This Instructors Manual for "Introduction to Electronic Devices" contains answers to the review questions and solutions to the problems given in the book and software which may help students solve these and related problems.
In order to simplify the preparation of homework assignments and exams, this Instructors Manual is also available on diskettes (Microsoft Word 6.0 files) for both IBM PC compatible computers and Macintosh compatible computers.
Problem solving is the most important skill that engineering students must develop, and "Introduction to Electronic Devices" contains a large number of problems which should be sufficient for home work assignments, quizzes, and exams. A fair number of these problems require a student to do calculations using a personal computer. I believe that students should be strongly encouraged to use either MathCadtm (a student version is really quite sufficient) or Mathematicatm (at the Universities where this software is available for undergraduate students), or even spreadsheets such Lotustm or Excelltm. This gives students an opportunity to gain some rudimentary number crunching experience and, perhaps, more importantly, builds up their confidence in the ability to perform relatively long calculations and computations correctly, the skill crucial for all electrical engineers. Preparing solutions for such problems, I used either Mathematicatm, Theoristtm or, in certain cases, Excelltm. In a few cases, I found more convenient to use my own simple Microsoft Basictm software originally developed for an IBM personal computer or compatible.
The software described in this Manual includes programs PLOTFII, CLICK, and several subroutines for modeling semiconductor devices which are to be used with program PLOTFII.
PLOTFII is a Microsofttm QuickBASIC program for Macintosh. It prepares files for plotting functions using Cricket Graph™ or any other graphics program which can import a tab delimited text file, such as Deltagraphtm. A similar program PLOTF (which also includes its own graphics package) and similar subroutines are also available for IBM personal computers and compatibles (see "Software Manual for Physics of Semiconductor Devices" by Michael Shur, Prentice Hall, New Jersey, 1990, ISBN 0-13-666587-X).
Program CLICK is also a Microsofttm QuickBASIC program for Macintosh. It allows the user to digitize files in the Macpaint or compatible format and generate tab-delimited text files (compatible with Cricket Graphtm, Deltagraphtm, or Excelltm) by clicking a mouse. It is especially convenient when one needs to digitize scanned figures with experimental data for a comparison with analytical or numerical calculations.
This software listings are available on internet from my home page. My internet address is
Some of the problems included into the book require SPICE. They can be solved using any version of SPICE, including AIM-Spice - an advanced and user-friendly circuit simulators with graphic user interface and on-line help for IBM compatible computers. AIM-Spice can be downloaded from a bulletin board using anonymous ftp. The instructions on downloading are given in Appendix A8 of the book and are also reproduced in this Instructors Manual. A detailed information on AIM-Spice is given in the following book: K. Lee, M. Shur, T. A. Fjeldly, and T. Ytterdal, Semiconductor Device Modeling for VLSI, Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ (1993), ISBN 0-13-805656-0. A brief description of AIM-Spice features is also available on World Wide Web. The address of the AIM-Spice Home Page is
In addition to this Instructors Manual, a Transparency Master with 348 transparencies is available from John Wiley and Sons. The Transparency Master (in Microsoft Power Point 4.0 files for both IBM PC compatible computers and Macintosh compatible computers) can be downloaded from a bulletin board using anonymous ftp. The instructions on downloading are given in this Instructors Manual.
All these additional materials are also available on internet and can be accessed from my home page (see the address above).
I would like to thank Professors Tor Fjeldly, Kwyro Lee, and Dr. Trond Ytterdal because our joint work on the development of device models helped me in choosing many of these problems. I am also grateful to my former student, Mr. Michael Norman, who helped with programming the Macintosh version of program PLOTFII and to my graduate students Ms. Holly Slade and Mr. Mark Jacunski for useful suggestions.
I will appreciate any comments or corrections which can be sent via electronic mail to shurm@rpi.edu.
Michael Shur, Troy, New York, USA