1.

0 INTRODUCTION TO SEMICONDUCTORS
1.1 Characteristics and electrical
properties of
semiconductors.

1.1.1 Semiconductor include

silicon and germanium.

1.1.2 Characteristics of N-
type and P-type
semiconductors.

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1.2 Characteristics of P-N junction and its reaction towards
voltage biasing.

1.2.1 Formation of a junction

a. Free electrons mobility
b. Formation of depletion region and its
properties.
c. Existence of threshold voltage and its values
for silicon and germanium.
1.2.2 Forward biased voltage and reverse biased
voltage supplied across P-N junction.

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1.2.3 Effects when a P-N junction is supplied with forward
biased voltage and reverse biased voltage on the
following items :
a. Area of depletion region.
b. Junction resistance
c. Current flow (including leakage current)

1.2.4 Breakdown when P-N junction is reverse biased.

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INTRODUCTION OF ATOMIC STRUCTURE
• Atomic structure is the smallest element in a material.
• Atomic structure model was introduced by Niels Bohr in
1913.
• Atom consists of a nucleus at the center which is
surrounded by electrons. The nucleus contains proton
(positive charge) and neutron (neutral).
• Number of electrons = Number of protons

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• The maximum orbit in an atom is 7 layers.
• The orbits known as K, L, M, N, O, P and Q layer.

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• Maximum number of electrons in each orbit determine by
formula: n is the number of
2xn 2
layer

• Maximum number of electrons in each layer :

Layer No. of Calculation Maximum

layer Electron
K 1 2 x 12 2
L 2 2 x 22 8
M 3 2 x 32 18
N 4 2 x 42 32
O 5 2 x 52 50
P 6 2x 62 72
Q 7 2 x 72 98

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• The number of layers are depend on the number of electrons in an
atom.
• The outer layer of an atom named valence layer.
• The electron in valence layer called electron valence (it is current
carrier).
Valence electron

Valence layer

Figure 3 : Valence layer and Electron valence position

• The maximum electrons in valence layer is 8 electrons.

• The number of electron in valence layer determine the electrical
characteristics of the materials (conductor, semiconductor or
insulator).
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 ELECTRON VALENS, TYPES OF MATERIAL & CHARACTERISTICS
Number
of
Types of Material Characteristic
Valence
Electron
• Can conduct an electrical current.
• Low resistance that ease the current flow.
• The atom always release its valence electrons. So, the
1 to 3 Conductor
electrons are free to move from one atom to another.
• Example : Gold, Copper (metals) and Carbon (non
metals)
• Cannot conduct an electrical current.
• High resistance, have very few or no free electrons.
• The atom always receive valence electrons from another
5 to 8 Insulator
atom to fill its valence layer. So, its become stable and
capable to avoid any electrical activities.
• Example : Glass, Rubber, PVC, Plastics.
• Its electrical conductivity is between conductor and
insulator.
4 Semiconductor
• Cannot release/receive valence electrons.
• Example : Silicon, Germanium.
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 TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE!!
GOLD  CONDUCTOR
CARBON  CONDUCTOR
SILICON  SEMICONDUCTOR
GLASS  INSULATOR
WOOD  INSULATOR
PLASTIC  INSULATOR
RUBBER  INSULATOR
COPPER  CONDUCTOR
ALUMINIUM  CONDUCTOR
MARBLE  INSULATOR
GERMANIUM  SEMICONDUCTOR
SILVER  CONDUCTOR
GALLIUM ARSENIDE  SEMICONDUCTOR
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RESISTIVITY CHART

1. Notice that there is a very small margin

between the resistivity of the
conductors such as silver and gold,
compared to a much larger margin for
the resistivity of the insulators
between glass and quartz.

2. Note also that the resistivity of all

materials at any one time also depends
upon their ambient temperature
because metals are also good
conductors of heat.

3. Ω-m : micro-ohms per metre

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Example 1 :
An Aluminium has 13 electrons.
i). Determine the number of electrons in each layer.
ii). Sketch its atomic structure.
iii). State the material type.

SOLUTION:
i) Number of electrons in each layer : ii) Atomic Structure :

K layer (1) : 2 x 12 = 2 electrons

L layer (2) : 2 x 22 = 8 electrons
M layer (3) : 13-2-8 = 3 electrons

iii) Material Type :

Conductor (3 electron valens)

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Example 2 :
Germanium has 32 electrons.
i). Determine the number of electrons in each layer.
ii). Sketch its atomic structure.
iii). State the material type.

SOLUTION:
i) Number of electrons in each layer : ii) Atomic Structure :
K Layer (1) : 2 x 12 = 2 electrons
L Layer (2) : 2 x 22 = 8 electrons
M Layer (3) : 2 x 32 = 18 electrons
N Layer (4) : 32-2-8-18 = 4 electrons

iii) Material Type :

Semiconductor (4 electron valens)

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1.1.1 Semiconductor

• Semiconductor is a material that has electrical conductivity

between conductor and insulator.
• Always use in electronic components manufacturing
(example: diode, transistor and integrated circuit).
• It has 4 valence electrons in its valence layer. Valence
electrons are current carrier.
• An atom that has 4 valence electrons is unstable. It has to
complete its valence electrons from 4 to 8 by sharing
electrons with another atom. The electron sharing is called
‘ Covalent Bonds’.

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• Silicon and Germanium are a sample of semiconductor
because it has 4 valence electrons in its valence layer.

Valence layer has

4 valence electrons

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COVALENT BONDS
• Definition : Covalent Bonds is when an atom sharing valence
electrons with their neighboring atom. So that it looks like
having 8 valence electrons.
• It makes the atom becomes stable and has strong bonding.
• By this state, the atoms act as an insulator at the room
temperature.

Figure 6 : Covalent Bonds

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• Electron and hole are created when the stability of the
covalent bond is disturbed by several factors such as increase
of temperature, voltage potential or doping process.
• Electron has a negative charge. So, free electrons are called
‘Negative current carrier’.
• Hole has a positive charge. So, holes are called as ‘Positive
current carrier’.

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• There are several factors that effected the stability of an atom
such as increase in temperature, potential difference and
doping process.

i. Increase in temperature
• In low temperature, covalent bonding is stable.
• When temperature is increasing, the atom become
unstable.
• Electrons free from their bonding, moving from one orbit
to another orbit randomly.

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ii. Potential difference
• When a high voltage supplied to a semiconductor
materials, electrons will move to the positive potential.
• In that time, it will act as a conductor.
• The electron movements are as figure below :

Figure 7 : Effect of potential difference to a semiconductor. 18

iii. Doping Process
• Process of adding impurity atoms into intrinsic
semiconductor to increase the number of any current
carrier (either free electron or hole) of the semiconductor.
• Two elements used for doping are Trivalent and
Pentavalent.
• If semiconductor is doped with Trivalent material (3
valence electrons), it will produce P-type semiconductor.
• If semiconductor is doped with Pentavalent material (5
electron valence), it will produce N-type semiconductor.

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20
Types Of Semiconductors
i. Intrinsic semiconductor
• Instrinsic semiconductor is a pure semiconductor that has
no foreign substance.
• Example : Germanium and Silicon.
ii. Extrinsic semiconductor
• Not pure, mixed with foreign substances.
• The mixing process known as ‘doping process’.
• Produce N-type or P-type semiconductor.
• Foreign subtances known as Trivalens (has 3 valence
electrons) or Pentavalens (has 5 valence electrons).
• Example foreign substance of Trivalens : Aluminium, Boron,
Galium and Indium .
• Example foreign substance of Pentavalens : Antimony,
Arsenic dan Phosphorus
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1.1.2 Characteristic of N-type and P-type semiconductors.
i. N-type semiconductors
It happens when pure semiconductors (Silicon) is
doping with Pentavalent impurities (5 valence electrons).

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• Through doping, N-types replace Silicon atoms with (for
example) antimony atoms.

• Antimony atoms have 5 electrons available for bonding. Since

the surrounding Silicon atoms only have 4 bonds available for
the antimony to bond to, there will be one more electron that
has no pair.

• The electron will free from its orbit and become free electron
(negative current carrier).

• This makes the N-type semiconductor negatively charged.

• Its majority current carriers are free electrons.
• Its minority current carriers are holes.

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ii. P-type semiconductors
• It happens when the intrinsic semiconductor (Silicon) is
doping with Trivalens impurities (3 valence electrons).

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• Through doping, P-types replace silicon atoms with (for example)
Boron atoms.

• Boron atoms have 3 electrons available for bonding. Since the

surrounding Silicon atoms have 4 bonds available for the Boron
to bond to, one more valence electron of the Silicon is not
forming a covalent bond. This empty space formed a hole
(positive current carrier).

• This makes the P-type semiconductor positively charged.

• Its majority of current carriers are holes .
• Its minority of current carriers are electrons.

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1.2 P-N Junction
• A P-N junction is formed at the boundary between a
P-Type and N-Type semiconductor.
• P-N junction is feature which enables diode, transistor
and the other devices work.

1.2.1 Formation of a junction

• Figure below shows the combination of N-type
and P-type materials which form a P-N junction.
P-N JUNCTION

N-type P-type

Figure 10 : P-N junction

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• After joining P-type and N-type semiconductors, electrons on
the N-type region tend to diffuse into the P region. (diffusion)
• As the electrons diffuse, they leave positively charged ions in
the N region. This creates a layer of positive charges near the
junction. Meanwhile, atom at P region receive electrons. It
creates negative charge near the junction.
• Action of positive and negative ions exchanging electrons to
cancel out their electric charges. It turns to neutral charge.
Thus, at the boundary, there is an area that does not have any
mobile charge carrier. This is call Depletion Region.
• This neutral area provides the barrier for the further
movement of the charge carriers, which is called Potential
Barrier.
• The total charge on each side of a PN Junction must be equal
and opposite to maintain a neutral charge condition around
the junction. (Equilibrium - electrically neutral situation)
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• The minimum forward voltage applied to overcome the
potential barrier is called threshold voltage.
• The threshold voltage is the minimum forward voltage value
across the semiconductor at which the semiconductor start to
conduct current.
• The threshold voltage is approximately 0.3V for germanium
and 0.7V for silicon.
Depletion Region

+ -

+ -

N-type P-type

Barrier Potential

Figure 11: Formation Of Depletion Region and Barrier Potential.

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1.2.2 Voltage Biases

Definition : Voltage bias is voltage that supplied across P-N

junction.

1.2.3 Types of voltage bias :

i) Forward Bias
ii) Reverse Bias

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 REMEMBER!!

Always remember that the direction of current is just opposite to

the flow of electrons.
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i). Forward Bias

• Definition : P-type semiconductor material is connected

to the positive terminal and the N-type semiconductor
material is connected to the negative terminal of a
battery (Figure 12)

Figure 12 : Forward Bias

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• Circuit Operation :
- Electron in N material will be push towards the
combination area cause depletion region become thin
(small).
Depletion Region

P-type N-type

Figure 13 : Depletion Region In Forward Bias

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- The resistance of the P-N junction will decrease.

- When the forward bias voltage increase until over the

knee voltage (0.3V for Germanium and 0.7V for Silicon),
the electron will be able to cross the combination region
and also towards the positive supply.

- So, the current can flow.

- The current is known as Forward Current.

- The P-N junction resistance is known as forward

resistance.

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ii). Reverse Bias

• Definition : N-type semiconductor material is connected

to the positive terminal of a battery and the P-type
semiconductor material is connected to the negative
terminal (Figure 14).

Figure 14 : Reverse Bias

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• Circuit Operation :
- Electron from N-Type will be pushed to the positive supply.
The depletion region will be larger.
Depletion Region

P-type N-type

Figure 15 : Depletion Region Of Reverse Bias

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- The resistance will increase. We call it as Reverse
Resistance.

- So the current cannot flow through the combination

region.

- Leakage current / Reverse current is a minority current in

the device when PN Junction is reversed biased.

- Electrons from the P type will pushed by the voltage bias

towards the combination region and then crossing the
region. So, it will produce a small current flow also known
as leakage current / reverse current.

- Its value is depends on the temperature. If the

temperature is low, the current’s value will be low too.
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1.2.4 Breakdown when P-N junction is reverse biased.

- If the P-N junction is supplied with extremely high -

reverse bias, it will distract the covalent bond.

- Electron will be pushed to positive terminal and will

free as current carrier. The free electron will hit others
bond.

- The reverse current will flow and the value is suddenly

increase. This level is called as Breakdown Voltage. This
will cause the PN junction to burn.

- To avoid this problem, the maximum reverse bias

voltage given cannot be larger than the breakdown
voltage limit.
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