Collection

2008 ASEE Zone 1 Conference

Authors

Dean M. Aslam; Zongliang Cao; Cyrous Rostamzadeh

unique way and (b) attemptvery difficult and dry topics. One example is the explanation of a microcontroller (µC), its building blocks, andtheir fabrication/operation. A microcontroller is a computer chip that is the brain of today’s consumer products including those based onmicro- and nano-systems. It is a computer-on-a-chip suitable for applications that require high integration, lowpower consumption, and low cost. An electrostatic switch, called an MOS (Metal Oxide Semiconductor)transistor, is the basic building block of a microcontroller. Using the basic MOS concept different types ofcomputer switches are made, which are needed for computing and memory devices. Some examples are n-channel MOS (NMOS), PMOS (p-channel), and CMOS (a