Customer Reviews

The Science and Engineering of Microelectronic Fabrication

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I am a graduate student in engineering and have never encountered a less understandable book. The author repeatedly offers equations without proof or explaination of variables, frequently changes notation without notifying the reader, and has included far too many errors for a second edition book (ie eqn 3.11, a very important eqn). The problems at the end of the chapters frequently require equations that are not presented in the text (either omitted or included with errors) or that do not correspond to included graphs (check out fig 3.4 and see if you can tell which is GaAS and which is Silicon...then if you're ambitious check out the equation that corresponds to this figure and see if you can figure out whether the plot is correct or the equation is correct). Overall I have been very frustrated by the haphazard way in which this subject has been treated. If you have a class that uses this book, I suggest you get a another book to answer the questions that this one raises (Jaeger for example).

This excellent book by Stephen Campbell offers a comprehensive, in-depth look at many areas of microelectronics. It is also written in an easy to read style with a large number of relevant references. I recommend this book to anyone interested in the many areas of microelectronics.

This is the text book for Mr. Campbell's microfabrication class (advanced undergraduate or graduate level) at the University of Minnesota, that's how I got to know this book. It covers all the different areas of modern microfabrication and puts them in the right context to one another. Any previous knowledge of these topics is not required.

I used this text in a senior-level microelectronics fabrication course and rate it highly. It is a thorough and up to date reference for nearly ALL aspects of modern fabrication technology. The fundamentals like wafer growth, diffusion, oxidation and implantation are covered in the first 5 chapters. Some of this material can be overly technical for those with little background, but I found the tables, diagrams and plots quite helpful.

The rest of the text is broken into sections on patterning (optical and nonoptical lithography, etching,) thin films (evaporation, sputtering, CVD, epitaxial growth,) and process integration (CMOS, GaAs, device technology, bipolar, MEMS.) Each of the subtopics I noted is given a chapter's worth of coverage, so plenty of detail is presented. I think it's a great technical reference and a definite keeper.

I am in the industry. Had this book from back in grad-school semiconductor class and lab. Good intro book, moderate reference book (good basics, but no latest and greatest and it is missing much process design aspect of things), lacks some details but usually your professor or instructor would have covered it in the labs, homeworks, classnotes, etc. MANY TYPOS in this version. Would honestly rate is as 3 but there isn't much alternative out there anyway.

I am a recent graduate and I used this book for my graduate course in school. it is a great book for students. I am not from electronics background and yet this book was easy to follow and learn from.

I have been using this book since 1997. It is a great book, especially for those with very little knowledge in microelectronics. Reader with non-technical background can easily understand the materials. Lots of picture & diagrams to further enhance understanding. It has helped me with my postgraduate studies, a must for those who wants to know about microelectronics and a good referrence for all.

This book is meant for someone who already has a vast amount of knowledge on the subject. The book has errors in some equations and the graphs are poorly explained. The notation for the equations needs to be organized such that the reader can readily figure out what is what. This book gives equation and then you must hunt through a sea of words (sometimes not on the same page) to find out what the notation means. Values from graphs are often needed to solve the chapter problems, however the values are not obvious and often you have to guess. This allows for errors in your calculations if you don't use the same value the grader used. Furthermore, this book has endless references at the end of every chapter which feels like a cut and paste job when you are reading it, no smooth transitions.

The book was a bit dirty on the cover, but it was still in very good condition when recieved and very fast shipping.

I must agree with the other readers who expressed their negative sentiments about this text. I also used it for a senior level IC processes and design course and found many flaws with the book.

The underlying explanations are sufficient and interesting, and I found them to be helpful. However, I found the book useful only as an introduction.

A few troublesome things I encountered were incorrect graphs and tables. For example, I was told that, in order to convert from the unit Torr to the unit Torr, to multiply by 1000. This led to decreased credibility and I found myself double checking other conversion factors and equations in other books.

The author also had a tendency to stop explaining topics before finishing, leaving me wanting more information.

Further, I cannot stress how frustrating it was to read off of log/log plots to determine things such as etching rates, only to have read a value that my TA didn't agree with, to get homework questions wrong.

Another huge point of frustration was being presented with an equation without explanation of the variables. For example, the author would talk about k being some scaling factor, and then present an equation with a k term, which I had to deduct was not the scaling factor, but Boltzmann's constant.