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 Civil Engineering

I YEAR/2nd Semester

BE8251-Basic Electrical and Electronics Engineering

K.Malar M.Tech.,MBA.,M.Phil.,BA(Hindi)
Assistant Professor PHOTO
Nadar Saraswathi College of Engineering & Technology,
Vadapudupatti, Annanji (po), Theni – 625531.
Unit-3 Semiconductor Devices & Applications
“Learning is not attained by chance, it must be sought
for with ardor and attended to with diligence.”

―Abigail Adams

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 Semiconductor Devices and Applications
• Introduction
• Basic Definitions
• Classification of materials
• Energy band structure:
• N type semiconductor
• P type semiconductor
• PN junction Diode
• Zener diode
• Half wave rectifier
• Fullwave rectifier
• Bipolar junction transistor
• Common base configuration
• Common emitter configuration
• Common collector configuration
• Small signal amplifier

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Prerequisites:

• The semiconductor device i.e., solid state device is capable of amplifying the weak signal. The
devices are solid rather than hollow like the vaccum tube. These semiconductor devices are
smaller in size, more rugged and less power consumption than vaccum tubes. The various
semiconductor devices include semiconductor diode, Zener diode, transistor, JFET, MOSFET, UJT,
SCR, DIAC and TRIAC etc. The semiconductor devices have very wide range of applications in
various fields such as communication systems, medical electronics, microprocessor based
systems, instrumentation, process control, aerospace, consumer electronics, etc.

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Basic Definitions

Valence electrons
Conduction electrons
Energy band
Conduction band
Valence electrons
Forbidden energy gap

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Valence electrons
• The electrons present in the outer most orbit that are loosely bound to the nucleus are called
valence electrons.
Conduction electrons
• When an electric field is applied, the valence electrons get detached themselves from the
nucleus, constituting the flow of current. These electrons are called conduction electrons.
Energy band
• The (range of) energy possessed by the electrons in an atom is called energy band.
Conduction band
• The (range of) energy possessed by the conduction electrons is called conduction band.
Valence electrons
• The (range of) energy possessed by the valence electrons is called valence band.
Forbidden energy gap
• The gap between the valence band and the conduction band is called forbidden energygap.

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CLASSIFICATION OF MATERIALS:
 The materials are classified based on their conducting property. Energy band theory can be used
to explain the classification of materials
 Conductor
 semiconductor
 insulators
• Conductors :
 Conductor is materials that easily conducts or pass the current. There are plenty of free electrons
available for electric conduction. In terms of energy band theory, the conductors have overlapping
of valence band and conductive band.
 Example: Copper, Aluminum, iron, etc
• Properties:
 1. It is rigid, non directional and crystalline in nature.
 2.Conductivity is good.
 3Low melting and boiling temperatures.

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Semiconductors:
 Semiconductor is a material with partially filled conduction band and valence band. The current in
the semiconductor is due to the movement of electrons and holes. As the temperature increases
the conduction increases.

 Example: Silicon, Germanium, etc.

Properties:
 It is rigid, directional and crystalline in nature
 2.Conductivity can be increased if proper doping material is added

 3.Low melting and boiling temperatures.

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Insulators:
• In the case of insulators, the valence electrons are very tightly bound to their
parent atom. The valence band and conduction band are separated by a large
forbidden energy gap. The insulators have full valence band and an empty
conduction band.
• Example: Paper, Mica. Sodium chloride, etc.

Properties:
• 1. It is rigid, Unidirectional and crystalline in nature.
• 2.Conductivity is poor in the solid form.
• 3.High melting and boiling temperatures.

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Energy band structure:

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Classification of Semiconductors:
 Two types of semiconuctor
 Intrinsic
 Extrinsic
 Intrinsic Semiconductor
 An intrinsic semiconductor also called an undoped semiconductor or I type
semiconductor.
 Extrinsic Semiconductor
 The electrical conductivity of a pure semiconductor is very small.
 To increase the conductivity, impurities are added.
 The impurity added semiconductor is called extrinsic semiconductor.
 The process of adding impurity is called doping.
 The added impurity is called dopant.
 There are two types (i) p-type and (ii) n-type semiconductors.

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n-type semiconductor:

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p-type semiconductor:

If a III group element, like indium (In), boron (B), aluminium (AI) etc., having three
valence electrons, is added to a semiconductor say Si, the three electrons form
covalent bond.
There is a deficiency of one electron to complete the 4th covalent bond and is
called a hole.The presence of the hole increases the conductivity because these
holes move to the nearby atom, at the same time the electrons move in the
opposite direction.
The impurities added semiconductor is called p-type semiconductor.
The impurities are called acceptors as they accept electrons from the
semiconductor
Holes are the majority carriers and the electrons produced by the breaking of
bonds are the minority carriers.
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PN JUNCTION DIODE:
A p–n junction is formed by joining P-type and N-type semiconductors together in
very close contact.
The term junction refers to the boundary interface where the two regions of the
semiconductor meet.
Diode is a two-terminal electronic component that conducts electric current in
only one direction.
The crystal conducts conventional current in a direction from the p-type side
(called the anode) to the n-type side (called the cathode), but not in the opposite
direction.
Symbol of PN junction diode

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Biasing:
• Biasing” is providing minimum external voltage and current to activate the device to study its
characteristics.There are two operating regions and two "biasing" conditions for the standard
Junction Diode and they are:
• Zero Bias:

• When a diode is Zero Biased no external energy source is applied and a natural Potential Barrier
is developed across a depletion layer.

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• 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
completely eliminate the barrier potential, thus the junction resistance becomes zero.
 Once the potential barrier is eliminated by a forward voltage, j unction establishes the low resistance
path for the entire circuit, thus a current flows in the circuit, it is called as forward current.

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• Reverse Bias:

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.
This process cannot continue indefinitely because after certain extent the
junction break down occurs. As a result a small amount of current flows through
it due to minority carriers. This current is known as “reverse saturation current”.
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V-I characteristics of PN junction diode :

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V-I characteristics of PN junction diode:

Forward Bias:
The application of a forward biasing voltage on the junction diode results in the
depletion layer becoming very thin and narrow which represents a low
impedance path through the junction thereby allowing high currents to flow.
The point at which this sudden increase in current takes place is represented on
the static I-V characteristics curve above as the "knee" point.

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• Reverse Bias:
In Reverse biasing voltage a high resistance value to the PN junction and
practically zero current flows through the junction diode with an increase in bias
voltage.
However, a very small leakage current does flow through the junction which can
be measured in microamperes, (μA).
One final point, if the reverse bias voltage Vr applied to the diode is increased to
a sufficiently high enough value, it will cause the PN junction to overheat and fail
due to the avalanche effect around the junction.
This may cause the diode to become shorted and will result in the flow of
maximum circuit current, and this shown as a step downward slope in the reverse
static characteristics curve below.

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ZENER EFFECT:

In a general purpose PN diode the doping is light; as a result of this the
breakdown voltage is high.
If a P and N region are heavily doped then the breakdown voltage can be
reduced.
When the doping is heavy, even the reverse voltage is low, the electric field at
barrier will be so strong thus the electrons in the covalent bonds can break away
from the bonds.
This effect is known as Zener effect.

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ZENER DIODE
A diode which exhibits the zener effect is called a Zener Diode.
Hence it is defined as a reverse biased heavily doped PN junction diode which
operates in breakdown region.
 The zener diodes have been designed to operate at voltages ranging from a few
volts to several hundred volts.
Zener Breakdown occurs in junctions which is heavily doped and have narrow
depletion layers.
The breakdown voltage sets up a very strong electric field.
 This field is so strong enough to break or rupture the covalent bonds thereby
generating electron hole pairs.
Even a small reverse voltage is capable of producing large number of current
carrier.
When a zener diode is operated in the breakdown region care must be taken to
see that the power dissipation across the junction is within the power rating of the
diode otherwise heavy current flowing through the diode may destroy it.
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Symbol andV-I characteristics of Zener diode

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 V-I characteristics of Zener diode:

The illustration above shows this phenomenon in a current vs voltage graph

with a zener diode connected in the forward direction .It behaves exactly as a
standard diode.
In the reverse direction however there is a very small leakage current
between 0v and the zener voltage –i.e. just a tiny amount of current is able to
flow.
Then, when the voltage reaches the breakdown voltage (vz),suddenly current can
flow freely through it.
Applications of Zener diode:
as voltage regulator
as peak clippers
for reshaping waveforms

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RECTIFIERS:
The “rectifier” is a circuit that converts AC voltages and currents into pulsating DC
voltages and currents.
It consists of DC components and the unwanted ac ripple or harmonic
components which can be removed by using filter circuit.
 Thus the output obtained will be steady DC voltage and magnitude of DC voltage
can be varied by varying the magnitude of AC voltage.
Filters: A circuit that removes ripples (unwanted ac components) present in the
pulsating dc voltage.
Regulator: A circuit that maintains the terminal voltage as constant even if the
input voltage or load current varying.
Types of rectifiers:
Rectifiers are grouped into two categories depending on the period of
conduction. (a)Half wave rectifier (b) Full wave rectifier

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Half wave Rectifier:

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Half wave Rectifier:
Principle:
• It is a circuit that converts alternating voltage or current into pulsating voltage or current
for half the period of input cycle hence it is named as “half wave rectifier”.
Construction:
It consists of step-down transformer, semiconductor diode and the load resistance.
The step-down transformer – reduce the available ac voltage into required level of
smaller ac voltage.
The diode can be used to convert the ac into pulsating dc.
Operation:
During the positive half cycle of input, the diode D is forward biased, it offers very small
resistance and it acts as closed switch and hence conducts the current through the load
resistor.
During the negative half cycle of the input diode D is heavily reverse biased, it offers very
high resistance and it acts as open switch hence it does not conduct any current. The
rectified output voltage will be in phase with AC input voltage for completely resistive load.

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Fullwave rectifier:

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Fullwave rectifier:
• Principle:
A circuit that converts the ac voltage or current into pulsating voltage or current
during both half cycle of input is known as “full wave rectifier”.
• Operation:
•

During positive half cycle of ac input, diode D1 becomes forward biased, provides
very small resistance and acts as closed switch, resulting in the flow of current.
During negative half cycle, diode D1 reverse biased, offers high resistance and it
acts as open circuit.

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BIPOLAR JUNCTION TRANSISTOR:
A bipolar junction transistor is a three terminal semiconductor device in which
the operation depends on the interaction of majority and minority carriers.
Transistor refers to Transfer Resistor i.e., signals are transferred from low
resistance circuit into high resistance circuit.
BJT consists of silicon crystal in which a layer of ‘N’ type silicon is sandwiched
between two layers of ‘P’ type silicon. The semiconductor sandwiched is extremely
smaller in size.
In other words, it consists of two back to back PN junction joined together to
form single piece of semiconductor crystal. These two junctions gives three region
called Emitter, Base and Collector.
There are two types of transistors such as PNP and NPN. The arrow on the
emitter specifies whether the transistor is PNP or NPN type and also determines
the direction of flow of current, when the emitter base junction is forward biased.

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BIPOLAR JUNCTION TRANSISTOR:

Emitter: It is more heavily doped than any of the other region because its main
function is to supply majority charge carriers to the base.
Base: It forms the middle section of the transistor. It is very thin as compared to
either the emitter or collector and is very lightly doped.
Collector: Its main function is to collect the majority charge carriers coming from
the emitter and passing through the base. In most transistors, collector region is
made physically larger than the emitter because it has to dissipate much greater
power.

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Symbol of BJT:

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Operation of Transistor:

The basic operation will be described using the pnp transistor. The operation of
the pnp transistor is exactly the same if the roles played by the electron and hole
are interchanged.

One p-n junction of a transistor is reverse-biased, whereas the other is forward-

biased.

Both biasing potentials have been applied to a pnp transistor and resulting
majority and minority carrier flows indicated.

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Forward biased junction of PNP transistor:

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Reverse biased junction of PNP transistor:

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Majority carriers (+) will diffuse across the forward-biased p-n junction into the n-
type material.
A very small number of carriers (+) will through n-type material to the base
terminal. Resulting IB is typically in order of microamperes.
The large number of majority carriers will diffuse across the reverse-biased
junction into the p-type material connected to the collector terminal.
Majority carriers can cross the reverse-biased junction because the injected
majority carriers will appear as minority carriers in the n-type material.
Applying KCL to the transistor :
 IE = IC + IB
The comprises of two components – the majority and minority carriers
 IC = ICmajority + ICOminority
ICO – IC current with emitter terminal open and is called leakage current.

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Common Base configuration:

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Common Base configuration:
Common-base terminology is derived from the fact that the :
Base is common to both input and output of the configuration.
Base is usually the terminal closest to or at ground potential.
All current directions will refer to conventional (hole) flow and the arrows in all electronic
symbols have a direction defined by this convention.
Note that the applied biasing (voltage sources) are such as to establish current in the
direction indicated for each branch
To describe the behavior of common-base amplifiers requires two set of characteristics:
Input or driving point characteristics.
Output or collector characteristics
The output characteristics has 3 basic regions:
Active region –defined by the biasing arrangements
Cutoff region – region where the collector current is 0A
Saturation region- region of the characteristics to the left of VCB = 0V
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Input and output characteristics:

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Input and output characteristics:
Input characteristics is drawn between emitter base voltage and
emitter current keeping collectorbase voltage constant

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Common Emitter configuration:

It is called common-emitter configuration since :

Emitter is common or reference to both input and output terminals.

Emitter is usually the terminal closest to or at ground potential.

Almost amplifier design is using connection of CE due to the high gain for current
and voltage.

Two set of characteristics are necessary to describe the behavior for CE; input
(base terminal) and output (collector terminal) parameters.

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Common Emitter configuration:

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Input and output characteristics:

iinii Input np Output

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Input characteristics:

IB in microamperes compared to milliamperes of IC.

IB will flow when VBE > 0.7V for silicon and 0.3V for germanium
Before this value IB is very small and no IB.
Base-emitter junction is forward bias
Increasing VCE will reduce IB for different values.

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Output characteristics:

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Common Collector configuration:

Also called emitter-follower (EF).

It is called common-emitter configuration since both the signal source and the
load share the collector terminal as a common connection point.
The output voltage is obtained at emitter terminal.
The input characteristic of common-collector configuration is similar with
common- emitter. configuration.
Common-collector circuit configuration is provided with the load resistor
connected from emitter to ground.

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Common Collector configuration:

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Input and output characteristics:

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Small Signal Amplifier

When the input signal is so weak as to produce small fluctuations in

the collector current compared to its quiescent value, the amplifier is
known as Small Signal Amplifier.
In other words, as the name indicates, the input applied to the circuit
is Vin << Vth. It has only one amplifying device.


α=IC / IE
IC =IE + ICBO

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Thank you