ECEG-2131 Applied Electronics I

Addis Ababa Institute of Technology (AAIT) School of Electrical and

Computer Engineering
Learning Outcomes

 At the end of the lecture, students should

be able to know about:
 Semiconductors, Conductors, Insulators
 Atomic structure.
 P-and N-type materials.
 Intrinsic and extrinsic materials.
 Donors and acceptors.

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Overview of Solid-State Materials
 Solid-state materials can be grouped into three
classes;
 Insulators (oxides)
 Semiconductors (mostly group IV elements)
 Conductors (metals)
 The number of free electrons in the conduction
band is the key for conductivity.

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Overview of Solid-State Materials
 Conductors are materials that permit flow of
electrons; E.g. Gold, Silver, Copper, etc.
 Insulators are materials that block flow of
electrons; E.g. Rubber, Glass, Teflon, Mica,
etc.
 Semiconductors are materials whose
conductivity fall between those of conductors
and insulators; E.g. Silicon, Germanium,
Gallium arsenide

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Solid-State Materials

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 Semiconductors: General
Representation
 Semiconductor
 Material with conductivity
in between conductor &  Conductor
insulator  Easily conducts
electrical current
 Best is single
 Insulator element material
 Does not conduct Au, Ag & Cu.
electrical current
 Compound materials
like SiO2

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 Semiconductors

 For current flow one needs to have electrons in the

conduction band or holes in valence band. (only electrons
in conduction band can carry current)
 Completely full or completely empty bands can not carry
current.

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Semiconductors: General
Representation

 In an insulator material the valence electrons form strong

bonds between neighboring atoms. Since these bonds are
difficult to break, there are no free electrons to participate
in current conduction at or near room temperature.
 In conductors, conduction band is either partially filled (as
in Cu) or overlaps the valence band (as in Zn or Pb) so
that there is no bandgap.

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 Semiconductor Composition
 Elemental
 Si, Ge
 Compound
 III-V: GaAs
 II-VI: ZnO
 Alloys
 Binary: Si1-xGex
 Ternary: AlxGa1-xAs
 Quaternary: GaxIn1-xAsyP1-y.
 Silicon in the form of silica and silicates comprises 25% of the
Earth’s crust, and silicon is second only to oxygen in abundance
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Semiconductors: A general introduction

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Free Carriers
 What are the free carriers?
 Electrons: Electrons excited from the valence

band into the conduction band.

 Holes: An empty states in the valence band.

 Typical symbols used for carriers

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Carrier Concentration

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Semiconductor alloys
 Many of the compound semiconductors have
electrical and optical properties that are different
from those of silicon.
 These semiconductors, especially GaAs, are used
mainly for high-speed electronic and photonic
applications.
 The periodic arrangement of atoms in a crystal is
called a lattice.
 The element semiconductors, silicon and
germanium, have the diamond lattice structure

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 Electronic Properties of Silicon
 It is a semiconductor material
 It got two types of charge carriers
 Electrons, -ve charge
 Holes, +ve charge
 Concentration of this carries can be manipulated by;
 Doping (adding impurity)
 Applying an electric field
 Changing temperature
 Irradiation (shining light E.g laser)

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Silicon Crystal
 Each silicon atom in a crystal has its four valence
electrons plus four more electrons that are shared
by the neighboring atoms.
 At room temperature, a pure silicon crystal has
only a few thermally−produced free electrons and
holes

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Silicon Crystal

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 Silicon and Germanium Atomic
Structure

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 Electron-Hole Pair Generation
 When a conduction electron is thermally
generated, a hole is also generated in the valence
band and this phenomenon is called electron-
hole pair generation.
 Band gap energy (Eg) is the amount of energy
needed to remove an electron from a covalent
bond. (simply: the amount of energy needed to
break a covalent bond and free electrons)

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Intrinsic Semiconductor
 Thermal equilibrium: is a steady-state condition
at a given temperature without any external
excitations such as light, pressure, or an electric
field.
 An intrinsic semiconductor is one that contains
relatively small amounts of impurities compared
with the thermally generated electrons and holes.
 When a semiconductor is doped with impurities,
the semiconductor becomes extrinsic and
impurity energy levels are introduced.

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Intrinsic Semiconductor
 An intrinsic semiconductor is a pure
semiconductor. It acts as an insulator at room
temperature.
 Two Types of Flow
 Flow of free electrons,

 Flow of holes

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Manipulating Carrier Numbers
 Introduce dopant - extrinsic materials
 Doping:

Introduction of foreign atoms ( donors/

acceptors) to engineer semiconductor
electrical properties.
 Processes:

 Ion implantation
 Diffusion

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Extrinsic Semiconductor
 Doping increases the conductivity of a
semiconductor. i.e. doping means adding
impurities to contribute extra electrons (n-doped)
or holes (p-doped)
 When an intrinsic semiconductor is doped with
pentavalent (donor) atoms (i.e. Arsenic atoms
donates one free electron to the crystal), it has
more free electrons than holes
 When an intrinsic semiconductor is doped with
trivalent (acceptor) atoms (i.e. Boron atoms
accept one electron from the crystal), it has more
free holes than electrons
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Donors
 Donors for Si come from Group V.
 P, As & Sb  5 valence electrons

 Electron ‘donated’, the site becomes +ve ion

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Donors

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Acceptors
 Acceptors for Si come from Group III
 B  3 valence electrons

 Electrons ‘accepted’, the site becomes -ve ion

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Acceptors

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Donors and Acceptors

 Donor (As)  Acceptor (B)

 N-type semiconductor  P-type semiconductor

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What to Do This Week?

 Reading Assignment
 Diodes, Diode Characteristics and Modeling

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