Courses
The instructional program in CeNSE – in formal courses for degree curricula – is designed to be strongly interdisciplinary, as befits the nano domain, reflecting the nature of the research work undertaken by the faculty. The courses emphasize hands-on training: in the laboratory by designing, fabricating, and studying devices, and in the classroom through regular and demanding assignments. Learning to communicate on the stage and on paper is an integral part of the CeNSE experience, as through a mandatory course in technical writing. A unique aspect of CeNSE, providing the opportunity to all in the CeNSE community to learn and be up to date in a fast moving domain, is the series of lectures and short courses offered frequently by distinguished visiting faculty and researchers.
List of courses
| Course code | Topic | Details |
|---|---|---|
| NE 100 / NE 200 / NE 200A | Technical Writing and Presentation | This course is designed to help students learn to write their manuscripts, technical reports, and dissertations in a competent manner. The do's and don'ts of the English language will be dealt with as a part of the course. Assignments will include writing on topics to a student's research interest, so that the course may benefit each student directly. Instructor: S.A. Shivashankar |
| NE 201 | Micro and Nano Characterization Methods | This course provides training in the use of various device and material characterization techniques. Optical characterization: optical microscopy, thin film measurement, ellipsometry and Raman spectroscopy; Electrical characterization: Noise in electrical measurements, Resistivity with 2- probe, 4-probe and van der Pauw technique, Hall mobility, DC I-V and High frequency C-V characterization; Mechanical characterization: Laser Doppler vibrometry, Scanning acoustic microscopy, Optical profilometry, and Micro UTM; Material characterization: Scanning electron microscopy, Atomic force microscopy, XRD, and Focused ion beam machining. Instructors: Akshay Naik and Manoj Varma |
| NE 202 | Micro and Nano Fabrication | This course is designed to give training in device processing at the cleanroom facility. Four specific modules will be covered to realize four different devices i) p-n junction diode, ii) MOS capacitor iii) MEMS Cantilever iv) Microfluidic channel.
Instructors : Shankar Kumar Selvaraja and Sushobhan Avasthi |
| NE 203 / NE 203A | Advanced micro- and nanofabrication technology and process | Introduction and overview of micro and nano fabrication technology. Safety and contamination issues in a cleanroom. Overview of cleanroom hazards. Basic process flow structuring. Wafer type selection and cleaning methods. Additive fabrication processes. Material deposition methods. Overview of physical vapour deposition methods (thermal, e-beam, molecular beam evaporation) and chemical vapour deposition methods (PE-CVD, MOCVD, CBE, ALD). Pulsed laser deposition (PLD), pulsed electron deposition (PED). Doping: diffusion and ion implant techniques. Optical lithography fundamentals, contact lithography, stepper/canner lithography, holographic lithography, direct-laser writing. Lithography enhancement methods and lithography modelling. Non-optical lithography; E-beam lithography, ion beam patterning, bottom-up patterning techniques. Etching process: dry and wet. Wet etch fundamentals, isotropic, directional and anisotropic processes. Dry etching process fundamentals, plasma assisted etch process, Deep Reactive Ion Etching (DRIE), Through Silicon Vias (TSV). Isotropic release etch. Chemical-mechanical polishing (CMP), lapping and polishing. Packaging and assembly, protective encapsulating materials and their deposition. Wafer dicing, scribing and cleaving. Mechanical scribing and laser scribing, Wafer bonding, die-bonding. Wire bonding, die-bonding. Chip-mounting techniques.
Instructors: Shankar Kumar Selvaraja and Sushobhan Avasthi |
| NE 205 | Semiconductor Devices and Integrated Circuit Technology | This is a foundation level course in the area of electronic device technology. Band structure and carrier statistics, Intrinsic and extrinsic semiconductor, Carrier transport, p-n junction, Metal-semiconductor junction, Bipolar Junction Transistor, Heterojunction, MOS capacitor, Capacitance-Voltage characteristics, MOSFET, JEFET, Current-Voltage characteristics, Light Emitting Diode, Photodiode, Photovoltaics, Charge Coupled Device Integrated circuit processing, Oxidation, Ion implantation, Annealing, Diffusion, Wet etching and dry plasma etching, Physical vapour deposition, Chemical vapour deposition, Atomic layer deposition, Photolithography, Electron beam lithography, Chemical mechanical polishing, Electroplating, CMOS process integration, Moore’s law, CMOS technology scaling, Short channel effects, Introduction to Technology CAD, Device and Process simulation and modelling.
Instructor: Digbijoy N. Nath |
| NE 206 A | Semiconductor Device Physics: Basics Devices | An graduate level course, NE206 provides an introduction to semiconductor device physics. The focus is on basics like the origin of band-structure, carrier transport, thermal statistics, junctions, zdefects, and interfaces. Schottky diodes, p-n junction diodes, bipolar junction transistors, and MOS transistors are covered in detail. This is a fundamental course for anyone interested in electronic devices. The lab component will use simulation-based assignments to complement the theory part of the course.
Topics include, energy bands in solids; Fermi-Dirac distribution; doping; density of states; low-field transport; high-field transport; carrier flow by diffusion and drift; Excess carriers and recombination processes; PN junction at thermal equilibrium & bias; Transient behavior of p-n junction; metal-semiconductor (Schottky and Ohmic junctions; Current transport mechanisms; BJT; MOS capacitor; MOSFET; Short channel effects; advanced CMOS devices
Instructor:Prof. Sushobhan Avasthi |
| NE 211 | Micro/Nano Mechanics | This is a foundation level course in mechanics which will prepare students to pursue advanced studies related to mechanical phenomena at the micro and nano scales. Basics of continuum theory, continuum hypothesis, elasticity, thermoelasticity, fluid mechanics, heat conduction, electromagnetism, coupled thermal-elastic and electrostatic-elastic systems, MEMS and NEMS structures -- beams, plates, and membranes, scaling of mechanical properties and continuum limits, numerical methods for mechanical modelling, mechanics beyond continuum theory.
Instructors: Rudra Pratap, Akshay Naik and Prosenjit Sen |
| NE 213 | Introduction to Photonics | This is a foundation level optics course which intends to prepare students to pursue advanced topics in more specialized areas of optics such as biophotonics, nanophotonics, non-linear optics etc. Classical and quantum descriptions of light, diffraction, interference, polarization. Fourier optics, holography, imaging, anisotropic materials, optical modulation, waveguides and fiber optics, coherence and lasers, plasmonics.
Instructors: Shankar Kumar Selvaraja and Ambarish GhoshA |
| NE 215 | Applied Solid State Physics | This course is intended to build a basic understanding of solid state science, on which much of modern device technology is built, and therefore includes elementary quantum mechanics. Review of Quantum Mechanics and solid state physics, Solution of Schrodinger equation for band structure, crystal potentials leading to crystal structure, reciprocal lattice, structure-property correlation, Crystal structures and defects, X-ray diffraction, lattice dynamics, Quantum mechanics and statistical mechanics, thermal properties, electrons in metals, semiconductors and insulators, magnetic properties, dielectric properties, confinement effects.
Instructors: Prof. Chandan Kumar/ Prof. Dhavala Suri |
| NE 221 | Advanced MEMS Packaging | This course intends to prepare students to pursue advanced topics in more specialized areas of MEMS and Electronic packaging for various real-time applications such as Aero space, Bio-medical, Automotive, commercial, RF and micro fluidics etc. MEMS – An Overview, Miniaturisation, MEMS and Microelectronics -3 levels of Packaging. Critical Issues viz., Interface, Testing & evaluation. Packaging Technologies like Wafer dicing, Bonding and Sealing. Design aspects and Process Flow, Materials for Packaging, Top down System Approach. Different types of Sealing Technologies like brazing, Electron Beam welding and Laser welding. Vacuum Packaging with Moisture Control. 3D Packaging examples. Bio Chips / Lab-on-a chip and micro fluidics, Various RF Packaging, Optical Packaging, Packaging for Aerospace applications. Advanced and Special Packaging techniques – Monolithic, Hybrid etc., Transduction and Special packaging requirements for Absolute, Gauge and differential Pressure measurements, Temperature measurements, Accelerometer and Gyro packaging techniques, Environmental Protection and safety aspects in MEMS Packaging. Reliability Analysis and FMECA. Media Compatibility Case Studies, Challenges/Opportunities/Research frontier.
Instructors: Prosenjit Sen and M.M. Nayak |
| NE 222 | MEMS: Modeling, Design, and Implementation | This course discusses all aspects of MEMS technology – from modeling, design, fabrication, process integration, and final implementation. Modeling and design will cover blockset models of MEMS transducers, generally implemented in SIMULINK or MATLAB. Detailed multiphysics modeling may require COMSOL simulations. The course also covers MEMS specific micromachining concepts such as bulk micromachining, surface micromachining and related technologies, micromachining for high aspect ratio microstructures, glass and polymer micromachining, and wafer bonding technologies. Specific case studies covered include Pressure Sensors, Microphone, Accelerometers, Comb-drives for electrostatic actuation and sensing, and RF MEMS. Integration of micromachined mechanical devices with microelectronics circuits for complete implementation is also discussed.
Instructors: Prof. Saurabh Arun Chandorkar/ Prof. Gayathri Pillai |
| NE 223 | Analog Circuits and Embedded System for Sensors | The Internet of Things (IoT) revolution is driven by confluence of high performance sensors, powerful computation power of microcontrollers and wireless technology. The performance of sensors is not only governed by inherent characteristics of sensor such as sensitivity, linearity and response time but also the front end interfacing analog circuit and backend processing in digital domain. The goal of this course is to explore the electronics that needs to be incorporated to create sensor systems and to learn the trade-offs in design of circuits to maximize performance subject to real life design constraints.
The course has both a theory (2 credits) and a hands-on lab (1 credit) element to it. The course starts out with introduction to basic circuit elements and smaller circuit building blocks with emphasis on reading and understand the datasheets for components to make the appropriate choice to pick for the circuit at hand. Digital IOs and some basics of digital logic will be explored thereafter leading eventually to programming with Arduino microcontroller. In the end, the course takes a closer look at building systems. The lab portion of the course will serve to explore trade-offs in circuit design as well as give a practical feel for dealing with noise in circuits and building systems. Circuit simulation will also be emphasized in the lab course in conjunction with back of the envelop calculations to make sense of the simulations. There will be also be a final project wherein the students get an opportunity to build a sensor system in its entirety and learn planned system design, tracking down sources of noise and learning to define interfaces cleanly for smooth integration in the end. The course content is as follows: Basic Circuit Analysis and Passive Components; Introduction to semiconductor devices and circuits involving Diodes, BJT, MOSFET and JFET; Opamp circuits: Transimpedance amplifier, Instrumentation amplifier, Comparator, Precision DMM application; Tradeoffs between power, noise, settling time and cost; Survey of sensors and their datasheets; Active Filters and RF Oscillators; Introduction to digital logic, State Machines, Digital IO; Microcontroller programming; Communication protocols for sensor interfacing; System building Instructors: Saurabh A. Chandorkar and Krishna Prasad |
| NE 231 | Microfluidics | This is a foundation course discussing various phenomena related to fluids and fluid-interfaces at micro-nano scale. This is a pre-requisite for advanced courses and research work related to micro-nano fluidics. Transport in fluids, equations of change, flow at micro-scale, hydraulic circuit analysis, passive scalar transport, potential fluid flow, stokes flow Electrostatics and electrodynamics, electroosmosis, electrical double layer (EDL), zeta potential, species and charge transport, particle electrophoresis, AC electrokinetics Surface tension, hysteresis and elasticity of triple line, wetting and long range forces, hydrodynamics of interfaces, surfactants, special interfaces Suspensions, rheology, nanofluidics, thick-EDL systems, DNA transport and analysis.
Instructor: Prosenjit Sen |
| NE 235 | Microsystem Design and Technology | This course covers design and lab demonstrations of microscale sensors/actuators. Piezoelectric, piezoresistive, and electrostatic MEMS transducers will be covered in this course. During the course, we will cover (i) fundamentals of acoustic devices and wave propagation in microscale devices, (ii) FEM tools for sensor/actuator designs and layout building, (iii) transducers for wide spectrum applications – RF communication, ultrasonic devices, biomedical systems, navigation, space applications, etc. (iv) modelling of microsystems, and (v) lab demonstration of various MEMS systems. This course will have in-person lab demonstrations where selected devices fabricated as per the student's design will be tested giving a holistic MEMS design and layout to the testing experience.
Instructor: Prof. Gayathri Pillai |
| NE 240 | Materials design principles for electronic, electromechanical and optical functions | Materials design for electronic, electromechanical and optical functions is a new course which deals with introducing the formal framework of guiding principles that give rise to various materials properties. By the end of the course students will be equipped with necessary understanding to design materials for desired properties
Instructor: Prof. Pavan Nukala |
| NE 241 | Material Synthesis: Quantum Dots To Bulk Crystals | All device fabrication is preceded by material synthesis which in turn determines material microstructure, properties and device performance. The aim of this course is to introduce the student to the principles that help control growth. Crystallography; Surfaces and Interfaces; Thermodynamics, Kinetics, and Mechanisms of Nucleation and Growth of Crystals ; Applications to growth from solutions, melts and vapors (Chemical vapor deposition an Physical vapor deposition methods); Stress effects in film growth.
Instructor: Prof. Pavan Nukala |
| NE 250 | Entrepreneurship, Ethics and Societal Impact | This course is intended to give an exposure to issues involved in translating the technologies from lab to the field. Various steps and issues involved in productization and business development will be clarified, drawing from experiences of successful entrepreneurs in high technology areas. The intricate relationship between technology, society and ethics will also be addressed with illustrations from people involved in working with the grass root levels of the society.
Instructor: Prof. Srinivasan Raghavan / Prof. Navakanta Bhat |
| NE 261 | Piezoelectric MEMS: Theory, Design and Application | This course covers the design, simulation, fabrication, and modeling of acoustic wave devices. Different electromechanical transduction schemes will be introduced, and the piezoelectric transduction mode will be discussed in-depth. The course covers the concepts of micro and nanoelectromechanical (M/NEMS) resonator, sensor, and actuator design. Piezoelectric thin film and transducer topologies for devices operating in Hertz to Giga Hertz frequency range will be covered. The basics of device characterization techniques and data analysis in the context of resonators, ultrasonic transducers, filters, mass sensors, inertial sensors, etc. will also be discussed. The core idea of the course is to facilitate familiarization with the MEMS design tool kit - Finite Element Method, modeling, layout design, designing fabrication flow, and measurement schemes.
Instructor: Prof. Gayathri Pillai |
| NE 281 | Statistical and probabilistic data analysis techniques | This course will introduce foundational concepts in statistics and probability from an applied perspective suitable for experimentalists. The learning objectives are the application of stochastic models to aid data analysis, for instance, techniques for parameter estimation and hypothesis testing. Methods to simulate stochastic processes and solve first order stochastic differential equations will be covered. Physical processes such as random walks, chemotaxis, photon counting and single molecule sensing will be used to illustrate the theoretical concepts.
<br Instructor: Prof. Manoj Varma |
| NE 303 | Semiconductor Process Integration | Advanced semiconductor concepts, interband/intraband transitions, defects, donor-acceptor pair transitions, excitons/absorption spectra, Photoluminescence, dynamics of photoconductivity, III-nitrides and polarization, photodetectors, LEDs, semiconductor lasers, Electro-absorption modulators, solar radiation, PV basics, silicon p-n junction solar cell in details, thin film solar cells (amorphous Si PV, chalcogenides), organic PV, DSSC and perovskite PV, Beyond SQ limit.
Instructor: Prof. Aditya Sadhanala |
| NE 310 | Photonics technology: Materials and Devices | Optics fundamentals; ray optics, electromagnetic optics and guided wave optics, Light-matter interaction, optical materials; phases, bands and bonds, waveguides, wavelength selective filters, electrons and photons in semiconductors, photons in dielectric, Light-emitting diodes, optical amplifiers and Lasers, non-linear optics, Modulators, Film growth and deposition, defects and strain, III-V semiconductor device technology and processing, silicon photonics technology, photonic integrated circuit in telecommunication and sensors.
Instructor: Shankar Kumar Selvaraja |
| NE 311 | Integrated photonics Lab | The course envisages giving students hands-on integrated photonic device design and characterization skills. The course covers device design concepts using EDA tools and a custom simulation framework as well. The designs will be fabricated through the CeNSE fabrication facility, and the course students will characterize the devices. The integrated photonic devices that we shall study find applications in optical communication, on-chip photonic sensor, quantum photonic integrated circuit, and neuromorphic photonic circuit. The following are the specific devices that the students will design as a part of their course. 1. Optical waveguides 2. Directional couplers 3. Light-chip coupler 4. Power splitters and combiner 5. Wavelength selective devices 6. Bragg filter 7. Photodetector 8. Light modulator 9. Mach Zehnder interferometers 10. Ring resonator The student will be exposed to design tools, methodology, fabrication and characterization of devices and circuits
Instructor: Prof. Shankar Kumar Selvaraja |
| NE 312 | Nonlinear and Ultrafast Photonics | This is an intermediate level optics course which builds on the background provided in “Introduction to photonics” offered in our department. Owing to the extensive use of nonlinear optical phenomena and Ultrafast lasers in various fields, we believe a good understanding of these principles is essential for students in all science and engineering disciplines, in particular students involved in the area of Photonics, RF and Microwave systems, Optical Instrumentation and Lightwave (Fiber-optic) Communications. In addition, this course intends to prepare students to pursue advanced topics in more specialized areas of optics such as Biomedical Imaging, Quantum optics, Intense field phenomena etc.
Instructor: V. R. Supradeepa |
| NE 313 | Lasers: Principles and Systems | This is an intermediate level optics course which builds on the background provided in “Introduction to photonics” offered in our department. Owing to the extensive use of lasers in various fields, we believe a good understanding of these principles is essential for students in all science and engineering disciplines.
Instructor: V R Supradeepa |
| NE 314 | Semiconductor Opto-electronics and Photovoltaics | Advanced semiconductor concepts, interband/intraband transitions, defects, donor-acceptor pair transitions, excitons/absorption spectra, Photoluminescence, dynamics of photoconductivity, III-nitrides and polarization, photodetectors, LEDs, semiconductor lasers, Electro-absorption modulators, solar radiation, PV basics, silicon p-n junction solar cell in details, thin film solar cells (amorphous Si PV, chalcogenides), organic PV, DSSC and perovskite PV, Beyond SQ limit.
Instructor: Prof. Aditya Sadhanala |
| NE 315 | Semiconductor devices for RF and microwave electronics | Device technologies in RF/microwave: LDMOS, SiGe HBT, GaAs MESFET & HEMT/p-HEMT, and GaN HEMTs, Transferred electron devices (IMPATT, Gunn diode), Esaki diodes, RTD, RITD Silicon LDMOS: device physics, current transport, breakdown, ON resistance, snapback, operating voltage considerations, Silicon LDMOS: design & layout, bond pad manifolds, metal design, frequency aspects – device dimensions GaAs MESFET: current transport, transconductance, device I-V and loadline, device design, recess/channel/gate/field-plates, power cell design & combination, thermal design GaAs FETs: fabrication overview & process steps GaN HEMTs: operating principles, design & RF performance, leakage, dispersion, knee walkout, reliability Linear network analysis: impedance & admittance matrices, S-parameters, relationship between 2-port parameters Small-signal model (FETs) & determination of circuit elements, how to de-embed parasitics Derivation of cut-off frequenci(fT, fMax), MAG, MSG. Dependence of thes
Instructor: Prof. Digbijoy N Nath |
| NE 316 | Advanced Electron Microscopy in Materials Characterization | Review of resolution limits in microscopy. Aberration function. Correction of spherical aberration to various orders. Aberration probe correctors, Advances in detectors and direct electron detectors. High resolution STEM: Recap of Convergent Beam Electron Diffraction, idea of Ronchigram, integrating the electron wavefunction in various annuli of the Ronchigram. BF, ABF, L/MAADF, HAADF STEM. Recap of incoherent/coherent scattering, ideas of Rutherford scattering (Z2 contrast in HAADF vs Z2/3 contrast in ABF) Case studies on simulation of images and extracting information from STEM images Information beyond annular integration. Imaging from the Ronchigram center of mass deviations. Linearity of potential transfer. 4 segment detectors and DPC imaging, Ptychography X-rays and inelastically scattered electrons–EDS and EELS In situ microscopy techniques (basics and discussion from research papers
Instructor: Prof.Pavan Nukala |
| NE 317 | From natural to artificial intelligence | Artificial intelligence (AI) has been heralded as the flagbearer of the fourth industrial revolution. To implement AI, we need a technological breakthrough in computing hardware. The question is how we design those new generations of devices. This is where the idea of natural intelligence inevitably comes in. The Profuse dendritic-synaptic interconnections among neurons in a brain embed intricate logic structures enabling cognition and sophisticated decision-making that vastly outperforms any artificial electronic analogues. The physical complexity is far beyond existing circuit fabrication technologies: moreover, the network in a brain is dynamically reconfigurable, which provides flexibility and adaptability to changing environments. How about we capture these qualities in a new generation circuit element? That is the whole idea propelling the field of brain-inspired computing which is one of the cutting-edge technologies in development.
Instructor: Prof. Sreetosh Goswami |
| NE 320 | Quantum Optics | Quantum optics is a fundamental subject which describes the behavior of light and light matter interactions at the quantum level. Its only through quantum optics that many deep and often baffling observations with light are resolved. With the advent of quantum computing and quantum communications, quantum optics takes a primary role owing to its foundational contribution to both these applied areas. This course will be an introductory quantum optics course and below listed are some representative topics covered in the course. There will be additional time allocated to specific problems of current interest in the course.
Instructor: Prof. Supradeepa V R, Prof. Baladitya Suri |
| NE 332 | Physics and Mathematics of Molecular Sensing | This course presents a systematic view of the process of sensing molecules with emphasis on bio-sensing using solid state sensors. Molecules that need to be sensed, relevant molecular biology, current technologies for molecular sensing, modeling adsorption-desorption processes, transport of target molecules, noise in molecular recognition, proof-reading schemes, multi-channel sensing, comparison between in-vivo sensing circuits and solid state biosensors.
Instructor: Manoj Varma |
| NE 352 | Quantum transport in low dimensional materials | Basics of solid state physics: Drude theory, counting states, density of states, Fermi energy, Fermi Dirac distribution, conductivity and resistivity tensor , Field-effect transistor, Ohmic and Schottky barrier, Metal semiconductor field effect transistor, Metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistor, Basics of Nanoscale device fabrication, photo-lithography, electron beam lithography, Why Electron flow, Conductance formula, different transport regime: Diffusive, Ballistic, and hydrodynamic, Conductance fluctuations, phase coherence length, Aharonov-Bohm and weak localization, Quantum hall effect, edge current, Landauer Buttiker formalism, Subnikov de Hass effect, introduction to fractional quantum hall effect, Quantum dot, Coulomb-Blockade, Quantum capacitance, Introduction to Superconductivity and Josephson effect, Introduction to local scanning probes techniques like single electron transistor (SET), superconducting quantum interference devices (SQUID), scanning tunneling microscopy (STM)
Instructor: Prof.Chandan Kumar |