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EDC Assignment #1

The document is an assignment submission by Ahmad salahuddin to their professor Engr. Jalal khan at the University of Engineering and Technology Mardan. It addresses 5 questions about semiconductor materials and diodes. It explains the importance of silicon and germanium in semiconductors due to their valence electron structure. It also differentiates between intrinsic and extrinsic semiconductors and how doping forms extrinsic materials. Breakdown voltage and avalanche effect in diode reverse bias is described. Reasons for silicon being more stable than germanium for diodes are provided. Forward and reverse bias diode circuits are sketched and the role of the PN junction is explained.

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75 views4 pages

EDC Assignment #1

The document is an assignment submission by Ahmad salahuddin to their professor Engr. Jalal khan at the University of Engineering and Technology Mardan. It addresses 5 questions about semiconductor materials and diodes. It explains the importance of silicon and germanium in semiconductors due to their valence electron structure. It also differentiates between intrinsic and extrinsic semiconductors and how doping forms extrinsic materials. Breakdown voltage and avalanche effect in diode reverse bias is described. Reasons for silicon being more stable than germanium for diodes are provided. Forward and reverse bias diode circuits are sketched and the role of the PN junction is explained.

Uploaded by

King Khan
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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UNIVERSITY OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY MARDAN

Telecommunication Engineering Department

EDC

Submitted to: Submitted by:


Engr. Jalal khan Ahmad salahuddin
Registration no: 19MDTLE076
Assignment #1
Batch no: 2
Date of Submission: 18 October 2020
Question 01:

i) Explain the importance of Si and Ge in the construction of semiconductor


devices?

The SI has 4 valence electrons in 3rd shell which are near to the nucleus and strongly bounded to
the nucleus. And it need a lot of additional energy to ionize an electron from the nucleus. And
the Ge also has 4 valence electrons in valence shell. And fourth shell is its outermost shell, they
are not near to nucleus as compared to the Si because the nucleus power is loss and they are at
high energy level and can be unstable at high temperature this property make germanium less
used as semiconductor compared to SI.

From the above it is clear that silicon and germanium are used as semiconductor due to their
valence structure which allow them to loss or gain electrons equally.

ii) Differentiate between extrinsic and intrinsic material? And how


semiconductors are formed from the intrinsic material.

A perfect semiconductor crystal with no impurities or lattice defect is called an intrinsic


semiconductor.

The semiconductor to which impurities is added for making it conductive is known as extrinsic
semiconductor.

Basic of deference Intrinsic semiconductor Extrinsic semiconductor


Doping of impurity Addition of impurity not take A small amount of impurity is
place added
Electron and holes The number of free electron The number of electrons and
in conduction band is equal holes are not equal
to the number of holes in
valance band
Electrical conductivity Electrical conductivity is low. Electrical conductivity is high
And is function of and depend on temperature
temperature or amount of dopping
Silicon, Germanium AS,SB,P dopped with Ge
iii) What is breakdown voltage and avalanche effect in the reverse bias process of
a diode.

As we know that in reverse bias the negative of battery is attached to P-region and positive of
battery is attached to P-region. Now at this stage the PN junction formed by the doping of the
P and N region. This PN-Junction doesn’t allow any current to pass through it.
Now at a particular time when the battery voltage is above a specific value the electron and
hole breakdown through the PN-junction and this make increase in the current through the
circuit. This specific voltage is basically breakdown Voltage.
The high reverse bias voltage imparts enough energy to minority free electrons so that they can
speed up through P-region. This make the free electron able to knock atom with enough energy
to knock the valence electron to the conduction band. As the new free electron are also at high
energy so they repeat the process in this way the process repeats and the electrons able to go
through p region and enter n region rather than combining with holes.
The multiplication of conduction electrons is basically called the avalanche effect.

iv) Why silicon is considered stable element for diodes than Germanium?

The reasons are:-

1. At room temperature, Silicon crystal has fewer free electrons than Germanium crystal. This
implies that silicon will have much smaller Collector cut off current than Germanium.
2. The variation of Collector cut off current with temperature is less in Silicon compared to
Germanium.
3. The structure of Germanium crystals will be destroyed at higher temperature. However, Silicon
crystals are not easily damaged by excess heat.
4. Peak Inverse Voltage ratings of Silicon diodes are greater than Germanium diodes.
5. Si is less expensive due to the greater abundance of element. The major raw material for Si
wafer fabrication is sand and there is lots of sand available in nature.

But there is a disadvantage for Silicon over Germanium.The potential Barrier of Silicon is more
compared to Germanium.But if we consider the advantages listed above, we can conclude that
Silicon is the best element for the Semiconductor Devices and Applications.
v) Sketch the circuits for forward and reverse bais and explain the PN junction
role in both the cases.

PN Junction Role:
PN junction is the boundary between the N-region and P-region. In forward bias it works as the
current flow in direction of battery current and help to flow the current in one direction only
which is the basic function of diode.

PN Junction Role:
PN junction is the boundary between the N-region and P-region. In reverse bias it work as the
current flower in opposite direction to that of battery current.

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