What is a semiconductor?

A semiconductor is a substance that has specific electrical properties that

enable it to serve as a foundation for computers and other electronic
devices. It is typically a solid chemical element or compound that
conducts electricity under certain conditions but not others. This makes it
an ideal medium to control electrical current and everyday electrical
appliances.

A substance that can conduct electricity is called the conductor and a

substance that cannot conduct electricity is known as the insulator.
Semiconductors have properties that sit between the conductor and
insulator. A diode, integrated circuit (IC) and transistor are all made from
semiconductors.

The conductance can vary depending on the current or voltage applied to

a control electrode or on the intensity of irradiation by infrared (IR),
visible light, ultraviolet or X-rays. The specific properties of a
semiconductor depend on the impurities -- known as dopants -- added to
it.
How do semiconductors work?
Most semiconductors are composed of crystals made of several materials.
To better understand how semiconductors work, users must
understand atoms and how electrons organize themselves within the
atom. Electrons arrange themselves in layers called shells inside an atom.
The outermost shell in the atom is known as a valence shell.

The electrons in this valence shell are the ones that form bonds with
neighboring atoms. Such bonds are called covalent bonds. Most
conductors have just one electron in the valence shell. Semiconductors,
on the other hand, typically have four electrons in their valence shell.
However, if atoms nearby are made of the same valence, electrons may
bind with the valence electrons of other atoms. Whenever that happens,
atoms organize themselves into crystal structures. We make most
semiconductors with such crystals, mainly with silicon crystals.

What is the difference between N-type and P-type semiconductors?

An N-type semiconductor carries current mainly in the form of negatively
charged electrons similar to the conduction of current in a wire. A P-
type semiconductor carries current predominantly as electron deficiencies
called holes. A hole has a positive electric charge, equal and opposite to
the charge on an electron. In a semiconductor material, the flow of holes
occurs in a direction opposite to the flow of electrons.

Elemental semiconductors include antimony, arsenic, boron, carbon,

germanium, selenium, silicon, sulfur and tellurium. Silicon is the best
known of these, forming the basis of most ICs.

Common semiconductor compounds include gallium arsenide, indium

antimonide and the oxides of most metals. We also widely use gallium
arsenide (GaAs) in low-noise, high-gain, weak-signal amplifying devices.

A semiconductor device can perform the function of the original vacuum

tube, but with hundreds of times its volume. Like a microprocessor chip,
a single IC can do the work of a set of vacuum tubes that would fill a large
building and require its own electricity generating plant.
What is a semiconductor chip?
A semiconductor substance lies between the conductor and insulator. It
controls and manages the flow of electric current in electronic equipment
and devices. As a result, it is a popular component of electronic chips
made for computing components and a variety of electronic devices,
including solid-state storage.
What is the difference between an intrinsic and extrinsic
semiconductor?
The primary difference between intrinsic and extrinsic semiconductors is
their form. For example, intrinsic semiconductors are pure in form and
composed of only one kind of material. They do not have any form of
impurity added to them.

In contrast, extrinsic semiconductors are impure. Extrinsic

semiconductors comprise multiple intrinsic semiconductors with other
substances added to change their properties. These substances are
typically doping trivalent or pentavalent impurities.

Insulators, such as fused quartz and glass, have very low conductivities,
on the order of 10−18 to 10−10 siemens per centimeter; and conductors,
such as aluminum, have high conductivities, typically from 104 to
106 siemens per centimeter. The conductivities of semiconductors are
between these extremes and are generally sensitive to temperature,
illumination, magnetic fields, and minute amounts of impurity atoms. For
example, the addition of about 10 atoms of boron (known as a dopant) per
million atoms of silicon can increase its electrical conductivity a
thousandfold (partially accounting for the wide variability
Elemental and Compound Semiconductors.
The elemental semiconductors are those composed of single species of
atoms, such as silicon (Si), germanium (Ge), and tin (Sn) in column IV
and selenium (Se) and tellurium (Te) in column VI of the periodic table.
There are, however, numerous compound semiconductors, which are
composed of two or more elements. Gallium arsenide (GaAs), for
example, is a binary III-V compound, which is a combination
of gallium (Ga) from column III and arsenic (As) from column V.
Ternary compounds can be formed by elements from three different
columns—for instance, mercury indium telluride (HgIn2Te4), a II-III-VI
compound. They also can be formed by elements from two columns, such
as aluminum gallium arsenide (AlxGa1 − xAs), which is a ternary III-V
compound, where both Al and Ga are from column III and the
subscript x is related to the composition of the two elements from 100
percent Al (x = 1) to 100 percent Ga (x = 0). Pure silicon is the most
important material for integrated circuit applications, and III-V binary
and ternary compounds are most significant for light emission.
Electronic properties
The semiconductor materials described here are single crystals; i.e., the
atoms are arranged in a three-dimensional periodic fashion. Part A of
the figure shows a simplified two-dimensional representation of
an intrinsic (pure) silicon crystal that contains negligible impurities. Each
silicon atom in the crystal is surrounded by four of its nearest neighbours.
Each atom has four electrons in its outer orbit and shares these electrons
with its four neighbours. Each shared electron pair constitutes a covalent
bond. The force of attraction between the electrons and both nuclei holds
the two atoms together. For isolated atoms (e.g., in a gas rather than a
crystal), the electrons can have only discrete energy levels. However,
when a large number of atoms are brought together to form a crystal, the
interaction between the atoms causes the discrete energy levels to spread
out into energy bands. When there is no thermal vibration (i.e., at low
temperature), the electrons in an insulator or semiconductor crystal will
completely fill a number of energy bands, leaving the rest of the energy
bands empty. The highest filled band is called the valence band. The next
band is the conduction band, which is separated from the valence band by
an energy gap (much larger gaps in crystalline insulators than in
semiconductors). This energy gap, also called a bandgap, is a region that
designates energies that the electrons in the crystal cannot possess. Most
of the important semiconductors have bandgaps in the range 0.25 to
2.5 electron volts (eV). The bandgap of silicon, for example, is 1.12 eV,
and that of gallium arsenide is 1.42 eV. In contrast, the bandgap of
diamond, a good crystalline insulator, is 5.5 eV.
At low temperatures the electrons in a semiconductor are bound in their
respective bands in the crystal; consequently, they are not available for
electrical conduction. At higher temperatures thermal vibration may
break some of the covalent bonds to yield free electrons that can
participate in current conduction. Once an electron moves away from a
covalent bond, there is an electron vacancy associated with that bond. This
vacancy may be filled by a neighbouring electron, which results in a shift
of the vacancy location from one crystal site to another. This vacancy may
be regarded as a fictitious particle, dubbed a “hole,” that carries a positive
charge and moves in a direction opposite to that of an electron. When
an electric field is applied to the semiconductor, both the free electrons
(now residing in the conduction band) and the holes (left behind in the
valence band) move through the crystal, producing an electric current.
The electrical conductivity of a material depends on the number of free
electrons and holes (charge carriers) per unit volume and on the rate at
which these carriers move under the influence of an electric field. In
an intrinsic semiconductor there exists an equal number of free electrons
and holes. The electrons and holes, however, have different mobilities;
that is, they move with different velocities in an electric field. For
example, for intrinsic silicon at room temperature, the electron mobility is
1,500 square centimetres per volt-second (cm2/V·s)—i.e., an electron will
move at a velocity of 1,500 centimetres per second under an electric field
of one volt per centimetre—while the hole mobility is 500 cm2/V·s. The
electron and hole mobilities in a particular semiconductor generally
decrease with increasing temperature.
Electrical conduction in intrinsic semiconductors is quite poor at room
temperature. To produce higher conduction, one can intentionally
introduce impurities (typically to a concentration of one part per million
host atoms). This is called doping, a process that increases conductivity
despite some loss of mobility. For example, if a silicon atom is replaced
by an atom with five outer electrons, such as arsenic (see part B of
the figure), four of the electrons form covalent bonds with the four
neighbouring silicon atoms. The fifth electron becomes a conduction
electron that is donated to the conduction band. The silicon becomes an n-
type semiconductor because of the addition of the electron. The arsenic
atom is the donor. Similarly, part C of the figure shows that, if an atom
with three outer electrons, such as boron, is substituted for a silicon atom,
an additional electron is accepted to form four covalent bonds around the
boron atom, and a positively charged hole is created in the valence band.
This creates a p-type semiconductor, with the boron constituting an
acceptor.

Energy Bands Description

In gaseous substances, the arrangement of molecules is spread apart and
are not so close to each other. In liquids, the molecules are closer to each
other. But, in solids, the molecules are closely arranged together, due to
this atoms of molecules tend to move into the orbitals of neighboring
atoms. Hence, the electron orbitals overlap when atoms come together.
In solids, several bands of energy levels are formed due to the
intermixing of atoms in solids. We call these set of energy levels
as energy bands.

Formation of Energy Bands

In an isolated atom, the electrons in each orbit possess definite energy.
But, in the case of solids, the energy level of the outermost orbit
electrons is affected by the neighboring atoms.
When two isolated charges are brought close to each other, the electrons
in the outermost orbit experience an attractive force from the nearest or
neighboring atomic nucleus. Due to this reason, the energies of the
electrons will not be at the same level, the energy levels of electrons are
changed to a value which is higher or lower than that of the original
energy level of the electron.
The electrons in the same orbit exhibit different energy levels. The
grouping of these different energy levels is known as the energy band.
However, the energy of the inner orbit electrons is not much affected by
the presence of neighboring atoms.

Classification of Energy Bands

Valence Band
The electrons in the outermost shell are known as valence electrons. These valence
electrons contain a series of energy levels and form an energy band known as the
valence band. The valence band has the highest occupied energy.

Conduction Band
The valence electrons are not tightly held to the nucleus due to which a few of these
valence electrons leave the outermost orbit even at room temperature and become free
electrons. The free electrons conduct current in conductors and are therefore known as
conduction electrons. The conduction band is one that contains conduction electrons
and has the lowest occupied energy levels.

Forbidden Energy Gap

The gap between the valence band and the conduction band is referred to as the
forbidden gap. As the name suggests, the forbidden gap doesn’t have any energy and
no electrons stay in this band. If the forbidden energy gap is greater, then the valence
band electrons are tightly bound or firmly attached to the nucleus. We require some
amount of external energy that is equal to the forbidden energy gap.