4.

1 SEMICONDUCTOR
4.1.1 Diodes

4.1.1.1 Semiconductor basic

 A material that conducts current, but only partly.

 Conductivity of a semiconductor is somewhere between that of an insulator and a conductor.
Most semiconductors are crystals made of certain materials, most commonly silicon.
 The electrons in an atom are organized in layers. These layers are called shells.
Semiconductors typically have four electrons in their valence shell such as in silicon. Pure silicon
crystals are not that useful electronically. But if you introduce small amounts of other elements into a
crystal, the crystal starts to conduct in an interesting way.

The process of deliberately introducing other elements into a crystal is called doping. The element
introduced by doping is called a dopant. By carefully controlling the doping process and the dopants
that are used, silicon crystals can transform into one of two distinct types of conductors:

An N-type semiconductor is created when the dopant is an element that has five electrons in its
valence layer. Phosphorus is commonly used for this purpose. Because the phosphorus atom has five
electrons in its valence shell, but only four of them are bonded to adjacent atoms, the fifth valence
electron is left hanging out with nothing to bond to. The extra valence electrons in the phosphorous
atoms start to behave like the single valence electrons in a regular conductor such as copper. They
are free to move about. Because this type of semiconductor has extra electrons, it's called an N-type
semiconductor.

P-type semiconductor is created when the dopant (such as boron) has only three electrons in the
valence shell. When a small amount is incorporated into the crystal, the atom is able to bond with
four silicon atoms, but since it has only three electrons to offer, a hole is created. The hole behaves
like a positive charge.

A silicon crystal doped with phosphorus

A silicon crystal doped with boron; creation of hole
4.1.1.2 The PN junction
It is possible to manufacture a single piece of a semiconductor material half of which is doped by P-
type impurity and the other half by N-type impurity as shown in Fig. 4.1.1.4. The plane dividing the
two zones is called junction. Theoretically, junction plane is assumed to lie where the density of
donors and acceptors is equal. The P-N junction is fundamental to the operation of diodes, transistors
and other solid-state devices.
Let us see if anything unusual happens at the junction. It is found that following three phenomena
take place:
1. A thin depletion layer or region (also called space-charge region or transition region) is established
on both sides of the junction and is so called because it is depleted of free charge carriers. Its
thickness is about 10-6 m.
2. A barrier potential or junction potential is developed across the junction.
3. The presence of depletion layer gives rise to junction and diffusion capacitances

4.1.1.3 Formation of Depletion Layer

Suppose that a junction has just been formed. At that instant, holes are still in the P-region and
electrons in the N-region. However, there is greater concentration of holes in P-region than in
Nregion (where they exist as minority carriers). Similarly, concentration of electrons is greater in N-
region than in P-region (where they exist as minority carriers). This concentration differences
establishes density gradient across the junction resulting in carrier diffusion. Holes diffuse from P to
N-region and electrons from N-to P-region and terminate their existence by recombination [Fig.
4.1.1.5 (a)]. This recombination of free and mobile electrons and holes produces the narrow region at
the junction called depletion layer. It is so named because this region is devoid of (or depleted of)
free and mobile charge carriers like electrons and holes—there being present only positive ions
which are not free to move.

4.1.1.4 Junction or Barrier Voltage

At room temperature of 300ºK, VB is about 0.3 V for Ge and 0.7 V for Si.

Barrier voltage depends on doping density, electronic charge and temperature. For a given junction,
the first two factors are constant, thus making V B dependent on temperature. With increase in
temperature, more minority charge carriers are produced, leading to their increased drift across the
junction. As a result, equilibrium occurs at a lower barrier potential.

4.1.1.4.1 Forward Biased P-N Junction

Suppose, positive battery terminal is connected to P-region of a semiconductor and the negative
battery terminal to the N-region as shown in Fig. 4.1.1.8 (a). In that case the junction is said to be
biased in the forward direction because it permits easy flow of current across the junction.

To achieve this
The anode is connected to a +3V current and the cathode to a OV connection
The anode is connected to a +1 V current and the cathode to a -1 V connection
The anode is connected to a 50current and the cathode to a -52 V Connection
Thus, the yoltage difference between the anode and the cathode determines the bias.
The minimum yoltage which needs to pass through the diode depends on the material and its
conductiye capacity.

Forward Voltage Drop

When a current passes through a diode it would ideally not result in a voltage drop. However, there is
no such thing as a zero resistance diode. For example, germanium diodes cause an approximate drop
in voltage by about o.6 V and silicon diodes drop up to 1.1 V.

4.1.1.4.3 Reverse Biased P-N Junction

When battery connections to the semiconductor are made as shown in Fig. 4.1.1.12 (a), the junction
is said to reverse-biased. In this case, holes are attracted by the negative battery terminal and
electrons by the positive terminal so that both holes and electrons move away from the junction and
away from each other. Since there is no electron-hole combination, no current flows and the junction
offer high resistance.

Although, in this case, there is practically no current due to majority carriers, yet there is a small
amount of current (a few μA only) due to the flow of minority carriers across the junction.

(On the n side the electrons are the majority carriers, while the holes are the minority carriers.)
Forward Characteristic: when the diode is forward-biased and the applied voltage is increased from
zero, hardly any current flows through the device in the beginning. It is so because the external
voltage is being opposed by the internal barrier voltage V B whose value is 0.7 V for Si and 0.3 V for
Ge. As soon as VB is neutralized, current through the diode increases rapidly with increasing applied
battery voltage. A burnout is likely to occur if forward voltage is increased beyond a certain safe
limit.

2. Reverse Characteristic: When the diode is reverse-biased, majority carriers are blocked and only a
small current (due to minority carriers) flows through the diode. As the reverse voltage is increased
from zero, the reverse current very quickly reaches its maximum or saturation value I 0 which is also
known as leakage current. It is of the order of nanoamperes (nA) for Si and microamperes (μA) for
Ge. The value of I0 (or Is ) is independent of the applied reverse voltage but depends on (a)
temperature, (b) degree of doping and (c) physical size of the junction.

As seen from Figure 4.1.1.18, when reverse voltage exceeds a certain value called break-down
voltage VBR (or Zener voltage Vz ), the leakage current suddenly and sharply increases, the curve
indicating zero resistance at this point. Any further increase in voltage is likely to produce burnout
unless protected by a current-limiting resistor.
Diodes in Series
If a generator or a battery is accidentally connected with the wrong polarity, then all of the on board
electronics would be supplied with negative voltage and this will result in them being destroyed. For
this reason, all devices must be secured with a reverse-polarity protection. Diodes are generally used
for this. An option that guarantees a reverse polarity protection is to connect the diode in series with
the supply voltage.

Diodes in Parallel
In order to increase the possible forward current of a diode circuit, diodes are connected in parallel.
Once again, it is impossible to simply create a parallel connection due to the characteristic dispersion
of the actual blocking resistance. This is because the diode with the lowest threshold voltage would
conduct the highest proportion of the total current, resulting in a thermal overload of the diode.
Resistors are connected in series to the diodes which are connected in parallel in order to limit the
maximum forward current, thus improving the distribution of current between the diodes. The
resistors connected in series, which are connected to the diodes connected in parallel, are designed in
such a way that o.5 V is dropped at maximum forward current. The low resistance ensures the
necessary distribution of the current.