JSS MAHAVIDHYAPEETHA

JSS SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY UNIVERSITY

SEMICONDUCTOR PHYSICS
Exercise Problems:
1. Compute the concentration of intrinsic charge carriers in a germanium crystal at 300K. Given
that Eg = 0.72 eV and assume m*e  m*h  me .
2. For pure Germanium, the forbidden band energy gap is 0.7eV. Determine the position of fermi
level at room temperature if m*h  6m*e . Also calculate the density of holes and electrons at
room temperature. What would happen if band gap is changed to 5eV? (For germanium at
300K m*e  0.12m0 .
3. Calculate the forbidden energy gap for pure germanium at 300K if resistivity of specimen is
2.1Ω-m and the mobilities of electrons and holes are 0.35 m2/V-s and 0.17 m2/V-s respectively.
4. Mobilities of electrons and holes in intrinsic semiconductor are 0.35 m2/V-s and 0.18 m2/V-s
respectively. If the electron and hole densities are equal to 2.5 x 1020 / m3. Calculate the
conductivity.
5. Silicon has a conductivity of only 5 x 10- 4 S/m in its pure form. An engineer wanted it to have
conductivity of 200 S/m and doped it with aluminum to produce p-type semiconductor.
Calculate the impurity concentration. Assume µh = 0.05 m2/V-s.
6. Consider an n-type silicon with ND = 1021 /m3. Find ‘n’ and ‘p’ at 300K. Given the number of
intrinsic carriers at 300K is 9.8 × 1015 /m3.
7. In a doped semiconductor, there are 4.52 x 1014 holes and 1.25 x 1014 electrons per cubic meter.
What will be the carrier density in undoped specimen? Electron and hole mobilities are 0.38
m2/V-s and 0.18 m2/V-s respectively. Calculate the conductivity of intrinsic and doped
semiconductors.
8. A sample of intrinsic silicon at room temperature has a carrier concentration of 1.5 x 10 16 /m3.
A donor impurity is added to the extent of 1 donor atom per 108 atoms of silicon. If the
concentration of silicon atoms is 5 x 1028 /m3, determine the resistivity of the material. (given,
2 2
e = 0.135 m /V-s and h = 0.048 m /V-s).
9. An n-type germanium sample has a donor density of 1021 /m3. It is arranged in a Hall
experiment having magnetic field of 0.5 T and the current density is 500 A/m2. Find the Hall
voltage if the sample is 3mm wide.
10. A copper strip 2 cm wide and 1mm thick is placed in a magnetic field with B = 1.5 Weber /m2.
If a current of 200A is set up in the strip, calculate Hall voltage that appears across the strip.
Assume RH = 6 × 10 – 7 m3/ C.
11. The resistance between the opposite faces of 1mm cube of a semiconductor is 2 ohms. An
electric field of 0.8 V/m is developed when a current of 125 mA is carried between opposite
faces and 0.06 Weber/m2 magnetic field induction is applied perpendicular to it. Calculate Hall
voltage, Hall coefficient, Hall mobility Hall angle, and density of charge carriers by assuming
single carrier concentration.
12. Calculate the conductivity of germanium with the given data. What is the effect of doping
germanium with donor impurity to the extent of one atom per 108germanium atoms? (Given
data: Intrinsic carrier concentration in germanium at 300K, ni = 2.4 x 1019 / m3, electron
mobility, µe = 0.39 m2/V-s, hole mobility, µh = 0.19 m2/V-s, number of atoms/m3 = 4.4 x 1020,
electron charge, e =1.6 x 10-19C)

Assignment Problems:
1. If the effective mass of an electron is equal to twice the effective mass of hole, determine the
position of the Fermi level in an intrinsic semiconductor from the center of forbidden gap at
room temperature.
2. In an n-type semiconductor, the Fermi level lies 0.3eV below the conduction band at 300K. If
the temperature is increased to 330K, what would be the new position of the Fermi level.
3. Calculate the density of n-type intrinsic semiconductor given, conductivity of 6 S/m, mobility
of electrons is 420 cm2/volt-sec.
4. Find the resistivity of intrinsic germanium at 300K. Given that the intrinsic density carriers is
2.5 x 1019 / m3, e = 0.39 m2/Vs and h = 0.19 m2/Vs.
5. Calculate the number of acceptors to be added to a germanium sample to obtain the resistivity
of 10 Ω-cm. Given µ = 1700 cm2/V-s.
6. Calculate the number of donors to be added to an intrinsic semiconductor to obtain the
resistivity of 10-6 Ω-cm. Given µ = 0.39 m2/V-s.
7. A sample of intrinsic germanium at room temperature has a carrier concentration of 2.4 x 1019 /
m3. It is doped with antimony at a rate of one antimony atom per million atoms of germanium.
If the concentration of the germanium atoms is 4 x 1028 / m3, determine the hole concentration.
8. An electric field of 100 V/m is applied to a sample of n-type semiconductor whose Hall
coefficient is -0.0125 m3/C. Determine the current density in the sample, assuming 0.6 m2/V-s
9. In a Hall coefficient experiment, a current of 0.25 A is sent through a metal strip having
thickness 0.2 mm and width 5mm. The Hall voltage is found to be 0.15 mV when a magnetic
field of 2000 gauss is used.
10. A silver wire is in the form of a ribbon 0.5 cm wide and 0.1 cm thick. When a current of 2A
passes through the ribbon, perpendicular to 0.8T magnetic field, calculate the hall voltage
produced. (Given the density of silver as 10.5 gm/cm3, and atomic weight of silver is 108).
11. Hall coefficient of a semiconductor is 3.66 × 10-4 m3/C. The resistivity of the sample is 8.93 ×
10-3 ohm-m. If the applied magnetic flux density is 1 Weber/m2, find the charge mobility and
density of charge carrier assuming single charge carrier concentration.
12. Calculate the current produced in a small germanium plate of area 1cm2and thickness 0.3mm
when a potential difference of 2V is applied across the faces. Given concentration of free
electrons in Ge is 2 x 1019/m3 and mobilities of electrons and holes are 0.36 m2/Vs and 0.17
m2/Vs respectively.