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EE 152: Basic Electronics

(Semiconductor Basics)
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Outline
• Introduction
• Basic Semiconductor Concepts
▫Intrinsic
▫Doping
▫Extrinsic
◦N-type
◦P-type
▫Carrier movement
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Electronic Materials
• The goal of electronic materials is to
generate and control the flow of an
electrical current.
• Electronic materials include:
1. Conductors: have low resistance which
allows electrical current flow
2. Insulators: have high resistance which
suppresses electrical current flow
3. Semiconductors: can allow or suppress
electrical current flow
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Conductors, semiconductors and insulators

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Conductors
• Good conductors have low resistance so
electrons flow through them with ease.
• Best element conductors include:
▫ Copper, silver, gold, aluminum, & nickel
• Alloys are also good conductors:
▫ Brass & steel
• Good conductors can also be liquid:
▫ Salt water
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Conductor Atomic Structure

• The atomic structure of

good conductors usually
includes only one
electron in their outer
shell.
▫ It is called a valence
electron.
▫ It is easily striped from the
atom, producing current
flow. Copper
Atom
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Insulators
• Insulators have a high resistance so current does
not flow in them.
• Good insulators include:
▫ Glass, ceramic, plastics, & wood
• Most insulators are compounds of several
elements.
• The atoms are tightly bound to one another so
electrons are difficult to strip away for current
flow.
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Semiconductors
• Semiconductors are materials that essentially
can be conditioned to act as good conductors,
or good insulators, or any thing in between.
• Common elements such as carbon, silicon,
and germanium are semiconductors.
• Silicon is the best and most widely used
semiconductor.
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What is a Semiconductor?
• A semiconductor is a material with conducting
properties between those of a good insulator (e.g.
glass) and a good conductor (e.g. copper).
• The most commonly used semiconductor is silicon.
• Low resistivity => “conductor”
• High resistivity => “insulator”
• Intermediate resistivity => “semiconductor”
▫ conductivity lies between that of conductors and insulators
▫ generally crystalline in structure for IC devices
 In recent years, however, non-crystalline semiconductors have become
commercially very important

polycrystalline amorphous crystalline

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Semiconductor Elements in the Periodic Table

Group III Group IV Group V

+3 +4 +5

Boron (B) Carbon (C) Nitrogen (N)

Aluminium (Al) Silicon (Si) Phosphorus (P)

Germanium
Gallium (Ga) Arsenic (As)
(Ge)

Indium (In) Tin (Sn) Antimony (Sb)

Semiconductor Valence Orbit

• The main
characteristic of a
semiconductor
element is that it has
four electrons in its
outer or valence
orbit.

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Crystal Lattice Structure
• The unique capability
of semiconductor
atoms is their ability to
link together to form a
physical structure
called a crystal lattice.
• The atoms link
together with one
another sharing their
outer electrons.
2D Crystal Lattice
• These links are called
Structure
covalent bonds.
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3D Crystal Lattice Structure

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Silicon
• Atomic density: 5 x 1022 atoms/cm3
• Each silicon atom has an outer shell with four valence
electrons and four vacancies (It is a tetravalent element).
• In intrinsic (pure) silicon, atoms join together by forming
covalent bonds. Each atom shares its valence electrons with
each of four adjacent neighbours effectively filling its outer
shell.
• When temperature goes up, electrons can become free to move
about the Si lattice.
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Electronic Properties of Si
 Silicon is a semiconductor material.
▫ Pure Si has a relatively high electrical resistivity at room temperature.

 There are 2 types of mobile charge-carriers in Si:

▫ Conduction electrons are negatively charged;
▫ Holes are positively charged.

 The concentration (#/cm3) of conduction electrons &

holes in a semiconductor can be modulated in several
ways:
1. by adding special impurity atoms ( dopants )
2. by applying an electric field
3. by changing the temperature
4. by irradiation
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• Thermal ionization
Valence electron---each silicon atom has four
valence electrons
Covalent bond---two valence electrons from
different two silicon atoms form the covalent
bond
 Be intact at sufficiently low temperature
 Be broken at room temperature
Free electron---produced by thermal ionization,
move freely in the lattice structure.
Hole---empty position in broken covalent bond,
can be filled by free electron, positive charge
• Carriers
A free electron is negatively charge and a hole is
positively charge. Both of them can move in the
crystal structure. They can conduct electric circuit.
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• Recombination
Some free electrons filling the holes results in
the disappearance of free electrons and holes.
• Thermal equilibrium
At a certain temperature, the recombination
rate is equal to the ionization rate. So the
concentration of the carriers is able to be
calculated.
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• Carrier concentration in thermal equilibrium

n  p  ni
3  EG kT
ni  BT e
2

• At room temperature(T=300K)
ni  1.5 10 10
carriers/cm3
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Semiconductors can be Insulators

• If the material is pure semiconductor material like
silicon, the crystal lattice structure forms an
excellent insulator since all the atoms are bound to
one another and are not free for current flow.
• Good insulating semiconductor material is referred
to as intrinsic.
• Since the outer valence electrons of each atom are
tightly bound together with one another, the
electrons are difficult to dislodge for current flow.
• Silicon in this form is a great insulator.
• Semiconductor material is often used as an
insulator.
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Intrinsic Semiconductors
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Intrinsic Semiconductors
• The structure has zero overall charge
• The complete nature of the structure means that
at absolute zero temperature (0 K) none of the
electrons is available for conduction…thus far
the material is an insulator.
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Intrinsic Semiconductors

• At room temperature some of the electrons

are able to acquire sufficient thermal energy
to break free from their bond.
• Whenever an electron leaves its position in
the lattice it leaves a vacancy known as a hole.
• The process is known as electron-hole pair
generation
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Intrinsic Semiconductors
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Electron-Hole Pair Generation

• When a conduction electron is thermally
generated, a “hole” is also generated.
• A hole is associated with a positive charge, and is
free to move about the Si lattice as well.
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Carrier Concentrations in Intrinsic Si

• The “band-gap energy” Eg is the amount of
energy needed to remove an electron from a
covalent bond.
• The concentration of conduction electrons in
intrinsic silicon, ni, depends exponentially on Eg
and the absolute temperature (T):
 Eg
ni  5.2 10 T
15 3/ 2
exp electrons / cm 3
2kT

ni  11010 electrons / cm 3 at 300K

ni  11015 electrons / cm 3 at 600K
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Intrinsic Semiconductors
• A freed electron can move through the body of
the material until it encounters another broken
bond where it is drawn in to complete the bond
or recombines.
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Intrinsic Semiconductors
• At a given temperature there is a dynamic
equilibrium between thermal electron-hole
generation and the recombination of electrons
and holes
• As a result the concentration of electrons and
holes in an intrinsic semiconductor is constant at
any given temperature.
• The higher the temperature the more electron-
hole pairs that are present.
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Intrinsic Semiconductors
• Two mechanisms for conduction become possible
when a bond breaks:
• 1. Due to the movement of the freed electron.
• 2. Due to neighbouring electrons moving into the
hole leaving a space behind it. (This can be most
simply thought of as movement of the hole, a single
moving positive charge carrier even though it is
actually a series of electrons that move.
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Intrinsic Semiconductors
• When an electric field (voltage) is applied, the holes
move in one direction and the electrons in the other.
• However both current components are in the
direction of the field.
• The conduction is ohmic, i.e. current is proportional
to the applied voltage (field)
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Intrinsic Semiconductors
• The proportion of freed electrons is very
small indeed:
• In silicon the energy EG required to free an
electron is 1.2eV
• The mean thermal energy (kT) is only 25meV
at room temperature (1/40 eV)
• The proportion of freed electrons varies
exponentially (-EG /kT).
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Intrinsic Semiconductors
• For an intrinsic semiconductor the number of
electron and hole carriers, and thus the
conductivity, increases rapidly with temperature.
• This is not very useful.
• Hence we dope the material to produce an extrinsic
semiconductor.
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Doping
• To make the semiconductor conduct
electricity, other atoms called impurities
must be added.
• “Impurities” are different elements.
• This process is called doping.
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Extrinsic Semiconductors
• Intrinsic conduction is very small.
• Conductivity levels can be raised and controlled by
doping with minute levels of impurity atoms to give
extrinsic or doped semiconductors.
• Extrinsic semiconductors may be further divided
into either n-type or p-type
Semiconductors can be Conductors
• An impurity, or element
like arsenic, has 5
valence electrons.
• Adding arsenic (doping)
will allow four of the
arsenic valence electrons
to bond with the
neighboring silicon
atoms.
• The one electron left
over for each arsenic
atom becomes available
to conduct current flow.

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Resistance Effects of Doping

• If you use lots of arsenic atoms for doping, there
will be lots of extra electrons so the resistance of
the material will be low and current will flow
freely.
• If you use only a few boron atoms, there will be
fewer free electrons so the resistance will be high
and less current will flow.
• By controlling the doping amount, virtually any
resistance can be achieved.
Another Way to Dope
• You can also dope a
semiconductor material with an
atom such as boron that has
only 3 valence electrons.
• The 3 electrons in the outer
orbit do form covalent bonds
with its neighboring
semiconductor atoms as before.
But one electron is missing from
the bond.
• This place where a fourth
electron should be is referred to
as a hole.
• The hole assumes a positive
charge so it can attract electrons
from some other source.
• Holes become a type of current
carrier like the electron to
support current flow.

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Types of Semiconductor Materials

• The silicon doped with extra electrons is called
an “N type” semiconductor.
▫ “N” is for negative, which is the charge of an
electron.
• Silicon doped with material missing electrons
that produce locations called holes is called “P
type” semiconductor.
▫ “P” is for positive, which is the charge of a hole.
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N-type Semiconductors
• An n-type impurity atom has five outer
(valence) electrons, rather than the four of
silicon.
• Only four of the outer electrons are required
for covalent bonding. The fifth is much more
easily detached from the parent atom.
• As the energy needed to free the fifth electron
is smaller than the thermal energy at room
temperature virtually all are freed.
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N-type Semiconductors
EXTRA ELECTRON
FREE AT ROOM TEMP.

+4 +4 +4

+4 +5 +
4

+4 +4 +4
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Carrier concentration for n type

a) Thermal equilibrium equation
nn 0  pn 0  ni
2

b) Electric neutral equation

nn0  pn0  N D
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P-type Semiconductors
• Here the doping atom has only three electrons in its
outer shell.
• It is relatively easy for an electron from a
neighbouring atom to move in, so releasing a hole
at its parent atom. The freed hole is available for
conduction.
• The energy needed to free the electron from its
parent is usually small compared to the thermal
energy so each impurity atom contributes one hole
for conduction (fully ionised).
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P-type Semiconductors

A neighbouring
electron can move
here. This creates a
hole where the
+3 electron came from.
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Carrier concentration for p type

a) Thermal equilibrium equation

p p 0  n p 0  ni
2

b) Electric neutral equation

p p0  np0  N A
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Summary of Charge Carriers

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Electron and Hole Concentrations

• Under thermal equilibrium conditions, the product
of the conduction-electron density and the hole
density is ALWAYS equal to the square of ni:
np  ni
2

N-type material P-type material

n  ND p  NA
2 2
n ni
p i n
ND NA
Electron and Hole Densities
np  ni
2

Majority Carriers : p  NA
2
Minority Carriers : n
n i
Majority Carriers : NA
n  ND
Minority Carriers : 2
n
p i
ND

• The product of electron and hole densities is

ALWAYS equal to the square of intrinsic
electron density regardless of doping levels.
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Carriers Movement

There are two mechanisms by which holes and free

electrons move through a silicon crystal.
• Drift--- The carrier motion is generated by the electrical
field across a piece of silicon. This motion will produce
drift current.
• Diffusion--- The carrier motion is generated by the
different concentration of carrier in a piece of silicon.
The diffused motion, usually carriers diffuse from high
concentration to low concentration, will give rise to
diffusion current.
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Diffusion and Diffusion Current

• diffusion

A bar of intrinsic silicon (a) in which the hole concentration profile shown in
(b) has been created along the x-axis by some unspecified mechanism.
The diffusion current density is proportional to the slope of the
concentration curve, or the concentration gradient.
Current Flow in N-type Semiconductors
• The DC voltage source has
a positive terminal that
attracts the free electrons
in the semiconductor and
pulls them away from their
atoms leaving the atoms
charged positively.
• Electrons from the
negative terminal of the
supply enter the
semiconductor material
and are attracted by the
positive charge of the
atoms missing one of their
electrons.
• Current (electrons) flows
from the positive terminal
to the negative terminal.
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Current Flow in P-type Semiconductors
• Electrons from the
negative supply terminal
are attracted to the
positive holes and fill
them.
• The positive terminal of
the supply pulls the
electrons from the holes
leaving the holes to attract
more electrons.
• Current (electrons) flows
from the negative terminal
to the positive terminal.
• Inside the semiconductor
current flow is actually by
the movement of the holes
from positive to negative.
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Temperature sensitivity
• In both types of extrinsic semiconductor virtually all
available charge carries are freed from their parent
atoms at room temperature. Temperature variations
thus make little difference to the conductivity .
• For intrinsic conductivity the number of carriers,
and thus , increases rapidly with temperature.
• For both extrinsic and intrinsic mechanisms the
conductivity is zero at T=0 K
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Terminology
donor: impurity atom that increases n
acceptor: impurity atom that increases p

N-type material: contains more electrons than holes

P-type material: contains more holes than electrons

majority carrier: the most abundant carrier

minority carrier: the least abundant carrier

intrinsic semiconductor: n = p = ni
extrinsic semiconductor: doped semiconductor
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In Summary
• In its pure state, semiconductor material is an excellent
insulator.
• The commonly used semiconductor material is silicon.
• Semiconductor materials can be doped with other atoms to
add or subtract electrons.
• An N-type semiconductor material has extra electrons.
• In an N-type semiconductor, conduction is mainly due to
electrons (negative charges). Positive charges (holes) are the
minority carriers.
• A P-type semiconductor material has a shortage of electrons
with vacancies called holes.
• In a P-type semiconductor, conduction is mainly due to
holes (positive charges). Negative charges (electrons) are
the minority carriers.
• The heavier the doping, the greater the conductivity or the
lower the resistance.
• By controlling the doping of silicon the semiconductor
material can be made as conductive as desired.
…that’s all folks…
…thanks for your time…