ELECTRONIC PRINCIPLES

(BEE 2113)

By:
NABIAH BT ZINAL
Department of Electronic Engineering
Faculty of Electrical and Electronic Engineering
Kolej Universiti Teknologi Tun Hussein Onn
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 CHAPTER 1:
SEMICONDUCTOR PN
JUNCTION THEORY

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 Lecture Contents
Atomic theory and energy band

Insulator and semiconductor materials

Formation of PN junction
Distribution of holes and electrons
Forward-biased and reversed-biased PN
junction
IV characteristics of forward-biased
and reversed-biased PN junction
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 1.1 Atomic Theory
The atom has 3 basic particles:
i. Proton
• positive charge
• Same magnitude but different pole with
electron
ii. Electron
• negative charge
• Same magnitude but different pole with hole
iii. Neutron
• neutral

 Protons and neutrons form the nucleus

 Electrons appear in fixed orbits around the nucleus.

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Cont…
• For each atom;
No. of proton in nucleus = no. of electron
ATOM IS NEUTRAL
• If an atom losses 1 valence electron - +ve
• If an atom gains 1 valence electron - -ve
1.1.1 Bohr Model

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Cont…
• The orbital paths or shells Orbital shells

are identified using K L M

K through M.
• The innermost shell- K shell.
• The outermost atom- valence shell.
• Valence shell – determines the The orbital shells for an atom
conductivity of atom.
• The conductivity of atom depends on
the number of electron in valence shell
(valence electrons).

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Atomic Structure
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1.1.2 Atomic structures

The Periodic Table

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Cont…
 Element in periodic table
are arranged according to
atomic number.

 The atomic number of an

element = the number of
protons (which also equals the
number of electrons) in the The Atomic Structure
nucleus of a neutral atom.
 Atomic number, often represented by the symbol Z.

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Cont..
 Shells are divided into sub shells :
i. s – max 2 electrons
ii. p – max 6 electrons
iii. d – max 10 electrons
iv. f – max 14 electrons

Example:

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The structure for nickel atom
 1.2 Energy Band
• Electron energy level in valence shell is changing
depend on the atomic force.
• Electron energy level always stated as energy
band.
• In any material, there are 2 energy band;
i. Valence band – the outermost shell that
determines the conductivity
ii. Energy band – the band outside the
valence shell.
• The 2 bands are separated by one energy gap
called – forbidden gap.

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 Cont…
Example:

• The valence band

contains with electrons.
• The electrons can move
to the conduction band if
it have enough energy
( eg: light or heat)
• When the electron absorbs
Energy band in Silicon Atom
enough energy to jump from
valence band to the conduction band,
the electron is said to be in excited state.

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 CONDUCTOR
INSULATOR

SEMICONDUCTOR

The energy band gap for conductor, insulator and semiconductor

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1.3 Insulator, Semiconductor and
Conductor
The concept of
energy bands is
particularly
important in
classifying
materials as
conductors,
semiconductors,
and insulators
Energy Diagram for Three Types of Material

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Cont…
• Insulator - very wide energy gap. The wider
this gap, the greater the amount of energy
required to move the electron from the
valence band to the conduction band.
• Therefore, an insulator requires a large
amount of energy to obtain a small amount of
current.
• The insulator "insulates" because of the wide
forbidden band or energy gap.

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Cont…
• Semiconductor - has a smaller forbidden band
and requires less energy to move an electron
from the valence band to the conduction band.
• Therefore, for a certain amount of applied
voltage, more current will flow in the
semiconductor than in the insulator.
• Conductor - no forbidden band or energy gap and
the valence and conduction bands overlap.
• With no energy gap, it takes a small amount of
energy to move electrons into the conduction
band; consequently, conductors pass electrons
very easily.

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Cont..
• The valence shell determines the ability of material to
conduct current.
• The number of valence electron in valence shell:
1 e – perfect conductor ( < 4e)
(Easy to drift or move to other atom)
8 e – insulator
4 e – semiconductor

Note: conductivity decreases with an increase in

the number of valence electrons

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1.3.1 Conductor
• Most of the conductors used in electronics
are metals like copper, aluminum and steel.
• Conductors are materials that obey Ohm's
law and have very low resistance.
• They can also carry electric currents from
place to place without dissipating a lot of
power.

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1.3.2 Insulator
• i.e: glass, most polymers (plastics), rubber and
wood.
• Materials which will refuse to carry an electric
current.
• Useful for jobs like coating electric wires to
prevent them from 'shorting together' or giving
a shock.
• Silk and cotton are also good insulators (when
they're dry!!)
• Modern insulators like PVC (Polyvinylchloride)
are much better and safer.
• Insulators are also very useful to fill the 'gap' in
between the metal plates of a capacitor.

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1.3.3 Semiconductor
• Special class of elements having a conductivity
between that of a good conductor (like cooper) and
that of an insulator (like plastic).
• Most of the transistors, diodes, integrated circuits,
etc. used in modern electronics are built using a
range of semiconductors.
• The basic property of a semiconductor is given away
by its name - it 'conducts a little bit'.
• A semiconductor will carry electric current, but not as
easily as a normal conductor.
• The semiconductor atoms complete their valence
shells by sharing valence electrons with other atoms
– covalent bonding.
• For low temperature, semiconductor material will act
as an insulator.

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Cont…
• In room temperature, the stability of atom is
threatened. Some of the electrons free from its
bonding and jump to forbidden gap.
• When the temperature increases, more valence
electrons (free electron) jump to conduction band
and increase the conductivity.
• When the covalent bonding break, the hole is
created by free electrons in valence bands.
• The thermal energy (heat) causes the constant
creation of electron – hole pairs.
• Recombination occurs when the free electrons loss
their energy and fall down to valence band (fill the
hole).

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 1.4 Types of Semiconductor
• Semiconductors are mainly classified into two
categories:
i. Intrinsic
ii. Extrinsic
Intrinsic - chemically very pure and possesses
poor conductivity.
- It has equal numbers of negative
carriers (electrons) and positive
carriers (holes).
- Impurities do not affect its electrical
behavior.
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Cont…
Extrinsic - improved intrinsic semiconductor with
a small amount of impurities
added by a process, known as
doping process, which alters the
electrical properties of the
semiconductor and improves its
conductivity.
- Introducing impurities into the
semiconductor materials (doping
process) can control their conductivity.

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1.4.1 Intrinsic Semiconductor
o The pure semiconductor material without
impurities atoms.
o Example: Silicon and Germanium.

The Silicon bonding

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1.4.2 Extrinsic Semiconductor
• Adding impurities atom into intrinsic
semiconductor = extrinsic semiconductor.
• The process of adding specific types of
atoms to a semiconductor to favorably alter
electric characteristics - Doping
• 2 types of extrinsic (impure) semiconductor;
– N-type
– P-type

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Cont…
• When an impurity increases the number of
free electrons, the doped semiconductor is
NEGATIVE or N-TYPE.
• An impurity that reduces the number of
free electrons, causing more holes,
creates a POSITIVE or P-TYPE
semiconductor.

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 N– type material
- Diffused impurities with
5 valence electrons are
called donor atoms.

Antimony (Sb) impurity in n-type material

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 P-type material
-The diffused impurities
with 3 valence electrons
are called acceptor
atoms.

Boron (B) impurity in p-type material

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 1.5 PN Junction Formation
• A PN junction is fabricated from a single slice of
semiconductor.
• One side doped with acceptor impurity atoms – p region
• One side doped with donor impurity atoms –
n region
• The interface separating the n and p regions is referred
as the metallurgical junction.

The PN junction
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Majority and minority carriers

a) n-type material b) p-type material

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 Diffusion Process
• In trying to neutralize charges;
- free electrons in n-type diffuse across
junction to p-type
- free holes in p-type diffuse to n-type
- electrons & holes close to junction
recombine.

The movement of holes and electrons in diffusion process.

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 P N

Depletion
E-field force on holes region
E-field force on electrons
E-field

A depletion region formation due to electrons and holes

movement in diffusion process and electric field.

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Forward biased narrows the depletion region and produces a voltage
drop across the PN junction equal to the barrier potential.

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Reverse biased condition in PN junction.

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The IV characteristics in forward biased and reverse biased.

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