Customer Reviews

Solid State Electronic Devices (6th Edition)

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

If you are an EE sophomore/junior or senior and want to buy a book on semiconductor physics or devices that is both comprehensive in its depth and coverage of topics, I'd highly recommend this book. Its explanation of the working of FETs is very lucid and takes you all the way up to III-V HEMTs; similarly derivation of drift-diffusion/continuity equations for BJTs are explained in great detail and advanced devices like HBTs are also covered. Furthermore, if you are confused about energy band diagrams, this book is for you.
Let me briefly compare it with other similar books:
1- Semiconductor devices --Physics and Technology, 2nd edition by S. M. Sze--Standard, very good, but a little advanced textbook on semiconductors. Its explanation of FETs working and its assoicated band diagrams is not very comprehensive. Semiconductor Devices: Physics and Technology, 2nd Edition
2- Semiconductor Device fundamentals by R. F. Peirret-- An excellent book on the fundamentals, especially concepts of band diagrams, but again I found its coverage of FET devices not as good as that of Streetman. Semiconductor Device Fundamentals
3- Physics of semiconductor devices by M. Shur-- Shur is an expert on III-V devices modelling and simulations, but for fundamentals of semiconductor devices I won't recommend this to a sophomore! Physics of Semiconductor Devices
4- Semiconductor Device Electronics by Grung-- An excellent book with very good coverage of FETs, but a little more advanced than Streetman. Its explanation of band diagrams and discussion on potential, voltage, electric field, capacitance and their inter-relationships is very intuitive and clear. Semiconductor-Device Electronics (Holt Rinehart and Winston Series in Electrical Engineering)

I'm an undergrad physics/engineering student. I thought this book was reasonably well written and clear. It could benefit from more example problems, and some solution techniques.

Also, I like to have my textbooks be at a slightly higher level than the associated class. This book kind of fell short of that mark in some cases (particularly with heterojunctions and optoelectronics).

Another observation, which isn't really a complaint, is that the book is written as a textbook rather than a reference. The formulas and charts are presented in logical sequence with the text, which makes it nice to read, but leads to a lot of paging to find that graph of mobilities vs. doping, or the formulas for the currents through a BJT, etc... (Kind of the opposite of Sze, where the formulas are collected nicely, but the exposition is virtually nonexistant).

A final thing that somewhat annoyed me, but didn't really detract from the book, was that the author insisted on using Laplace transforms to analyze some things. Which is a bit overkill for solving things like y''=y.

Overall, it's a good book, which explains the underlying concepts clearly.

This is the BEST textbook on solid-state devices. I used this book in my undergraduate and even in graduate courses. This book is also helpful for any researchers on electronic devices. Students and engineers alike like to refer to this book pretty often as it explains many fundamental ideas in pn junctions which are at the heart of presen-day technology and carries on the concept up to MOS devices. This is not a reference book but it provides the basic training required to learn new devices. A made-easy version of this book is Neaman's text.

Streetman wrote this book as an assistant professor almost 40 years ago at the rise of the industry. He and his former student (a professor at UT Austin) have continually updated this book into its sixth edition. With so many revisions and accolades, you can be quite confident that this book will serve as a solid text for learning about the operation and fabrication of traditional and modern semiconductor devices.

I've read this book twice through in detail along with Pierret's Semiconductor Device Fundamentals, parts of S. Sze's book, and many other books that cover semiconductor physics. For an undergraduate learning the material for the first time, I HIGHLY recommend reading Pierret's book instead, with this book for more detail on modern devices and additional information on basic topics. Pierret holds your hand as he walks you through the material, explaining many details and limiting cases for basic material...Streetman doesn't quite do that. Pierret also puts some emphasis on computational solutions and graphing via MATLAB, which I think is very useful for learning and necessary in more advanced works.

Streetman excels in mentioning and explaining many unconventional effects and advanced devices, as well as talking about integrated circuits. In addition, Streeman spends many sections on fabrication techniques and device processing. He also includes some nice curves, material properties, and useful equations placed in known areas of the book (front/back cover, appendix, etc...), which are very useful for quick reference. Clearly, this book is better for an advanced reader, but I did appreciate some of Streetman's explanations (especially for the operation of a BJT) and the overall progression of the sections, which are very useful for a first-time reader. For an even more advanced text, one should consult Simon Sze's text.

In conclusion, this is an excellent text and should be read by those who plan to stay in the field. It is perfectly fine for a first-time learner, but is better the second time around. I give it a 4/5 instead of 5/5 because I feel introductory books need to grind out the basics extensively, which Pierret does a better job of.

Wordy. Hard to understand. Meandering.

As a beginner I find this book difficult and wordy and all those other adjectives. Unfortunately my university uses this book exclusively.

I just finished a course in which this textbook was used. I found that the descriptions started at a non-introductory level and were not in-depth enough. I also thought more graphics were needed to illustrate how and where the e- and h+ move during different regions of transistor operation.

I bought R.F. Pierret's "Semiconductor Device Fundamentals" as a supplementary text and ended up reading and understanding that much more.

I finished chapter 7. The authors do not show each step how to get the equations. Instead, a lot of math steps are missing. Unless you are good at math and recall all the fundamental physics equations, you will spend a lot of time to derive the equations by yourself. Without derive the equations, you can only accept the results without any insight. This book tries to cover introduction materials and more advanced materials.

There is another problem. There are obvious errors. On page 38, the equations are not even printed out completely.

This book is very wordy. It can be much concise without losing any content.

For more advance semiconductor book, read Device Electronics for Integrated Circuits by Richard Muller, Berkeley. It is one of the best semiconductor textbook I have read.

Another reviewer said the book used Laplace transform. I finished chapter 7, I could not find any Laplace transform. I am wondering if he reviewed the wrong book.

Chapter 7 is good because it has covered a lot of applications and physics of Bipolar. However, chapter 7 still suffers the same problems I have mentioned above. It is not a bad book but it could be better.

I am sure the author (Indian professor) are good in the field He just needs to be more concise to explain the concepts and derive the equations in more details.

Dr. Ben G. Streetman, now Dean of Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin, has put together a thorough, yet understandable, introductory text to the important field of semiconductor devices. This book has been developed from his many years of teaching this subject to undergraduate and graduate students. The book proceeds from the basic physics of solid state junctions to the operation and electronic properties of advanced devices such as CMOS transistors and semiconductor lasers. Each section contains worked numerical examples, comprehensive review problems, and relevant citations for the reader who wishes to further investigate the subject matter. Streetman's conversational style works well with presenting sometimes difficult material in a very straightforward manner. You can almost picture yourself sitting in some Texas Hill Country barbecue restaurant, having Streetman explain the carrier behavior of a transistor under different biasing conditions, while having a plate of ribs and a few Shiner Bocks! The easy going style of this book does not diminish the depth of analysis of the material, and the reader comes away with a solid, functional understanding of the subject and is able to advance to more specialized texts. This book is also part of a teaching tool which includes lecture notes and worked solutions to problems making it a joy for first time professors teaching a course in this subject. This book is truly a classic and far surpasses its contemporaries in the field in terms of readability and its teaching power! Students will still be using this book (or some form of it) in one hundred years!

I used this book (4th Ed.) for the solid state device class at The University of Illinois (U-C), as a junior. Streetman offers excellent explanations and it is a great reference to me even now! While you have to read it a few times to fully grasp the subject, that is a function of the material and not the writing.

When the 5th Ed. came out, I instantly went out and purchased it! The advanced device sections were updated, while the basics were left virtually untouched. In keeping with the original, Banerjee provides clear explanations of more recent phenomana - mainly in the MOSFET section. This came in handy studying for the qual!!!

Personally, Streetman and Pierret are the only device books I need.

When the first time I read this book, I found out an error and since this book doesn't show how you derive those equations,
I had to figure out by myself and it took me long time to finally figure out that it's an error in this book and not my problem.
This mistake is on page 38: rn= (K^2*n^2*hbar^2)/(mq^2), the K should not have a square on it. After I found out this error I have no motivation to keep
reading this book anymore, it doesn't explain in detail since it assume you already know it. I don't like this book at all.