Introduction to

Semiconductor Materials

Suresh Balpande

Suresh Balpande, MECHATRONICS @ MED,RCOEM

 Student Learning Outcomes
• Upon completion of viewing this presentation, you
should be able to:
– Define conductor, insulator and semiconductor, and
state the resistance or conductance of each.
– Name at least three semiconductor materials and state
the most widely used.
– Name the basic structure of material and explain how it
is formed with atoms.
– Define doping and name the two types of
semiconductor material formed with doping.
– Name the current carriers in N and P-type material.
– Explain how current flows in semiconductor material.

Suresh Balpande, MECHATRONICS @ MED,RCOEM

 Electronic Materials
• The goal of electronic materials is to
generate and control the flow of an
electrical current.
• Electronic materials include:
1. Conductors: have low resistance which
allows electrical current flow
2. Insulators: have high resistance which
suppresses electrical current flow
3. Semiconductors: can allow or suppress
electrical current flow

Suresh Balpande, MECHATRONICS @ MED,RCOEM

 Conductors
• Good conductors have low resistance so
electrons flow through them with ease.
• Best element conductors include:
– Copper, silver, gold, aluminum, & nickel
• Alloys are also good conductors:
– Brass & steel
• Good conductors can also be liquid:
– Salt water

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 Conductor Atomic Structure
• The atomic structure of
good conductors usually
includes only one
electron in their outer
shell.
– It is called a valence
electron.
– It is easily striped from the
atom, producing current
flow.
Copper Atom

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 Insulators
• Insulators have a high resistance so current
does not flow in them.
• Good insulators include:
– Glass, ceramic, plastics, & wood
• Most insulators are compounds of several
elements.
• The atoms are tightly bound to one another
so electrons are difficult to strip away for
current flow.

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 Semiconductors
• Semiconductors are materials that essentially
can be conditioned to act as good conductors,
or good insulators, or any thing in between.
• Common elements such as carbon, silicon,
and germanium are semiconductors.
• Silicon is the best and most widely used
semiconductor.

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 Semiconductor Valence Orbit

• The main
characteristic of a
semiconductor
element is that it has
four electrons in its
outer or valence
orbit.

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 Crystal Lattice Structure
• The unique capability
of semiconductor
atoms is their ability to
link together to form a
physical structure
called a crystal lattice.
• The atoms link
together with one
another sharing their
outer electrons.
• These links are called 2D Crystal Lattice Structure
covalent bonds.

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 3D Crystal Lattice Structure

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 Semiconductors can be Insulators
• If the material is pure semiconductor material like
silicon, the crystal lattice structure forms an excellent
insulator since all the atoms are bound to one another
and are not free for current flow.
• Good insulating semiconductor material is referred to
as intrinsic.
• Since the outer valence electrons of each atom are
tightly bound together with one another, the electrons
are difficult to dislodge for current flow.
• Silicon in this form is a great insulator.
• Semiconductor material is often used as an insulator.

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 Doping
• To make the semiconductor conduct electricity,
other atoms called impurities must be added.
• “Impurities” are different elements.
• This process is called doping.

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 Semiconductors can be Conductors
• An impurity, or element
like arsenic, has 5
valence electrons.
• Adding arsenic (doping)
will allow four of the
arsenic valence
electrons to bond with
the neighboring silicon
atoms.
• The one electron left
over for each arsenic
atom becomes available
to conduct current flow.

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 Resistance Effects of Doping
• If you use lots of arsenic atoms for doping,
there will be lots of extra electrons so the
resistance of the material will be low and
current will flow freely.
• If you use only a few boron atoms, there will
be fewer free electrons so the resistance will
be high and less current will flow.
• By controlling the doping amount, virtually
any resistance can be achieved.

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 Another Way to Dope
• You can also dope a
semiconductor material with an
atom such as boron that has
only 3 valence electrons.
• The 3 electrons in the outer orbit
do form covalent bonds with its
neighboring semiconductor
atoms as before. But one
electron is missing from the
bond.
• This place where a fourth
electron should be is referred to
as a hole.
• The hole assumes a positive
charge so it can attract electrons
from some other source.
• Holes become a type of current
carrier like the electron to
support current flow.

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 Types of Semiconductor Materials
• The silicon doped with extra electrons is
called an “N type” semiconductor.
– “N” is for negative, which is the charge of an
electron.
• Silicon doped with material missing
electrons that produce locations called holes
is called “P type” semiconductor.
– “P” is for positive, which is the charge of a hole.

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 Current Flow in N-type Semiconductors
• The DC voltage source
has a positive terminal that
attracts the free electrons
in the semiconductor and
pulls them away from their
atoms leaving the atoms
charged positively.
• Electrons from the
negative terminal of the
supply enter the
semiconductor material
and are attracted by the
positive charge of the
atoms missing one of their
electrons.
• Current (electrons) flows
from the positive terminal
to the negative terminal.
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 Current Flow in P-type Semiconductors
• Electrons from the
negative supply terminal
are attracted to the
positive holes and fill them.
• The positive terminal of the
supply pulls the electrons
from the holes leaving the
holes to attract more
electrons.
• Current (electrons) flows
from the negative terminal
to the positive terminal.
• Inside the semiconductor
current flow is actually by
the movement of the holes
from positive to negative.

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 Diodes
Electronic devices created by bringing
together a p-type and n-type region within
the same semiconductor lattice. Used for
rectifiers, LED etc

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 Diodes
It is represented by the following symbol,
where the arrow indicates the direction of
positive current flow.

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 Forward Bias and Reverse Bias
• Forward Bias : Connect positive of the
Diode to positive of supply…negative of
Diode to negative of supply
• Reverse Bias: Connect positive of the Diode
to negative of supply…negative of diode to
positive of supply.

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 Characteristics of Diode

• Diode always conducts in one direction.

• Diodes always conduct current when
“Forward Biased” ( Zero resistance)
• Diodes do not conduct when Reverse
Biased
(Infinite resistance)

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 I-V characteristics of Ideal diode

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I-V Characteristics of Practical Diode

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 Rectification
• Converting ac to dc is accomplished by the
process of rectification.
• Two processes are used:
– Half-wave rectification;
– Full-wave rectification.

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 Half-wave Rectification
• Simplest process used to convert ac to dc.
• A diode is used to clip the input signal excursions
of one polarity to zero.

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 Full Wave Rectifier
• A Full Wave Rectifier is a
circuit, which converts an
ac voltage into a pulsating
dc voltage using both half
cycles of the applied ac
voltage. It uses two diodes
of which one conducts
during one half cycle while
the other conducts during
the other half cycle of the
applied ac voltage.

Suresh Balpande, MECHATRONICS @ MED,RCOEM

 Bridge rectifier
• The four diodes
labelled D1 to D4 are
arranged in “series pairs”
with only two diodes
conducting current during
each half cycle. During the
positive half cycle of the
supply,
diodes D1 and D2 conduct
in series while
diodes D3 and D4 are
reverse biased and the
current flows through the
load as shown below.

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 Transistor

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 Architecture of BJTs
• The bipolar junction transistor (BJT) is
constructed with three doped semiconductor
regions separated by two pn junctions
• Regions are called emitter, base and collector

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 Architecture of BJTs
• There are two types of BJTs, the npn and pnp
• The two junctions are termed the base-emitter junction
and the base-collector junction
• The term bipolar refers to the use of both holes and
electrons as charge carriers in the transistor structure
• In order for the transistor to operate properly, the two
junctions must have the correct dc bias voltages
– the base-emitter (BE) junction is forward biased(>=0.7V
for Si, >=0.3V for Ge)
– the base-collector (BC) junction is reverse biased

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 FIGURE Transistor symbols.

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 Basic circuits of BJT

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 Operation of BJTs

• BJT will operates in one of following

four region
– Cutoff region (for digital circuit)
– Saturation region (for digital circuit)
– Linear (active) region (to be an amplifier)
– Breakdown region (always be a disaster)

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 Operating Regions

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 The BJT as a Switch
• When used as an electronic switch, a transistor
normally is operated alternately in cutoff and
saturation
– A transistor is in cutoff when the base-emitter junction is
not forward-biased. VCE is approximately equal to VCC
– When the base-emitter junction is forward-biased and
there is enough base current to produce a maximum
collector current, the transistor is saturated

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 The BJT as a Switch

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How the temperature switch works -
cold activated

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 Cntd…
• The circuit operation is very simple. When the input to the
transistor Q1, which is fed from the connecting point of R1
and R2, is greater than 1.4V the output is turned on. The
voltage at the join of R1 and R2 is determined by the ratio
of the two resistors. This is known as potential divider.
Voltage at the join of R1 and R2 = The supply
Voltage x (R1/(R1+R2))
• Normally it requires 0.7V to turn on a transistor but this
circuit uses two resistors in a Darlington Pair meaning it
requires 2 x 0.7V = 1.4V to turn on both transistors.

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How the light switch works – dark activated

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Basic NPN Transistor Switching Circuit

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 Transistor as a Switch Example No2
• Again using the same values, find the minimum Base
current required to turn the transistor “fully-ON” (saturated)
for a load that requires 200mA of current when the input
voltage is increased to 5.0V. Also calculate the new value
of Rb.
• Transistor Base current:
•

• Transistor Base resistance:

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 Transistor as a Switch Summary
• Then to summaries when using a Transistor as a Switch the following
conditions apply:
• Transistor switches can be used to switch and control lamps, relays or
even motors.
• When using the bipolar transistor as a switch they must be either “fully-
OFF” or “fully-ON”.
• Transistors that are fully “ON” are said to be in their Saturation region.
• Transistors that are fully “OFF” are said to be in their Cut-off region.
• When using the transistor as a switch, a small Base current controls a
much larger Collector load current.
• When using transistors to switch inductive loads such as relays and
solenoids, a “Flywheel Diode” is used.
• When large currents or voltages need to be controlled, Darlington
Transistors can be used.

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 BASIC SENSORS AND PRINCIPLES

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 Introduction of Resistive Sensor

①Strain gages
• Measurement of extremely small displacement
①Potentiometers
• Translational and Rotational displacement
②FSR (Force Sensitive Resistor)

and so on…

Suresh Balpande, MECHATRONICS @ MED,RCOEM