IIT Delhi

ELL211 Physical Bhaskar Mitra

Electronics
 Course Outline

❖ TextBooks:
❖ Semiconductor Devices and Physics: Neaman
❖ Semiconductor Device Physics: Streetman
❖ Introduction to Solid State Physics: Kittel
❖ Office Hours: By appointment only, Prefer you use moodle forums
❖ Evaluation: Major 35, Minor1: 15, Minor 2: 20, Term paper:15, HW+CW: 15
 Course Outline
❖ Crystal Structure and Band Theory
❖ Semiconductor in Equilibrium, Transport
❖ PN junction
❖ Minor 1
❖ PN junction Diode
❖ Bipolar Transistor
❖ Minor 2
❖ MOSFET
❖ Solar Cells and Special Devices
 Semiconductors
❖ Computers, Laptops, ❖ GaAs, GaN FET, HEMT, BJT
❖ WiFi, Cell Phones ❖ OLED, GaN, InGaN and IGBT for Drivers
❖ Lighting and Displays ❖ Si, HgCdTe Solar Cells
❖ Energy ❖ IMPATT, GuNN Diodes, InGaAs MMIC
❖ Radar, Satellites ❖ MOSFET, IC’s, DRAM,Flash
❖ Airport Scanners, Airbags, DLP ❖ MEMS, Si IC’s
❖ Fiber Optic ❖ GaAs IR lasers

Important to know semiconductors if you are going to design

• Digital Circuits
• Analog Circuits
• RF and Microwave Circuits
• Power Drivers for Electric Vehicles etc.
Or you are developing applications of Semiconductors
Transistor Design and Test, Solar Cell, PhotoDiodes, THz Devices…
Also important framework for understanding transport and begin to model processes
 1.4 | THE DIAMOND STRUCTURE
As already stated, silicon is the most common semiconductor material. Silicon is
referred to as a group IV element and has a diamond crystal structure. Germanium
is also a group IV element and has the same diamond structure. A unit cell of the
diamond structure, shown in Figure 1.11, is more complicated than the simple cubic

Silicon
structures that we have considered up to this point.
We may begin to understand the diamond lattice by considering the tetrahedral
structure shown in Figure 1.12. This structure is basically a body-centered cubic
with four of the corner atoms missing. Every atom in the tetrahedral structure has
four nearest neighbors and it is this structure that is the basic building block of the
diamond lattice.

❖ Si forms 26% of earth’s crust,

a

most abundant element after a/2

oxygen

Figure 1.11 | The diamond structure.

❖ Group 14 Element (Carbon
Figure 1.12 | The tetrahedral
structure of closest neighbors
in the diamond lattice.

Group): [Ne]3s2 3p2

❖ Forms 4-covalent Bonds with
01_001-024.indd 10 12/11/10 9:46 AM

nearest neighbours
❖ Crystallizes in Diamond Lattice
❖ Ge also Crystallizes in Diamond
Lattice
Compound Semiconductors
❖ Ga is a present at a concentration go
15ppm - mostly byproduct of Zinc
refining, In -150ppm in Cu and Zn ores
❖ Combination of Group III-V elements
❖ Crystalizes in Zinc Blend Structure
❖ GaAs Used in High-Frequency (higher
electron mobility) devices and LED’s
(Direct Bandgap)
❖ InSb for IR imagers
❖ InAs nanowires are super conducting
❖ AlGaAs is an alloy of AlAs and GaAs,
AlGaP similarly has AlP and GaP
❖ Other Alloys of Interest: AlGaInAs- IR
photodetectors and IR lasers
GaN, SiC
❖ For GaN and SiC wurtzite
and hexagonal Lattice are of
interest
❖ GaN and SiC both are large
bandage materials; useful for
power electronics applications
❖ GaN has higher mobility;
suitable for microwave and
Radar Applications
❖ Also for Blue LED’s
Moore’s Law
More than Moore Scaling
 Czochralski Process
A seed crystal is introduced into the melt and the
rod is slowly pulled to give a boule of Single
Crystal Silicon
+ Can grow large diameter Silicon Wafers
+ Easy to dope by introducing impurities
in the melt
- Oxygen incorporation from melting of
quartz crucible
 Float Zone Process
❖ Uses a moving induction heating coil to
heat a zone of Silicon
❖ Initially the part neat the seed crystal is
melted, and then the melt zone is
moved upwards
❖ Impurities segregate in the liquid;
resulting in a very low impurity wafer
- Molten zone diameter is limited so
cannot be used for very wide wafers
 Bridgeman Technique

❖ Used for GaAs, ZnO, etc. where

Cz is harder
❖ Polycrystalline material is
placed along with single crystal
material melted and furnace
moved through a temperature
gradient
❖ Can be horizontal or Vertical
 Molecular Beam Epitaxy
❖ Beams of atoms impinge on a
substrate in ultra high vacuum
❖ Atomic Layer by layer growth of
crystal
❖ Due to UHV beams don’t interact in
gas phase
❖ Need fast shutters
❖ For low melting point materials use a
knudsen cell
❖ for gas use a plasma source
❖ for High MP materials uses electron
gun
❖ Used for Semiconductor Lasers, GaN,
High performance materials
 Metal Organic Vapor Phase Epitaxy(MOVPE)

❖ In MOCVD crystal growth

happens by chemical reaction on a
heated substrate
❖ Typically Metal Organic Vapors
are used as precursors (TMGa,
TMAl) for Group III (or Group II)
elements and hydrides are used as
precursors for Group V elements
❖ They react either on the substrate
or in gas phase near the substrate,
leaving Methane as by product
❖ High throughput technique
compared to MBE