Materials in Electronics

1. Introduction - outline of the topic and requirements. Structure of materials according to a bottom-up model. Bohr and quantum mechanical atomic models. Electrons and atomic orbitals, interpretation of quantum numbers. Pauli's principle.

2. Chemical valence, ionization and electronegativity, classification of elements. Atomic interactions, chemical bonds. Macroscopic properties of crystal lattices. Secondary chemical bonds and interactions between atoms and molecules.

3. Basic crystallography, Bravais lattice, Miller indices, crystal defects (point defects, dislocations, layering defects) and their effects on macroscopic properties.

4. Single crystals and polycrystals. Amorphous materials and (basic) properties of polymers. Structure and thermal behavior of alloys, state diagrams, eutectics, eutectoids, solid solutions, intermetallic compounds.

5. Electron structure of materials and formation of the band structure. Fermi-Dirac statistics and the effect of temperature, the Fermi level. Definition and diagrams of metals, semiconductors and insulators, the importance of band gap. Quantum mechanical fundamentals. Schrödinger's equation and its consequences, classical quantum mechanical effects: tunnelling effects, ballistic conduction.

6. Properties of metals. Conduction in metals: Drude's metal model, Matthiessen's rule. Hall effect. Conduction and resistive materials, temperature dependence.

7. Mechanical properties of metals, tensile strength, yield strength.

8. Characteristics of semiconducting materials, elementary and compound semiconductors. Electrons, holes, charge carriers, law of mass action. Indirect and direct band structure semiconductors. Processes between bands: generation and recombination. Si single crystal and wafer fabrication technologies.

9. Doping of semiconductors, effect of doping on the band structure. Basic physics and technology of diffusion and ion implantation. Properties of silicon compounds (SiO2, Si3N4) and their applications.

10. Electrical properties of insulating materials (dielectric, ferroelectric, piezoelectric, pyroelectric), ceramics, composites, glasses, polymers, plastics.

11. Optical materials. Types of radiation, continuous and characteristic sources. Types of photon emission, LEDs, lasers, thermal sources. Basic light-matter interactions.

12. Magnetic materials and their properties. Ferro, para and diamagnetic materials. Ferrites. Superparamagnetism.

13. Effect of geometric scaling on changes in macroscopic material properties. Characteristic path length. Quantum confinement and its effects.

14. Modern material systems: nanomaterials and their applications (nanosensors, nanopackaging, nanometrology).