Basic Physics of Semiconductors

PRESENTED BY LORESCO, POCHOLO JAMES M.

ELECTRONS ENERGY LEVEL

An ELECTRONS ENERGY LEVEL is the amount of energy required by an electron to stay in orbit

SHELLS and SUBSHELLS

are the orbits of the electrons in an atom.

BOHR ATOMIC MODEL

EXAMPLE
Cu Si Ge

VALENCE
is the ability of an atom to combine with other atoms. VALENCE SHELL -the number of electrons in the atoms outermost shell VALENCE ELECTRONS-The electrons in the outermost shell.

IONIZATION
is the process by which an atom loses or gains electrons. POSITIVE ION NEGATIVE ION

ENERGY BANDS
are groups of energy levels that result from the close proximity of atoms in a solid. The three most important energy bands are the
CONDUCTION BAND FORBIDDEN BAND VALENCE BAND

ENERGY BANDS

ELECTRICAL CLASSIFICATION OF MATTER

CONDUCTORS SEMICONDUCTOR INSULATORS

ELECTRICAL CLASSIFICATION OF MATTER

CATEGORIES OF COMPARISON
VALENCE e CONDUCTIVITY TEMPERATURE COEFFICIENT ENERGY GAP

ENERGY GAP

COVALENT BONDING

COVALENT BONDING

COVALENT BONDING

COVALENT BONDING

CONDUCTION PROCESS in a SEMICONDUCTOR

HOLE FLOW and ELECTRON FLOW

ELECTRON AND HOLE FLOW

ENERGY LEVEL DIAGRAMS

TYPES OF SEMICON
INTRINSIC EXTRINSIC

INTRINSIC
In an INTRINSIC semiconductor (one which does not contain any impurities), the number of holes always equals the number of conducting electrons.

DOPING
is the process by which small amounts of selected additives, called impurities, are added to semiconductors to increase their current flow

EXTRINSIC SEMICONDUCTORS
Any semiconductor subjected to doping

N-TYPE SEMICONDUCTOR
one that is doped with an N-TYPE or donor impurity (an impurity that easily loses its extra electron to the semiconductor causing it to have an excess number of free electrons). majority current carriers? minority current carriers?

N-TYPE SEMICONDUCTOR

pure semiconductor
electron Ge atom free electron

doped semiconductor
electron P atom

P-TYPE SEMICONDUCTOR
is one which is doped with a P-TYPE or acceptor impurity (an impurity that reduces the number of free electrons causing more holes). majority current carriers? minority current carriers?

P-TYPE SEMICONDUCTOR

Does any thermal energy create free electrons (and holes) in silicon?

Bandgap Energy

DENSITY OF ELECTRONS
How many free electrons are created at a given temperature?

DENSITY OF ELECTRONS
Example Determine the density of e in silicon at T=300K. Repeat the exercise for a material having a band gap of 1.5eV

DENSITY OF ELECTRONS
Silicon has 5 x 10^22 atoms/cm3, but only

one in 5 x 10^12 atoms

benefit from a free e

MODIFICATION OF CARRIER DENSITIES

In an intrinsic semiconductor, the electron density

Loosely-attached electron with phosphorus doping

PROBLEM
A piece of crystalline silicon is doped uniformly with phosphorus atoms. The doping density is 10^16 atoms/cm3. Determine the electron and hole densities in this material at the room temperature.

Note that the hole density has dropped below the intrinsic level by six orders of magnitude. Thus, if a voltage is applied across this piece of silicon, the resulting current predominantly consists of electrons

Available hole with boron doping

MOBILE CHARGE DENSITIES

MOBILE CHARGE DENSITIES

TRANSPORT OF CARRIERS
Drift
Movement of charge carriers due to an electric field is called drift.

TRANSPORT OF CARRIERS

For example in silicon, the mobility of electrons

PROBLEM
A uniform piece of n-type of silicon that is 1um long senses a voltage of 1 V. Determine the velocity of the electrons.

With the velocity of carriers known, how is the current calculated?

CURRENT FLOW IN TERMS OF CHARGE DENSITY

CURRENT DENSITY

PROBLEM
In an experiment, it is desired to obtain equal electron and hole drift currents. How should the carrier densities be chosen?

VELOCITY SATURATION
In reality, if the electric field approaches sufficiently high levels ,v no longer follows E V varies sublinearly at high electric fields, eventually reaching a saturated level

VELOCITY SATURATION

PROBLEM
A uniform piece of semiconductor 0.2 m long sustains a voltage of 1 V. If the lowfield mobility is equal to 1350 cm2/(V.s) and the saturation velocity of the carriers 10^7 cm/s determine the effective mobility. Also, calculate the maximum allowable voltage such that the effective mobility is only 10% lower than u0. At what voltage does the mobility fall by 20%?

TRANSPORT OF CARRIERS
Diffusion
Suppose a drop of ink falls into a glass of water. Introducing a high local concentration of ink molecules, the drop begins to diffuse, that is, the ink molecules tend to flow from a region of high concentration to regions of low concentration. This mechanism is called diffusion.

DIFFUSION IN A SEMICONDUCTOR

I=current, A=cross-sectional area, q=charge,dn/dx=concentration gradient with respect to x

CURRENT DENSITY

PROBLEM
Consider the scenario depicted in Fig Suppose the electron concentration is equal to N at x=0 and falls linearly at x=L. determine the diffusion current

PROBLEM
Repeat the above example but assume an exponential gradient

Einstein Relation

PN Junction in Equilibrium
the terminals are open and no voltage is applied across the device. junction is in equilibrium

PROBLEM
A PN junction employs the following doping levels. Determine the hole and electron concentrations on the two sides

PN Junction in Equilibrium
The diffusion currents transport a great deal of charge from each side to the other, but they must eventually decay to zero. This is because, if the terminals are left open (equilibrium condition), the device cannot carry a net current indefinitely

what stops the diffusion currents?

DEPLETION REGION

Built-in Potential
The existence of an electric field within the depletion region suggests that the junction may exhibit a built-in potential.