EECS130 Integrated Circuit Devices

Professor Ali Javey 8/28/2007 Semiconductor Fundamentals Lecture 1

Announcements
Welcome back and happy Fall semester!!! No discussion sections this week No HW assignment for this week

Evolution of Devices

Yesterdays Transistor (1947)

Todays Transistor (2006)

Why Semiconductors?
Conductors e.g Metals Insulators e.g. Sand (SiO2) Semiconductors
conductivity between conductors and insulators Generally crystalline in structure
In recent years, non-crystalline semiconductors have become commercially very important

Polycrystalline amorphous crystalline

What are semiconductors

Elements: Si, Ge, C Binary: GaAs, InSb, SiC, CdSe, etc. Ternary+: AlGaAs, InGaAs, etc.

Electrons and Holes in Semiconductors

Silicon Crystal Structure
Unit cell of silicon crystal is cubic. Each Si atom has 4 nearest neighbors.

5.43

Silicon Wafers and Crystal Planes

z z z

(100) x

x
(011) (111)

The standard notation for crystal planes is based on the cubic unit cell. Silicon wafers are usually cut along the (100) plane with a flat or notch to help orient the wafer during IC fabrication.

(100) plane (011) flat

Si (111) plane

Bond Model of Electrons and Holes (Intrinsic Si)

Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si

Silicon crystal in a two-dimensional representation.

Si Si Si

Si Si Si

Si Si Si

Si Si Si

Si Si Si

Si Si Si

When an electron breaks loose and becomes a conduction electron, a hole is also created.

Dopants in Silicon
Si Si Si Si As Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si B Si
P-type Si

Si Si Si

N-type Si

As (Arsenic), a Group V element, introduces conduction electrons and creates N-type silicon, and is called a donor. B (Boron), a Group III element, introduces holes and creates P-type silicon, and is called an acceptor. Donors and acceptors are known as dopants.

GaAs, III-V Compound Semiconductors, and Their Dopants

Ga As
Ga

Ga As Ga

As Ga Ga As

As

GaAs has the same crystal structure as Si. GaAs, GaP, GaN are III-V compound semiconductors, important for optoelectronics. Which group of elements are candidates for donors? acceptors?

From Atoms to Crystals

conduction band p
Energy

s valence band
isolated atoms lattice spacing Decreasing atomic separation

Energy states of Si atom (a) expand into energy bands of Si crystal (b). The lower bands are filled and higher bands are empty in a semiconductor. The highest filled band is the valence band. The lowest empty band is the conduction band .

Energy Band Diagram

Conduction band

Ec

Eg Band gap Ev Valence band

Energy band diagram shows the bottom edge of conduction band, Ec , and top edge of valence band, Ev . Ec and Ev are separated by the band gap energy, Eg .

Measuring the Band Gap Energy by Light Absorption

electron Ec photons photon energy: h v > E g Eg Ev hole

Eg can be determined from the minimum energy (h) of photons that are absorbed by the semiconductor.
Bandgap energies of selected semiconductors Material
E g (eV)

PbTe
0.31

Ge
0.67

Si
1.12

GaAs
1.42

GaP
2.25

Diamond
6.0

Temperature Effect on Band Gap

conduction band p
Energy

s valence band
isolated atoms lattice spacing Decreasing atomic separation

How does the band gap change with temperature?

Semiconductors, Insulators, and Conductors

Ec
Top of conduction band

Ec E g = 1.1 eV Ev

E g= 9 eV Ev

empty filled

Ec

Si (Semiconductor)

SiO (Insulator)
2

Conductor

Totally filled bands and totally empty bands do not allow current flow. (Just as there is no motion of liquid in a . totally filled or totally empty bottle.) Metal conduction band is half-filled. Semiconductors have lower Eg 's than insulators and can be doped.

Donor and Acceptor Levels in the Band Model

Conduction Band Donor Level Ed Ec

Donor ionization energy

Acceptor ionization energy

Acceptor Level Valence Band

Donors
Dopant Sb Ionization energy, E c E d or E a E v (meV) 39 P 44

Ea

Ev

Ionization energy of selected donors and acceptors in silicon

Acceptors
As 54 B 45 Al 57 In 160

Hydrogen:

E ion =

m0 q4 802h2

= 13.6 eV

Dopants and Free Carriers

Donors n-type

Acceptors p-type

Dopant ionization energy ~50meV (very low).

Electrons as Moving Particles

An electron moves with a certain characteristic mass (from f=ma) in vacuum In a solid, f=ma changes, so we can model this change via an effective mass

Effective Mass
In an electric field, , an electron or a hole accelerates. electrons holes
Electron and hole effective masses
m n /m 0 m p /m 0 Si 0.26 0.39 Ge 0.12 0.30 GaAs 0.068 0.50 GaP 0.82 0.60

Remember : F=ma=-qE