Physics of Semiconductor Devices

certainly not meant for an introductory course but this book is just terrible in its explanations or lack thereof. i always had to look up the same information in other books or schools that post their material online. i'm giving this book 2 stars instead of one b/c i've had even worse textbooks.

This is a great book with more advanced coverage than most of the undergraduate device physics books. Dr. Shur was my teacher and master's advisor at RPI, and I took two semesters of graduate-level semiconductor devices with him. He is not only an accomplished engineer/scientist, but is also a fantastic teacher with a talent for explaining some of the most complex ideas in simple terms. You'll notice that there are some negative reviews of this book ... I won't disagree with anyone's personal experiences, but I will say that a full understanding of semiconductor devices requires you to be *conversant* with quantum mechanics, crystalline solids, and electromagnetics. Sometimes you'll go through these courses one-at-a-time like clockwork, but eventually you'll reach a point where you are fairly advanced in your understanding of these topics. If you're not at that level yet, then this book is not for you. This book is only for those who are well-prepared and are ready to build on their foundation.

Shur's book tends to present subjects more in-depth than most device physics texts. For example, he will point out (as in van der Ziel's older texts) that the generation rate in a diode space charge region is not uniform, and so when he models things like the space charge region ("n=2") dark current density contribution of diode leakage current, his expressions will be a little more complex than the standard "q ni w / tau" type given in most texts. As another example, instead of just giving plots on how mobility varies with doping, he derives the ionized impurity scattering models that explain this effect, as well as various phonon scattering mechanisms, etc. These points are best appreciated in a second course on semiconductor devices more than on the first go-around. I think his treatment of basic semiconductor physics is very good and is oriented towards the device engineer. I think his development of microwave type devices and effects is considerably more in depth than for optical devices. However, even the minimalist optical device chapter is still pretty reasonable for a textbook, I just think it is at a lower level than his other parts of the book.

Very nice book and hence used throughout the world. The 2020 Indian printing is of good quality.