LESSON 1 – SEMICONDUCTOR

PHYSCIS
Chifundo Polska Mlangeni
Chifundo.mlangeni20@gmail.com
Outline
• Atomic Structure
• Covalent Bonds
• N-type Semiconductors
• P-type Semiconductors
• P-N Junction
• Types of semi-conductor diodes

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Atomic Structure

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 Atomic Structure
• An atom is composed of:
I. nucleus which contains protons and neutrons
II. orbital Electrons
• The electrons are negatively charged, protons positively
charged, and neutrons have no charge
• Electrons in the outermost shell are called valence electrons
• The number of valence electrons determine the chemical
activity of the material.
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Atomic Structure
• Silicon and germanium - most commonly used semi-
conductor materials.
• They are tetravalent atoms.

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 Covalent Bond
• When atoms come into close proximity with each other, the
valence electrons interact to form a crystal.
• The valence electrons are shared between atoms leading to
the formation of covalent bonds
• Most semiconductor materials have a tetrahedral
configuration in which each atom has four nearest
neighbours

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 Tetravalent
atoms with
covalent
bonds

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 Tetrahedral configuration

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ELECTRON– HOLE CREATION
• When a negatively charged electron breaks its covalent bond
and moves away from its original position, a positively
charged empty state (hole) is created at that position.
• An increase in temperature causes more covalent bonds to
be broken, hence more free electrons and holes.
• The concentration of electrons and holes directly influence
the magnitude of the current.

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ENERGYBANDS

• 𝐸𝑐means minimum
conduction band
• 𝐸𝑔means band gap energy
• 𝐸vmeans maximum
valence band energy

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ENERGYBANDS

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 ENERGYBANDS
• At T = 0K, all the valence electrons occupy the valence band.
• When the temperature increases, the valence electrons gain
sufficient thermal energy to break the covalent bond and
move away from their original position.

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ENERGYBANDS
• The minimum energy that the valence electron must gain in
order to break the covalent bond is called Bandgap Energy(𝐸𝑔)
• The electrons that have gained this minimum energy move
into the conduction band and are said to be free electrons.
• The net flow of these electrons generate a current.
• Materials that have large band gap energies, in the range of
>5 eV, are insulators.

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INTRINSICSEMICONDUCTOR
• This is a single crystal semi-conductor material with no other
types of atoms within the crystal.
• Examples include pure silicon, pure germanium etc.
• At absolute temperature intrinsic semiconductors behave as
perfect insulators.
• The density of electrons and holes are equal, since the
thermally generated holes and electrons are the only source
of such particles.

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Intrinsic Carrier Concentration(ni)
• Concentration of holes and electrons

−𝐸
3
𝑛𝑖 = ൗ
𝑔

𝐵𝑇
➢ B = the coefficient related to a specific semi-conductor material
➢ 𝑬 𝒈 = the Band gap energy
➢ T = the temperature in kelvins
➢ K = the Boltzmann's constant (86× 10 −6 ev/k)
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Values Of B And 𝑬 𝒈 For Various
Semiconductor Materials

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EXAMPLE1
• Calculate the intrinsic carrier concentration in silicon at
T=300K.

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Doping
• Adding impurity atoms to an intrinsic crystal to alter its
electrical conductivity
• The resulting semiconductor is called an extrinsic
semiconductor
• An extrinsic semiconductor has its conductivity improved
because the impurity supplies extra charge carriers.

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N-type semiconductor
• Doped with impurities containing five valence electrons
• E.g phosphorus, antimony or arsenic.
• Number of electrons exceed number of holes
• The atom( impurity) used to dope n-type semiconductor is
known as the donor atom

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P-type semiconductor
• Doped with impurities containing 3 valence electrons.
• E.g boron, indium, aluminium or gallium
• Number of holes exceed number of electrons
• The atom( impurity) used to dope the p-type semiconductor
is known as the acceptor atom.

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Relationship between holes andelectrons

𝑛𝑜𝑝𝑜=(𝑛𝑖)2
where:
•𝒏 = thermal equilibrium concentration of free
𝟎
electrons
•𝒑 𝒐 = thermal equilibrium concentration of holes

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Relationship between holes andelectrons

• If the donor concentration ≫ the intrinsic concentration

• 𝑛0 ≅ 𝑁 𝑑
• where 𝑁 𝑑 = concentration of donor atoms
•𝑛 𝑖 2
𝑝𝑜
=

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Relationship between holes andelectrons

• If the acceptor concentration ≫ the intrinsic concentration

𝑝0 ≈ 𝑁 𝑎

2
𝑛 𝑖
0 =
𝑁
𝑎

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Example 2
• Calculate the thermal equilibrium hole concentration for a
silicon at T=300K doped with phosphorus at concentration of
𝑁 𝑑 = 10 16 𝑐 𝑚 − 3

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Majority and Minority Carriers
• In an intrinsic semiconductor, the number of holes and
electrons will be equal.
• In an n-type material, the number of holes is less than the
number of free electrons,
▪ Therefore the electron is called the majority carrier and
the hole the minority carrier.
• In a p-type material, the number of free electrons is less
than the number of holes,
▪ So the hole is the majority carrier and the electron is the
minority carrier.
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Majority and Minority Carriers

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P-NJunction
• It is formed when a p-material is brought together with an n-
material,
• There will be diffusion of holes from the p-region into the n-
region, and diffusion of electrons from the n-region into the
p-region.
• The flow of holes from the p-region uncovers the negatively
charged acceptor ions.

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 P-NJunction
• As soon as a junction is produced, free electrons near it in the
n-type material are attracted across into the p-type material
where they fill holes.
• As a result the n-type becomes positively charged and the p-
type negatively charged.
• The same happens to holes in the p-type material.
• The movement of electrons and holes leads to recombination
across the junction.

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P-NJunction
• This results into the formation of a depletion region or space
charge region( a region that is void of carriers)
• The flow of electrons from the n-region uncovers positively
charged donor ions.
• At the depletion region, an electric field oriented in the
direction from the positive Charge to the negative charge is
set up due to charge separation.

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P-NJunction

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P-NJunction
• Due to the electric field in the depletion region, there is a potential
difference which is called the built-in potential difference or built-in
voltage and is given by:
𝐾 𝑇
𝑉 = ln(
𝑁𝑎𝑁𝑑 (𝑛𝑖)2
) 𝑁 𝑎
(𝑛𝑖)
2

• K is the Boltzmann's constant • 𝑁𝑎 is the acceptor concentration

• T is the absolute Temperature • 𝑁 𝑑 is the donor concentration
• E is the Electronic charge • 𝑉 𝑇 is the thermal Voltage

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Example 3
• Consider a silicon p-n junction at T=300K, doped at
𝑁 𝑎 = 1 0 1 6 𝑐 𝑚 − 3 in the p-region and 𝑁 𝑑 = 1 0 1 7 𝑐 𝑚 − 3
in the n- region. Calculate the built in potential.

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ReverseBiasing

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ReverseBiasing
• When the polarity of the applied voltage is as shown, the
holes are attracted towards the negative terminal and the
free electrons towards the positive terminal.
• This widens the depletion layer, in which there are no holes
or free electrons.
• This widening of the depletion region will establish a great
barrier for the majority carriers to overcome, effectively
reducing the majority carrier flow to zero.
• Consequently, the junction behaves as an insulator

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ReverseBiasing
• The number of minority carriers, however, that find
themselves entering the depletion region will not change,
resulting in minority-carrier flow of the same magnitude as
with unbiased p-n junction.
• The current that exists under reverse-bias conditions is called
the reverse saturation current and is represented by 𝑰 𝒔 .

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 • Increasing the biasing voltage increases the width of the depletion
region
• Because of the additional charges, (positive &negative) induced in the
region, capacitance is associated with the PN junction
• This is called junction capacitance

Where Cjo is capacitance at zero applied potential

• This Capacitance will affect the switching properties of the junction

Forward Biasing

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Forward Biasing
• The application of a forward-bias potential VD will
“pressure” electrons in the n-type material and holes in the
p-type material to recombine with the ions near the
boundary and reduce the width of the depletion region
• The current in the diode is therefore due to hole flow in the
p-region, electron flow in the n-region and a combination of
the two in the vicinity of the junction.

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THANK YOU