BEEE-UNIT-I_NOTES
BEEE-UNIT-I_NOTES
BEEE-UNIT-I_NOTES
P-N Junction:
Semiconductors are materials whose conductivity lies between conductors and insulators.
Semiconductors are classified as intrinsic semiconductors and extrinsic semiconductors. Extrinsic
semiconductors are further classified as N-type and P-type semiconductors. The P-N junction is
formed between the p-type and the n-type semiconductors.
A P-N junction is an interface or a boundary between two semiconductor material types, namely
the p-type and the n-type, inside a semiconductor.
In a semiconductor, the P-N junction is created by the method of doping. The p-side or the positive
side of the semiconductor has an excess of holes, and the n-side or the negative side has an excess
of electrons.
At the instant of P-N Junction formation, the free electronics near the Junction in n-region begin
to diffuse across the junction into the p-region where they combine with holes near the junction.
As a result, n-region loses free electrons as they diffuse into the junction. This creates a layer of
positive charges (pentavalent ions) near the junction- similarly P-regions loses holes as they diffuse
in the n-junction creates a layer do negative chages (trivalent ions) near the junction. In this way
jumping the charges from one Junction to another Junction is called "Diffusion".
The two layers of positive and negative Charges form the depletion region (or) Depletion layer
Practically width of depletion region very small and it is of the order of 0.5 to 1 micron and is very
thin compared to the n-region and p-region. The term depletion is due to the fact that near the
Junction, the region is depleted of charge Carries due to diffusion across the Junction.
Once PN Junction is formed and depletion layer created, the diffusion of free election stops. In
other words, the depletion region acts as a barrier to the further moment of free electronics across
the junction. According to coulomb's law there exists a force between the opposite charges and
this force produces an electric field.
The opposite charges existing near the junction creates a potential difference (voltage) across the
Junction. That potential differs called "Barrier potential, junction potential (or) Built in potential
barrier (Vo) of a PN junction It is expressed in volts. It also indicates the amount of voltage with
proper polarity, to be applied across the PN Junction to restart the flow of electrons and holes
across the junction. The typical boa potential is approximately for silicon, )VO) =0.7V, and for
germanium (V0) =0.3 V
● P-type
● N-type
● There are three biasing conditions for the P-N junction diode, and this is based on the
voltage applied:
● Forward bias: The positive terminal of the voltage potential is connected to the p-type
while the negative terminal is connected to the n-type.
● Reverse bias: The negative terminal of the voltage potential is connected to the p-type and
the positive is connected to the n-type.
Forward Bias:
When the positive terminal of a battery is connected to P-type semiconductor and negative terminal
to N- type is known as forward bias of PN junction.
• The applied forward potential establishes an electric field opposite to the potential barrier
Therefore the potential barrier is reduced at the junction. As the potential barrier is very
small (0.3V for Ge and 0.7V for Si), a small forward voltage is sufficient to eliminate the
barrier potential, thus the junction resistance becomes zero.
➢ In other words, the applied positive potential repels the holes in the ‘P’ region so that the
holes moves towards the junction and applied negative potential repels the electrons in
the ‘N’ region towards the junction results in depletion region starts decreasing. When the
applied potential is more than the internal barrier potential then the depletion region
completely disappears, thus the junction resistance becomes zero.
➢ Once the potential barrier is eliminated by a forward voltage, junction establishes the low
resistance path for the entire circuit, thus a current flow in the circuit, it is called as
forward current.
For reverse bias, the negative terminal is connected to P-type semiconductor and positive terminal
to N type semiconductor.
➢ When reverse bias voltage is applied to the junction, all the majority carriers of ‘P’ region
are attracted towards the negative terminal of the battery and the majority carriers of the N
region attracted towards the positive terminal of the battery, hence the depletion
region increases.
➢ The applied reverse voltage establishes an electric field which acts in the same direction of
the potential barrier. Therefore, the resultant field at the junction is strengthened and the
barrier width is increased. This increased potential barrier prevents the flow of charge
carriers across the junction, results in a high resistance path.
➢ This process cannot continue indefinitely because after a certain extent the junction
breakdown occurs. As a result, a small amount of current flows through it due to minority
carriers. This current is known as “reverse saturation current”.
VI characteristics of P-N junction diodes is a curve between the voltage and current through the
circuit. Voltage is taken along the x-axis while the current is taken along the y-axis. The above
graph is the V-I characteristics curve of the P-N junction diode. With the help of the curve, we can
understand that there are three regions in which the diode works, and they are:
● Zero bias
● Forward bias
● Reverse bias
When the P-N junction diode is in zero bias condition, there is no external voltage applied and
this means that the potential barrier at the junction does not allow the flow of current.
When the P-N junction diode is in forward bias condition, the p-type is connected to the positive
terminal while the n-type is connected to the negative terminal of the external voltage. When the
diode is arranged in this manner, there is a reduction in the potential barrier. For silicone diodes,
when the voltage is 0.7 V and for germanium diodes, when the voltage is 0.3 V, the potential
barriers decrease, and there is a flow of current.
When the diode is in forward bias, the current increases slowly, and the curve obtained is non-
linear as the voltage applied to the diode overcomes the potential barrier. Once the diode
overcomes the potential barrier, the diode behaves normally, and the curve rises sharply as the
external voltage increases, and the curve obtained is linear.
When the P-N junction diode is in negative bias condition, the p-type is connected to the negative
terminal while the n-type is connected to the positive terminal of the external voltage. This results
in an increase in the potential barrier. Reverse saturation current flows in the beginning as minority
carriers are present in the junction.
When the applied voltage is increased, the minority charges will have increased kinetic energy
which affects the majority charges. This is the stage when the diode breaks down. This may also
destroy the diode.
Applications of P-N Junction Diode
• Rectifiers
• Clipper
• Clamper
• P-N junction diode can be used as a photodiode as the diode is sensitive to the light when
the configuration of the diode is reverse-biased.
• It can be used as a solar cell.
• When the diode is forward-biased, it can be used in LED lighting applications.
Avalanche Breakdown:
The type of PN junction breakdown in which the applied electric field in the reverse direction
across the diode increases the velocity of charge carriers and these charge carriers create a large
number of hole-electron pairs by colliding with the atoms of the semiconductor materials is called
the avalanche breakdown.
In case an avalanche breakdown, the production of hole-electron pairs is continuous which causes
an avalanche of free charge carries. The flow of free charge carriers across the junction results in
a high reverse current in the diode which permanently destroys the PN junction.
The applied reverse voltage at which the avalanche breakdown occurs is called
avalanche breakdown voltage. The avalanche breakdown mainly occurs in such PN junction
diodes that have thick depletion region. The avalanche breakdown in the diode is permanent, i.e.,
it cannot regain its original state
Zener Breakdown:
The breakdown of a PN Junction may occur because of one more effect called "Zener Effect".
When a PN Junction is heavily doped, the depletion region is very narrow, leads to intense
electric field in reverse bias mode. Such an intense field is enough to pull the electrons out of the
valance bands of the Stable atoms. such a creation of free electrons is called Zener effect. These
minority charge carriers constitute very Current and is called Zener Break down.
Comparison in between zener breakdown mechanism and avalanche breakdown
mechanism
Zener diode-The Zener diode is a silicon p-n junction Semiconductor device, which is generally
operated in its "Reverse Breakdown Region". In 1934, a physicist Goal Zener investigated the
breakdown phenomenon in the p-n junction diode, so breakdown voltage Sometimes called
Zener voltage and sudden increase Current is Zener current.
Def: - "A properly doped Cystal diode which has a sharp breakdown voltage known as Zener
diode.
➢ When forward biased its characteristics are just like an ordinary diode
➢ Practically Zener diode always reverse connected i.e., operated in reverse biased
mode.
The V-I Characteristics of a Zener Diode can be divided into two parts
i) Forward Characteristics (ii) Reverse Characteristics
Forward Characteristics: The forward characteristics of a Zener diode is shown in figure. It is
almost identical to the forward characteristics of a P-N junction diode.
Reverse Characteristics: As we increase the reverse voltage, initially a small reverse saturation
current Io. Which is in A, will follow. This current flows due to the thermally generated minority
carriers. At a certain value of reverse voltage, the reverse current will increase suddenly and
sharply. This is an indication that the breakdown has occurred. This breakdown voltage is called
Zener breakdown voltage or Zener voltage, and it is denoted by Vz.
The value of Vz can be precisely controlled by controlling the doping levels of P and N regions
at the time of manufacturing a Zener diode. After breakdown has occurred. The voltage across
Zener diode remains constant equal to Vz. Any increase in the source voltage will result in the
increase in reverse Zener current. The Zener current after the reverse breakdown must be
controlled by connecting a resistor R as shown in figure. This is essential to avoid any damage to
the device due to excessive heating.
Zener Region and its importance: Reverse breakdown of the Zener diode operates in a region
called Zener region, as shown in figure. In this region the voltage across Zener diode remains
constant but current changes depending on the supply voltage. Zener diode is operated in this
region when it is being used as a voltage regulator. The complete v-i characteristics of Zener
diode is as shown in figure.
Application of Zener Diode:
(iii) Zener diode is used as a fixed reference voltage in transistor biasing circuits.
(iv) Zener diode is used for meter protection against damage from accidental application of
excessive voltages.
Bipolar Junction Transistor (BJT)
A Bipolar Junction Transistor (BJT) is a three terminal semiconductor device in which the
operation depends on the interaction of both majority and minority carriers and hence the name
Bipolar. The BJT is analogous to a vacuum triode and is comparatively smaller in size. It is used
in amplifier and oscillator circuits, and as a switch in digital circuits. It has wide applications in
computers, satellites, and other modern communication systems.
CONSTRUCTION OF BJT:
The BJT consists of a silicon (or germanium) crystal in which a thin layer of N-type Silicon is
sandwiched between two layers of P-type silicon. This transistor is referred to as
PNP.Alternatively, in a NPN transistor, a layer of P-type material is sandwiched. Between two
layers of N-type material. The two types of the BJT are represented in. Fig. 13.1.
The symbolic representation of the two types of the BJT is shown in Fig. 13.2. The three portions
of the transistor are Emitter, Base and Collector, shown as E, B and C, respectively. The arrow
on the emitter specifies the direction of current flow when the EB junction is forward biased.
The emitter is heavily doped so that it can inject a large number of charge carriers in the base.
The base is lightly doped and very thin. It passes most of the injected charge carriers from the
emitter into the collector. The collector is moderately doped.
OPERATION OF NPN TRANSISTOR: As shown in Fig. 13.4, the forward bias applied to the
emitter base junction of an NPN transistor causes a lot of electrons from the emitter region to
crossover to the base region. As the base is lightly doped with P-type impurity, the number of
holes in the base region is very small and hence the number of electrons that combine with holes
in the P-type base region is also very small. Hence a few electrons combine with holes to
constitute a base current IB. The remaining electrons (more than 95%) crossover into the
collector region to constitute a collector current IC. Thus, the base and collector current summed
up gives the emitter current, i.e., IE = – (IC + IB). In the external circuit of the NPN bipolar
junction transistor, the magnitudes of the emitter current IE, the base current IB and the collector
current IC are related by IE = IC + IB.
OPERATION OF PNP TRANSISTOR:As shown in Fig. 13.5, the forward bias applied to the
emitter-base junction of a PNP transistor causes a lot of holes from the emitter region to
crossover to the base region as the base is lightly doped with N-types impurity. The number of
electrons in the base region is very small and hence the number of holes combined with electrons
in the N-type base region is also very small. Hence a few holes combined with electrons to
constitute a base current IB. The remaining holes (more than 95%) crossover into the collector
region to constitute a collector current IC. Thus, the collector and base current when summed up
gives the emitter current, i.e., IE = – (IC + IB).
In the external circuit of the PNP bipolar junction transistor, the magnitudes of the emitter
current IE, the base current IB and the collector current IC are related by IE = IC + IB.This equation
gives the fundamental relationship between the currents in a bipolar transistor circuit. Also, this
fundamental equation shows that there are current amplification factors α and β in common base
transistor configuration and common emitter transistor configuration respectively for the static
(d.c.) currents, and for small changes in the currents.