equation, capacitance and current trapping transients in a pn junction, etc. All these attributes make this book a wealth of knowledge for every electronic device engineer, scientist and student.”