SEMICONDUCTOR

BASICS
Intended Learning outcomes:

At the end of the session, you will

able to:
know some of the milestones in
Electronics.
identify the Atomic Structure
differentiate the type of materials
 Intended Learning outcomes:

discuss energy bond

differentiate n-type and p-type
materials
know the structure of a diode
compute the voltages and current of
the different diode models
MILESTONES IN ELECTRONICS
MILESTONES IN ELECTRONICS

 Born in Milan, Ohio, Thomas Edison was the most prolific

inventor of all time. He is credited with 1093 patents and is the
only person to ever have at least one patent every year for 65
consecutive years.
 One of his most famous inventions, the LIGHT BULB, was
introduced in 1879.
MILESTONES IN ELECTRONICS
MILESTONES IN ELECTRONICS

 Born in Iowa, Lee DeForest “ became an inventor while in college to

help defray expenses.
 He graduated from Yale in 1899 with a PhD. His doctoral thesis,
"Reflection of Hertzian Waves from the Ends of Parallel Wires," began
his long career in radio.
 His invention of the VACUUM TUBE TRIODE for use in amplification
(audion amplifier) was the most important of his more than 300
inventions.
MILESTONES IN ELECTRONICS
 MILESTONES IN ELECTRONICS

 An electrical engineer and physicist born in Madison, Wisconsin, Dr.

Bardeen was on the faculty of the University of Minnesota from 1938
to 1941 and a physicist at the Naval Ordnance lab from 1941 to 1945.
 Some of his fields of interest were conduction in semiconductors and
metals, surface properties of semiconductors, and superconductivity.
MILESTONES IN ELECTRONICS
MILESTONES IN ELECTRONICS

 An American born in London, England, Dr. Shockley obtained

his PhD in 1936 from M.I.T.
 His research emphasis included areas of energy bands in solids,
theory of vacuum tubes, photoelectrons, ferromagnetic
domains, and transistor physics.
 While at Bell Labs, Dr. Shockley joined John Bardeen and
Walter Brattain in the invention of the TRANSISTOR in 1947.
MILESTONES IN ELECTRONICS
MILESTONES IN ELECTRONICS

 An American born in China, Dr. Brattain joined Bell Telephone

laboratories in 1929.
 His chief contributions were the discovery of the photo effect
at the surface of a semiconductor and the invention of the
point-contact transistor in 1947, which he jointly invented with
John Bardeen and William Shockley.
MILESTONES IN ELECTRONICS
 MILESTONES IN ELECTRONICS

 Jack Kilby was born in Missouri and earned degrees in electrical

engineering from the University of Illinois and the University of
Wisconsin.
 In 1958, he joined Texas Instruments in Dallas where he was responsible
for integrated circuit development and applications. Within a year
after joining TI he invented the MONOLITHIC INTEGRATED CIRCUIT and
the rest is history.
 ATOMIC STRUCTURE

 All matter is made of atoms; and all atoms consist of electrons,

protons, and neutrons.
 An atom is the smallest particle of an element that retains the
characteristics of that element.
 Each of the known 109 elements has atoms that are different from
the atoms of all other elements. This gives each element a unique
atomic structure. According to the classical Bohr model, atoms have
a planetary type of structure that consists of a central nucleus
surrounded by orbiting electrons.
Atomic Number

 All elements are arranged in the periodic table of the elements

in order according to their atomic number. The atomic number
equal the number of protons in the nucleus. which is the same
as the number of electrons in an electrically balanced
(neutral) atom.
Electron Shells and Orbits
 This outermost shell is known as the valence shell and electrons
in this shell are called valence electron.
 The process of losing a valence electron is known as ionization.
 The escaped valence electron is called a free electron.
 TYPES OF MATERIALS

 A CONDUCTOR is a material that easily conducts electrical current.

 The best conductors are single-element materials, such as copper,
silver, gold, and aluminum, which are characterized by atoms with
only one valence electron very loosely bound to the atom
 These loosely bound valence electrons can easily break away from
their atoms and become free electrons.
 An insulator is a material that does not conduct electrical
current under normal conditions.
 Most good insulators are compounds rather than single-
element materials.
 Valence electrons are tightly bound to the atoms; therefore,
there are very few free electrons in an insulator.
 A SEMICONDUCTOR is a material that is between conductors
and insulators in its ability to conduct electrical current.
 A semiconductor in its pure (INTRINSIC) state is neither a good
conductor nor a good insulator.
 The most common single-element semiconductors are silicon,
germanium, and carbon.
 Compound semiconductors such as gallium arsenide are also
commonly used.
 The single-element semiconductors are characterized by
atoms with four valence electrons.
REVIEW QUESTIONS

 1. What is the basic difference between conductors and

insulators?
 2. How do semiconductors differ from conductors and
insulators?
 3. How many valence electrons does a conductor such as
copper have?
 4. How many valence electrons does a semiconductor have?
REVIEW QUESTIONS

 5. Name three of the best conductive materials.

 6. What is the most widely used semi conductive material?
 7. Why does a semiconductor have fewer free electrons than
a conductor?
 Energy Bands

 When an electron acquires enough additional energy, it can leave

the valence shell, become a free electron, and exist in what is known
as the CONDUCTION BAND.
 The difference in energy between the valence band and the
conduction band is called an ENERGY GAP.
 This is the amount of energy that a valence electron must have in
order to jump from the valence band to the conduction band.
 COVALENT BOND
 A chemical bond that involves sharing a pair of electrons
between atoms in a molecule.
 RECOMBINATION occurs when a conduction-band electron
loses energy and falls back into a hole in the valence band.
 1. Are free electrons in the valence band or in the conduction
band?
 2. Which electrons are responsible for current in a material?
 3. What is a hole?
N-TYPE AND P-TYPE SEMICONDUCTORS

 Semiconductive materials do not conduct current well .

 It has limited number of free electrons in the conduction band
and holes in the valence band.
 Intrinsic silicon (or germanium) must be modified by increasing
the number of free electrons or holes to increase its
conductivity and make it useful in electronic devices.
Two types of EXTRINSIC (impure) semiconductive materials :
 N-type
 P-type

The conductivity of silicon and germanium can be drastically

increased by the controlled addition of impurities to the intrinsic
(pure) semiconductive material. This process, called DOPING,
increases the number of current carriers (electrons or holes).
N- Type Semiconductor

 To increase the number of conduction-band electrons in

intrinsic silicon, pentavalent impurity atoms are added.
 These are atoms with five valence electrons such as arsenic
(As), phosphorus (P), bismuth (Bi), and antimony (Sb).
 It is often called a DONOR atom.
 Its majority carries are ELECTRONS.
 Its minority carries are HOLES.
P- Type Semiconductor

 To increase the number of holes in intrinsic silicon, trivalent

impurity atoms are added.
 These are atoms with three valence electrons such as boron
(B), indium (In), and gallium (Ga).
 It is often referred to as an ACCEPTOR atom.
 Its majority carries are HOLES.
 Its minority carries are ELECTRONS.
REVIEW QUESTIONS

 1. Define doping.
 2. What is the difference between a pentavalent atom and a
trivalent atom? What are other names for these atoms?
 3. How is an n-type semiconductor formed?
 4. How is a p-type semiconductor formed?
 5. What is the majority carrier in an n-type semiconductor?
REVIEW QUESTIONS

 6. What is the majority carrier in a p-type semiconductor?

 7. By what process are the majority carriers produced?
 8. By what process are the minority carriers produced?
 9. What is the difference between intrinsic and extrinsic
semiconductors?
THE DIODE

 A diode is a device that conducts current in only one

direction.
 The pn junction is the feature that allows diodes, certain
transistors, and other devices to work.
 If a piece of intrinsic silicon is doped so that part is n-type and
the other part is p-type, a PN JUNCTION forms at the boundary
between the two regions and a diode is created.
 DIFFUSION - (physics) the process in which there is movement
of a substance from an area of high concentration of that
substance to an area of lower concentration.
 The term depletion refers to the fact that the region near the
pn junction is depleted of charge carriers (electrons and holes)
due to diffusion across the junction.
 The depletion region acts as a barrier to the further movement
of electrons across the junction.
 The potential difference of the electric field across the
depletion region is the amount of voltage required to move
electrons through the electric field. This potential difference is
called the BARRIER POTENTIAL (Volts)
 The barrier potential of a pn junction depends on several
factors including the type of semiconductive material, the
amount of doping, and the temperature.
 The typical barrier potential is approximately 0.7 V for silicon
and 0.3 V for germanium at 25°C.
REVIEW QUESTIONS

 1. What is a pn junction?
 2. Explain what diffusion is.
 3. Describe the depletion region.
 4. Explain what the barrier potential is and how it is created.
REVIEW QUESTIONS

 5. What is the typical value of the barrier potential for a silicon

diode?
 6. What is the typical value of the barrier potential for a
germanium diode?
BIASING A DIODE

 Generally the term BIAS refers to the use of a dc voltage to

establish certain operating conditions for an electronic device.
 In relation to a diode, there are two bias conditions: forward
and reverse.
Forward Bias
Reverse Bias
V-I CHARACTERISTIC OF A DIODE
DIODE MODELS
IDEAL DIODE MODEL
PRACTICAL DIODE MODEL
COMPLETE DIODE MODEL
EXAMPLE:
TYPICAL DIODES
KEY FORMULAS
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