Course detail

The objective of the course is the study, both theoretical and experimental, of transport, relaxation and stochastic processes in solids. Students will learn the basic methods in reliability analysis, degradation and noise and dielectric spectroscopy. The key objective of the seminar is, however, not so much a mere acquisition of theoretical and experimental finding but rather a deeper understanding of the physical nature of all three spectroscopic methods and the ability to use and develop these methods for practical applications.

After the course, students should be able to distiguish between stationary and non-stationary processs, understand physical mechanisms of noise and excessive carrier transport and be able to determine the reliability indicators of a given circuit element. Furthermore, they should understand the microphysical nature of polarization processes and partial discharges, including their mathematical description. Based on these tools, the students should be able to design and to develop diagnostic methods for the individual particular applications.

MEng/MSc degree or equivalent in Electrical Engineering, Materials, Physics or Chemistry.

The subject of the seminar are three methods, dealing with the description, experimental investigation and localisation of defects, namely noise non-destructive spectroscopy, partial discharges based diagnostics and dielectric relaxation spectroscopy. Main topics cover transport and stochastic processes, noise non-destructive spectroscopy, non-destructive diagnostics, reliability tests, mechanisms of of partial discharges and polarisation mechanisms at a microscopic level, mathematical and physical description of dielectric polarisation, dielectric relaxation spectroscopy.

Teaching methods depend on the type of course unit as specified in the article 7 of BUT Rules for Studies and Examinations.

n. a.

Types of defects, surface and structural defects, methods of localisation, destructive and non-destructive defects and their identification
Identification of defects from transport characteristics, V-A characteristics v in forward and reverse direction, excess current, generation-recombination process, degradation
Fluctuation processes, noise spectral power density and its correlation with the type of defect, low-frequency noise as reliability and quality indicator, lambda parameter - mean time to failure and its quantification
Noise density in semiconductor devices, noise in homogenous structures and in thin-layer and thick-layer resistors
Partial discharges and noise in insulators and dielectrics, noise in capacitors
Noise in semiconductor lasers, alloy and FET transistors
RTS noise of semiconductor diodes with quantum holes and dots
Theory for the design of a concept of a non-destructive diagnostic test
Phenomenological description of the polarisation
Types of relaxation mechanisms in polymers, glasses and ceramic systems
Mathematical methods for the evaluation of dielectric data
Degradation processes and their observation and monitoring by dielectric methods

Ambrózy, A.: Electrical Noise, Budapest, Academia, 1982
Havriliak, S., Jr., Havriliak, S. J.: Dielectric and Mechanical Relaxation in Materials: Analysis, Interpretation and Application to Polymers, Hanser/Gardner Publications, Inc., Cincinnati & Carl Hanser Verlag, München, 1997
Kremer, F., Schönhals, A.: Broadband Dielectric Spectroscopy, Springer, Berlin - Heidelberg - New York 2002
Bryknar, Z.: Fyzika dielektrik, Ediční středisko ČVUT, Fakulta jaderná a fyzikálně inženýrská, 1. vyd., Praha, 1983
Buckingham, M. J.: Noise in Electronics Devices and Systems, London, John Willey, 1983