This course is designed to develop an understanding of the materials, devices, and processing techniques used in the current semiconductor industry. The course provides the students with the basic physics behind semiconductor materials, types of semiconductors, and the reason for the dominance of silicon in the electronics industry. The course also covers the basics of devices with emphasis on their electronic characteristics. Optical devices like LEDs, lasers, solar cells, will also be explained. The current manufacturing processes in the silicon based semiconductor industry, starting from silicon wafer production to final IC (integrated circuit) development, will be explained. (from nptel.ac.in)