Physics & Modelling of

Microelectronics Devices
(MEL G631 )

Arnab Hazra
Email: arnab.hazra@pilani.bits-pilani.ac.in
Handout Discussion
Module 01: Semiconductor Electronics

Topic: Basics of Semiconductors, Band and Bond

model of solids
Band model/energy band model
 How the electrons are distributed over the range of
energy at a given temperature

1. Allowed states
(i) Only certain energy states are allowed.
(ii) Electron occupy the lowest energy states available
(iii) No two electrons are occupied by same energy state.

2. Distribution of allowed states over the energy [N(E)]-all

allowed states are not distributed uniformly over the
energy. Quantum Mechanics

3. In thermal equilibrium, what fraction of allowed states are

occupied [f(E,T)]-Fermi Dirac function Statistical
Mechanics
Energy band diagrams
Electron motion: Fluid motion analogy
Electron motion: Fluid motion analogy
Electron motion: Fluid motion analogy
Bond Model
Bond Model

Intrinsic

Extrinsic
Energy band diagram: Doped semiconductor
Electron concentration & temperature
Problem 1
Thermal equilibrium statistics
 Thermal equilibrium

 Relationship at thermal equilibrium between majority

and minority carrier concentrations in semiconductor

 Fermi statistics and the Fermi level to specify the

carrier concentrations
Thermal equilibrium statistics
Thermal equilibrium
Thermal equilibrium is a dynamic situation in which every process is
balanced by it’s inverse process.

Mass-action law
If number of electron is increased due to donor doping that force to
reduce the hole concentration to keep the product of np constant,
called mass action law.

−𝐸𝑔
𝑛𝑖2
= 𝑁𝐶 𝑁𝑉 𝑒𝑥𝑝
𝑘𝑇
𝑁𝐶 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑁𝑉 𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑟𝑒𝑙𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑡𝑜 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑑𝑒𝑛𝑠𝑖𝑡𝑦 𝑜𝑓 𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑜𝑤𝑒𝑑 𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑠 𝑛𝑒𝑎𝑟
𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑒𝑑𝑔𝑒𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑑𝑢𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑣𝑎𝑙𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒 𝑏𝑎𝑛𝑑 , 𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑝𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑣𝑒𝑙𝑦.
 Charge neutrality
Fermi Level: Distribution of electrons in
allowed energy states Distribution of electrons in
allowed energy states of a
semiconductor crystal can be
estimated by Fermi-Dirac
distribution function 𝑓𝐷 (𝐸)
1
𝑓𝐷 𝐸 =
1 + 𝑒𝑥𝑝 𝐸 − 𝐸𝑓 /𝑘𝑇

Probability of occupancy

g(E)=N(E)
Fermi Level: Distribution of electrons in
allowed energy states

Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution function

Fermi Level: Distribution of electrons in
allowed energy states
Problem 2
Inhomogeneously doped semiconductor
• At thermal equilibrium, electrons are distributed in energy according to the
Fermi-Dirac distribution function.

• The Fermi energy must have same value throughout a system to assure the
balance required at thermal equilibrium for electron transfer.

• When two regions of the semiconductor are in intimate contact, the entire
piece of semiconductor corresponds to a single system of states.

Steps:
1. Draw a constant horizontal line
to represent Fermi level
2. Away from the interface, locate
conduction band edge in each
region where electron density
is equal to the donor density.
3. Calculate Ec-Ef
4. Show a smooth transition
through the interface plane at
x= a
Inhomogeneously doped
semiconductor

 The energy difference between

the conduction and valance band
is a property of the Si lattice that
is not changed by lightly or
moderately doping of the crystal.

 Free energy level will also be

changed to maintain the electron
affinity constant for Si.
Heavy doping
The all approximation will be invalid when a crystal is doped with impurities
at density near the effective density of states NC

For moderate doping, dopant impurities do not interact with each other
and do not perturbed the band structure.

A significant perturbation is overserved at heady doping.

Due to reduction of band gap energy cases the product of free carrier
density p and n to increase which is expressed as

∆𝐸𝑔
𝑝𝑛 = 𝑛𝑖2 𝑒𝑥𝑝 2
= 𝑛𝑖𝑒
𝑘𝑇
∆𝐸𝑔 is the expression of band gap narrowing. It happened doping density
>1018 cm-3
Heavy doping
Quasi-Fermi level
Thermal equilibrium is disturbed by excitation such as incident radiation or
application of external bias in pn junction. The Fermi-level become
separated in excess carrier condition ( non-equilibrium case) called quasi
Fermi level.

Under nonequilibrium conditions, the np product is not equal to the thermal

equilibrium value 𝑛𝑖2 but is a function of the separation of the two quasi-Fermi
levels.

Photoconduction
Photon energy (radiation energy) incident on semiconductor and bonds are
broken and free carrier concentration (e- and h+ both) increases.
Problem 3
Free carriers in semiconductor
Conduction in semiconductor
 Without external electric field
 Low/moderate electric field
 High field case

 Without external electric field:

 Electrons and holes are almost “free particles”
 Law of statistical mechanics says e- and h+ have thermal energy of
1/2kT per degree of freedom.
 At finite T, e- has random motion in semiconductor crystal
 Kinetic energy will be used to estimate the thermal velocity (vth)

 Random motion of carriers at equilibrium and net current is zero

 is the time interval between collisions averaged over the entire
electron population: mean scattering time for electrons
Drift Velocity (Apply a small electric field)
 e- are accelerated along field
direction
 Mean scattering time is unaltered
under small electric field
3
𝐸 − 𝐸𝐶 = 𝑘𝑇
2
 Net carrier velocity in an
appropriate electric field is called
drift velocity (Vd)
Drift Velocity (Mobility and Conductivity)
Vd can be calculated by equating impulse (Force × time) applied to the e-
during its free flight between collision with the momentum gained by the
electron in the same period.

And

The proportionality factor is an important property of the electron

called the mobility and is designated by the symbol µn

Mobility

Current density flowing in the direction of the applied field can be found
by summing the product of the charge on each electron times its velocity
over all electrons n per unit volume
Drift Velocity (Mobility and Conductivity)
Hole mobility (µp)

Total current can be written as sum of electron and hole currents

Conductivity can be written as

Mobility and scattering
Mobility
How easily an electron move in response to an applied
electric filed

Lattice Scattering
Carrier scattered due to vibration of lattice at high
temperature.

Impurity Scattering
Scattering from crystal defects/ionized impurity.
Mobility and scattering
Two or more scattering process
 For a time interval dt.

𝑑𝑡
 Probability that carrier is scattered in time dt by process ‘i’ is
𝜏𝑖

 𝜏𝑖 is the average time between scattering event

𝑑𝑡 𝑑𝑡
 Total probability = σ𝑖
𝜏𝐶 𝜏𝑖
𝑞𝜏𝑐 1 1 1 1 1
 𝜇= , = σ𝑖 i.e. = + ………..
𝑚∗ 𝜇 𝜇𝑖 𝜇 𝜇1 𝜇2

 The resulting mobility is smaller than the determined by any of

the individual scattering mechanism
Mobility vs impurity concentration
Mobility vs impurity concentration
High field effect & velocity saturation

• Assumption is Ohm’s ;aw is valid in carrier drift process.

• Drift current is proportional to the applied electric field
• Proportionality constant ‘σ’ is not the function of electric filed (E)
• Assumption is not valid for wide range of E
• E>103 V/cm, current exhibit sublinear dependency on the electric field
• Dependency of ‘σ’ upon ‘E’ is called Hot Carrier Effect where Vd is
comparable to the thermal velocity.

• Drift velocity is limited/saturated (Vl or Vsat) at high field

• Velocity saturation is very common in integrated circuit (Few hundred
mV/µm)
• Empirical expression of drift velocity
High field effect & velocity saturation
Problem 4
Diffusion Current
Another current component where carrier moves from the region of high
concentration to low carrier concentration and current flow to the opposite
of electron flow.

 ‘n’ is varying with ‘x’

 Thermal energy is not varying with ‘x’
 At finite temperature, e- have random motion with
thermal velocity Vth where mean free path ‘λ’
 λ = 𝑉𝑡ℎ 𝜏𝑐 𝜏𝑐 is the mean free time
Diffusion Current
 The net rate of carrier flow F

 Using Taylor series expansion

 Each electron carries a charge –q, so total flow of current

 Diffusion co-efficient/diffusivity
Diffusion Current
 If both drift and diffusion occurs under a field

Problem 5