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Fundamentals of Microelectronics
CH1 Why Microelectronics?
CH2 Basic Physics of Semiconductors
CH3 Diode Circuits
CH4 Physics of Bipolar Transistors
CH5 Bipolar Amplifiers
CH6 Physics of MOS Transistors
CH7 CMOS Amplifiers
CH8 Operational Amplifier As A Black Box
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1.1 Electronics versus Microelectronics
1.2 Example of Electronic System: Cellular Telephone
1.3 Analog versus Digital
Chapter 1 Why Microelectronics?
Electronics vs. MIcroelectronics
The general area of electronics began about a
century ago and proved instrumental in the radio
and radar communications used during the two
world wars.
Vacuum tubes
Transistors (1947)
The first transistor was invented in the 1940s and
rapidly displaced vacuum tubes.
IC (integrated circuits), 1960
Microchips
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CH1 Why Microelectronics? 4
Cellular Technology
An important example of microelectronics.
Microelectronics exist in black boxes that process the
received and transmitted voice signals.
Cellular Technology
Our voice contains frequencies from 20 Hz to 20 kHz (called
the voice band)
For an antenna to operate efficiently, i.e., to convert most of
the electrical signal to electromagnetic radiation, its
dimension must be a significant fraction (e.g., 25%) of the
wavelength.
A frequency range of 20Hz to 20kHz translates to a
wavelength of 1.510
7
m to 1.510
4
m, requiring gigantic
antennas for each cellphone.
To obtain a reasonable antenna length, e.g., 5 cm, the
wavelength must be around 20 cm and the frequency
around 1.5 GHz.
One possible approach is to multiply the voice signal, x(t),
by a sinusoid, Acos(2tf
c
t).
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CH1 Why Microelectronics? 6
Frequency Up-conversion
Voice is up-converted by multiplying two sinusoids.
When multiplying two sinusoids in time domain, their
spectra are convolved in frequency domain.
CH1 Why Microelectronics? 7
Transmitter
Two frequencies are multiplied and radiated by an antenna
in (a).
A power amplifier is added in (b) to boost the signal.
CH1 Why Microelectronics? 8
Receiver
High frequency is translated to DC by multiplying by f
C
.
A low-noise amplifier is needed for signal boosting without
excessive noise.
CH1 Why Microelectronics? 9
Digital or Analog?
X
1
(t) is operating at 100Mb/s and X
2
(t) is operating at 1Gb/s.
A digital signal operating at very high frequency is very
analog.
Basic Concepts
An electric signal is a waveform that carries information.
Signals that occur in nature can assume all values in a
given range. Called analog, such signals include voice,
video, seismic, and music waveforms.
Analog signals are difficult to process due to sensitivities
to such circuit imperfections as noise and distortion.
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Digital Signal Processing
A digital signal assumes only a finite number of values at
only certain points in time.
The foregoing observations favor processing of signals in
the digital domain, suggesting that inherently analog
information must be converted to digital form as early as
possible.
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Analog Circuits
Todays microelectronic systems incorporate many analog
functions.
The most commonly-used analog function is amplification.
A voltage amplifier produces an output swing greater than
the input swing.
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out
v
in
v
A
v
= .
20log
out
v dB
in
v
A
v
, = .
Frequency Response
Various capacitances in the circuit begin to manifest
themselves at high frequencies, thereby lowering the gain.
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Digital Circuits
More than 80% of the microelectronics industry deals with
digital circuits.
Examples include microprocessors, static and dynamic
memories, and digital signal processors.
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Kirchoff Current Law (KCL)
The sum of all currents flowing into a node is zero.
15
0
j
j
I = .

Kirchoff Voltage Law (KVL)

The sum of voltage drops around any closed loop in a
circuit is zero.
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0
j
j
V = ,

1 2 3 4
0 V V V V + + + =
Example 1.5
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A KVL in the input loop,
in
v v
t
= ,
m m in
g v g v
t
=
A KCL at the output node yields
0
out
m
L
v
g v
R
t
+ = .
out
m L
in
v
g R
v
= .
Example 1.6
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in
v v
t
= .
out
m L
in
v
g R
v
= .
Example 1.7
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in out
v v v
t
= + .
in out
v v v
t
=
out
m
E
v v
g v
r R
t
t
t
+ = .
1 1 1
in m out m
E
v g v g
r R r
t t
| | | |
| |
| |
| |
| |
\ . \ .
+ = + + ,
1
1 1
m
out
in
m
E
g
v r
v
g
R r
t
t
+
=
+ +
(1 )
(1 )
m E
m E
g r R
r g r R
t
t t
+
= .
+ +
Thevenin Equivalent
Thevenins theorem states that a (linear) one-port network
can be replaced with an equivalent circuit consisting of one
voltage source in series with one impedance.
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Example 1.8
21
Thev out
v v =
m L in
g R v = .
X
X
L
v
i
R
= .
Thev L
R R = .
Example 1.9
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sp
out m L in
sp L
R
v g R v
R R
=
+
( )
m in L sp
g v R R = ,, .
Example 1.10
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(1 )
(1 )
m L
Thev in
m L
g r R
v v
r g r R
t
t t
+
= .
+ +
X
v v
t
= .
X
m X
L
v v
g v i
r R
t
t
t
+ + = ,
1
( )
X
m X X
L
v
g v i
r R
t
| |
|
|
|
|
\ .
+ + = .
X
Thev
X
v
R
i
=
(1 )
L
m L
r R
r g r R
t
t t
= .
+ +
Nortons Theorem
Nortons theorem states that a (linear) one-port network can
be represented by one current source in parallel with one
impedance.
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Example 1.11
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Nor m
i g v
t
=
m in
g v = .
R
Nor
(=R
Thev
) =R
L