ECE 304

• Microelectronics and Photonics

Introduction to active and passive photonic devices and applications: optical processes in semiconductor and dielectric materials including electrical junctions, light emission and absorption, and waveguide confinement; photonic components such as light emitting diodes, lasers, photodetectors, solar cells, liquid crystals, and optical fiber; optical information distribution networks and display applications. The cellular phone and its associated information distribution systems are used to introduce and motivate the study of photonic devices.

Selected homework problems require computer simulations

class notes and Box documents

Elective

This is an introductory course on active and passive photonic devices and applications. The cellular phone and its associated information distribution systems are used to introduce and motivate the study of photonic devices.

By the first exam the students should be able to do the following:

1. Describe critical components of the mobile phone that based on photonics (1, 2, 4)

2. Describe the physical infrastructure for information distribution in the internet (1, 2, 4)

3. Provide examples of at least three UI faculty or alumni who have made significant contributions to photonics (4)

4. Describe how electrons and photons interact (1, 6)

5. Describe the relationships of the elements in III-V compound semiconductors and the bond model (1, 6)

6. Describe the formation of energy levels within semiconductors and the relationship of bonds and bandgap (1, 6)

7. Describe the formation of a semiconductor quantum well (1, 6)

8. Calculate the angle of incidence and refraction from Snell's law and normal incidence reflection (1)

9. Describe total internal reflection and application in optical fiber (1, 6)

10. Identify sources of intrinsic and extrinsic electrical carriers in semiconductors (1, 6)

11. Graphical calculation of equilbrium carriers in semiconductors (1, 6)

12. Qualitative description of energy band-bending and formation of depletion region in semiconductor p/n junction (1, 6)

13. Derive the built-in potential and width of depletion region of p/n junction (1)

14. Describe and draw energy bands of p/n at equilbrium, forward bias, and reverse bias (1, 6)

15. Define the terms: crystal lattice, dielectric material, refractive index, effective mass, density of states, Fermi distribution function, degenerate and nondegenerate semiconductor doping, drift and diffusion transport (1)

By the second exam the students should be able to do the following:

16. Describe interband absorption and emission in semiconductor and variation with wavelength (1, 6)

17. Describe light absorption and emission in p/n junction and relationship with bandgap (1, 6)

18. Describe the consequences of conservation of momentum and energy for light emission and absorption in semiconductor (1, 6)

19. Describe carrier confinement within quantum well and calculate energy states (1, 6)

20. Identify photonic applications in quadrants of IV characteristics of diode (1, 6)

21. Derive photocurrent of p/n photodetector (1)

22. Describe photodetector modes of operation (1)

23. Describe avalanche photodetector operation (1, 6)

24. Identify how to optimize design of solar cell (1, 6)

25. Derive solar cell photocurrent/voltage (1)

26. Define solar cell efficiency and optimization criteria (1)

27. Derive output power of light emitting diode (1, 6)

28. Describe issues of light extraction from light emitting diode (1, 6)

29. Describe how to generate white lighting from light emitting diodes (1, 6)

30. Define the terms: diffusion length, direct bandgap semiconductor, detector responsivity, quantum efficiency of detector or light emitting diode (1)

By the third exam the students should be able to do the following:

31. Describe comparison of light emitting diode and diode laser characterics (1, 6)

32. Derive laser threshold condition from perspective of gain (1, 6)

33. Derive laser threshold condition from perspective of optical modes (1, 6)

34. Describe advantage of quantum wells within diode lasers (1, 6)

35. Describe components of vertical cavity surface emiting laser diodes (1, 6)

36. Describe how colors can be characterized by chromaticity diagram, and color temperature (1, 6)

37. Describe basics of operation of matrix addressing and individual addressing arrays (1)

38. Describe the operation of liquid crystal display (1)

39. Ray optics description of light confinement within optical fiber (1, 6)

40. Calculate the number of modes, size of fundamental modes, and effective index from normalized frequency (1)

41. Describe three sources of optical loss in fiber (1, 6)

42. Derive the power budget of an optical communication link (1, 6)

43. Describe high speed digital modulation characterization (1)

44. Describe the optical information communication format of wavelengh division multiplexing (1, 6)

45. Define the terms: luminous efficiency, optical modes, acceptance angle, normalized frequency, light attenuation, light dispersion, optical communication digital links, bit error rate, eye diagram (1)