Semiconductors, diodes, transistors

(Horst Wahl, QuarkNet presentation, June 2001)

● Electrical conductivity
 Energy bands in solids
 Band structure and conductivity
● Semiconductors
 Intrinsic semiconductors
 Doped semiconductors
 n-type materials

 p-type materials

● Diodes and transistors

 p-n junction
 depletion region
 forward biased p-n junction
 reverse biased p-n junction
 diode
 bipolar transistor
 operation of bipolar pnp transistor
 FET
 ELECTRICAL CONDUCTIVITY
● in order of conductivity: superconductors,
conductors, semiconductors, insulators
 conductors: material capable of carrying electric
current, i.e. material which has “mobile charge
carriers” (e.g. electrons, ions,..)
e.g. metals, liquids with ions (water, molten ionic
compounds), plasma
 insulators: materials with no or very few free charge
carriers; e.g. quartz, most covalent and ionic solids,
plastics
 semiconductors: materials with conductivity between
that of conductors and insulators; e.g. germanium Ge,
silicon Si, GaAs, GaP, InP
 superconductors: certain materials have zero
resistivity at very low temperature.
● some representative resistivities (ρ):
 R = ρL/A, R = resistance, L = length, A = cross section area;
resistivity at 20o C
resistivity in Ω m resistance(in Ω)(L=1m, diam =1mm)
 aluminum 2.8x10-8 3.6x10-2
 brass ≈8x10-8 10.1x10-2
 copper 1.7x10-8 2.2x10-2
 platinum 10x10-8 12.7x10-2
 silver 1.6x10-8 2.1x10-2
 carbon 3.5x10-5 44.5
 germanium 0.45 5.7x105
 silicon ≈ 640 ≈ 6x108
 porcelain 1010 - 1012 1016 - 1018
 teflon 1014 1020
 blood 1.5 1.9x106
 fat 24 3x107
 ENERGY BANDS IN SOLIDS:

 In solid materials, electron energy levels form bands of

allowed energies, separated by forbidden bands
 valence band = outermost (highest) band filled with
electrons (“filled” = all states occupied)
 conduction band = next highest band to valence band
(empty or partly filled)
 “gap” = energy difference between valence and
conduction bands, = width of the forbidden band
 Note:
 electrons in a completely filled band cannot move,

since all states occupied (Pauli principle); only way

to move would be to “jump” into next higher band -
needs energy;
 electrons in partly filled band can move, since

there are free states to move to.

 Classification of solids into three types, according to
their band structure:
 insulators: gap = forbidden region between highest

filled band (valence band) and lowest empty or

partly filled band (conduction band) is very wide,
about 3 to 6 eV;
 semiconductors: gap is small - about 0.1 to 1 eV;

 conductors: valence band only partially filled, or (if

it is filled), the next allowed empty band overlaps
with it
Band structure and conductivity
INTRINSIC SEMICONDUCTORS
 semiconductor = material for which gap between
valence band and conduction band is small;
(gap width in Si is 1.1 eV, in Ge 0.7 eV).
 at T = 0, there are no electrons in the conduction band,
and the semiconductor does not conduct (lack of free
charge carriers);
 at T > 0, some fraction of electrons have sufficient
thermal kinetic energy to overcome the gap and jump
to the conduction band;
fraction rises with temperature;
e.g. at 20o C (293 K), Si has 0.9x1010 conduction
electrons per cubic centimeter; at 50o C (323 K) there
are 7.4x1010 .
 electrons moving to conduction band leave “hole”
(covalent bond with missing electron) behind;
under influence of applied electric field, neighboring
electrons can jump into the hole, thus creating a new
hole, etc. ⇒ holes can move under the influence of
an applied electric field, just like electrons;
both contribute to conduction.
 in pure Si and Ge, there are equally many holes (“p-
type charge carriers”) as there are conduction
electrons (“n-type charge carriers”);
 pure semiconductors also called “intrinsic
semiconductors”.
● Intrinsic silicon:

● DOPED SEMICONDUCTORS:
 “doped semiconductor”: (also “impure”, “extrinsic”) =
semiconductor with small admixture of trivalent or
pentavalent atoms;
 n-type material

 donor (n-type) impurities:

 dopant with 5 valence electrons (e.g. P, As, Sb)

 4 electrons used for covalent bonds with

surrounding Si atoms, one electron “left over”;

 left over electron is only loosely bound⇒ only small

amount of energy needed to lift it into conduction
band (0.05 eV in Si)
 ⇒ “n-type semiconductor”, has conduction
electrons, no holes (apart from the few intrinsic
holes)
 example: doping fraction
of 10-8 Sb in Si yields about 5x1016 conduction
electrons per cubic centimeter at room
temperature, i.e. gain of 5x106 over intrinsic Si.
 p-type material

 acceptor (p-type) impurities:

 dopant with 3 valence electrons (e.g. B, Al, Ga,

In) ⇒ only 3 of the 4 covalent bonds filled ⇒

vacancy in the fourth covalent bond ⇒ hole

 “p-type semiconductor”, has mobile holes, very

few mobile electrons (only the intrinsic ones).

 advantages of doped semiconductors:

 can”tune” conductivity by choice of doping

fraction
 can choose “majority carrier” (electron or hole)

 can vary doping fraction and/or majority carrier

within piece of semiconductor
 can make “p-n junctions” (diodes) and
“transistors”
 DIODES AND TRANSISTORS
 p-n JUNCTION:
 p-n junction = semiconductor in which impurity

changes abruptly from p-type to n-type ;

 “diffusion” = movement due to difference in

concentration, from higher to lower concentration;

 in absence of electric field across the junction,

holes “diffuse” towards and across boundary into n-
type and capture electrons;
 electrons diffuse across boundary, fall into holes
(“recombination of majority carriers”);
⇒ formation of a “depletion region”
(= region without free charge carriers)
around the boundary;
 charged ions are left behind (cannot move):
 negative ions left on p-side ⇒ net negative charge on
p-side of the junction;
 positive ions left on n-side ⇒ net positive charge on
n-side of the junction
 ⇒ electric field across junction which prevents
further diffusion.
 Pn junction
● Formation of depletion region in pn-junction:
 DIODE
 diode = “biased p-n junction”, i.e. p-n junction with
voltage applied across it
 “forward biased”: p-side more positive than n-side;
 “reverse biased”: n-side more positive than p-side;

 forward biased diode:

 the direction of the electric field is from p-side

towards n-side
 ⇒ p-type charge carriers (positive holes) in p-

side are pushed towards and across the p-n

boundary,
 n-type carriers (negative electrons) in n-side

are pushed towards and across n-p boundary

⇒ current flows across p-n boundary

 Forward biased pn-junction

● Depletion region and potential barrier reduced

 Reverse biased diode
 reverse biased diode: applied voltage makes n-side
more positive than p-side
⇒ electric field direction is from n-side towards
p-side
⇒ pushes charge carriers away from the
p-n boundary
⇒ depletion region widens, and no
current flows

 diode only conducts when positive voltage applied

to p-side and negative voltage to n-side
 diodes used in “rectifiers”, to convert ac voltage to
dc.
 Reverse biased diode

● Depletion region becomes wider,

barrier potential higher
 TRANSISTORS
 (bipolar) transistor = combination of two diodes
that share middle portion, called “base” of
transistor; other two sections: “emitter'' and
“collector”;
 usually, base is very thin and lightly doped.
 two kinds of bipolar transistors: pnp and npn
transistors
 “pnp” means emitter is p-type, base is n-type, and
collector is p-type material;
 in “normal operation of pnp transistor, apply
positive voltage to emitter, negative voltage to
collector;
 operation of pnp transistor:

 if emitter-base junction is forward biased, “holes

flow” from battery into emitter, move into base;

 some holes annihilate with electrons in n-type base,

but base thin and lightly doped ⇒ most holes make it
through base into collector,
 holes move through collector into negative terminal
of battery; i.e. “collector current” flows whose size
depends on how many holes have been captured by
electrons in the base;
 this depends on the number of n-type carriers in the
base which can be controlled by the size of the
current (the “base current”) that is allowed to flow
from the base to the emitter; the base current is
usually very small; small changes in the base current
can cause a big difference in the collector current;
 Transistor operation
 transistor acts as amplifier of base current, since
small changes in base current cause big changes
in collector current.
 transistor as switch: if voltage applied to base is such
that emitter-base junction is reverse-biased, no
current flows through transistor -- transistor is “off”
 therefore, a transistor can be used as a voltage-
controlled switch; computers use transistors in this
way.

● “field-effect transistor” (FET)

 in a pnp FET, current flowing through a thin channel of
n-type material is controlled by the voltage (electric
field) applied to two pieces of p-type material on
either side of the channel (current depends on electric
field).

 Many different kinds of FETs

 FETs are the kind of transistor most commonly used in
computers.