This work in progress innovative practice paper describes the plans of a semiconductor experience tailored to underclassmen engineering students. The Georgia Tech Semi-conductor Experience (GTSE) is an upcoming program that is to provide a first-year experience that inspires pursuit of a career in semiconductor technology. Initially acting as a project that may be chosen and completed during a freshmen electrical and computer engineering course, GTSE will provide an opportunity for underclassmen to acquire a glimpse into the fabrication, modeling, and visualization of semiconductor-related devices. Fabrication consists of processes needed to fabricate a silicon solar cell. The fabrication process has been developed to maximize student safety, maximize student throughput each semester, and minimize the processing complexity. Processes requiring experience will be done under the guidance of a teacher assistant or instructor. After fabrication, the solar cells will be tested to determine their I/V characteristics and efficiency. The data can then be used to help students understand the complexity that a non-ideal world can introduce in a relatively simple device. The outcome of the semiconductor fabrication process is simulated using Silvaco Athena, and modeling of the solar cell device's electrical and physical properties is accomplished using Synopsys TCAD. Visualization of semiconductor device operation and atomic-level charge carrier operation is realized using custom software packages. To aid in the advancement of GTSE, under-classmen were asked to participate in guided research, modeling, or equipment setup and programming. Discussions about various aspects of silicon solar cell fabrication planning and modeling gave some qualitative insight into how well students will engage in the knowledge laid out for them. At the end of GTSE, students will have learned about various classical and quantum mechanics of the solar cell and understand the fabrication decisions. The main goal is to introduce basic skills and learning opportunities to spark interest in many semiconductor careers, especially since there is currently an industry demand for a semiconductor workforce in the United States.

The main objective of the so-called green power marketing is to provide selective customers of electric energy with choices to purchase electric energy from sustainable, environmentally friendly sources. This paper presents a rationale for marketing of green power provides a brief overview of some of the existing efforts in the United States and abroad, and attempts to identify the conditions and future trends for survival of renewable energy in the energy marketplace. Our goal is primarily to provide a representative sample of the current technology status, rather than a comprehensive coverage of worldwide initiatives in this area.

Points out that the Scharfetter-Gummel technique is widely used in algorithms for the simulation of isothermal semiconductor devices. Recent interest in the modeling of ultrasmall devices requires a nonisothermal analysis, i.e., a hydrodynamic model. Several nonisothermal extensions to the Scharfetter-Gummel technique for carrier flux have been proposed for homostructure devices. An extension is presented which is suitable for the simulation of both the carrier flux and carrier energy flux equations in heterostructure devices, with the capability of using Fermi-Dirac statistics. Comparison with the extensions of other authors provides verification of the discretization formulation developed here. Limiting cases are discussed with suitable approximations. Calculated values of fluxes are presented for selected nonisothermal and degenerate cases to highlight the need for inclusion of the Fermi-Dirac statistics in the flux formulations.>