Semiconductor Device Physics

Lecture 1

Dr.-Ing. Erwin Sitompul

President University

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2 0 2 1
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 Semiconductor Device Physics

Textbook and Syllabus

Textbook:
“Semiconductor Device Fundamentals”,
Robert F. Pierret, International Edition,
Addison Wesley, 1996.
Syllabus:
Chapter 1: Semiconductors: A General Introduction
Chapter 2: Carrier Modeling
Chapter 3: Carrier Action
Chapter 5: pn Junction Electrostatics
Chapter 6: pn Junction Diode: I–V Characteristics
Chapter 7: pn Junction Diode: Small-Signal Admittance
Chapter 8: pn Junction Diode: Transient Response
Chapter 14: MS Contacts and Schottky Diodes
Chapter 9: Optoelectronic Diodes
Chapter 10: BJT Fundamentals
Chapter 11: BJT Static Characteristics
Chapter 12: BJT Dynamic Response Modeling

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 Semiconductor Device Physics

Grade Policy
Final Grade = 10 Handwritten Notes + 10% Homeworks +
20% Quizzes + 25% Midterm Exam +
35% Final Exam + Extra Points
 Submit your attendance to fulfil the requirement given by the
regulation, so that you can pass the course.
 Attendance will be recorded by using Google Form.
 Attendance will be counted. Maximum allowable lateness is
15 minutes.
 Sickness with official proof is counted as attending class.
 Permission for official duty is counted as attending class.

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 Semiconductor Device Physics

Grade Policy
 You are expected to write a note along the lectures to record
your own conclusions or materials which are not covered by
the lecture slides.
 Your handwritten note should be uploaded to the Google Drive
link given to you via Google Classroom.
 To get maximum score, the notes must be uploaded in 6
different days (3 before mid-exam and 3 after mid-exam).
 The acceptable format is JPG or GIF. No PDF.
 The final upload days is 1 day before final exam week
(Sunday, 18 July 2021).

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 Semiconductor Device Physics

Grade Policy
 Homeworks will be given in fairly regular basis. Homework
grades will be averaged. Tests can be given at the beginning of
a class to validate the submitted homeworks.
 Homeworks are to be written on A4 papers, otherwise they will
not be graded.

Semiconductor Device Physics

Homework 2

Ito Chen
009202700008

21 March 2021

D6.2. Answer: . . . . . . . .

• Heading of Homework Papers (Required)

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 Semiconductor Device Physics

Grade Policy
 Homeworks must be submitted on time via Google Classroom.
Late submitted homeworks will not be graded.
 Deadlines:
 Homeworks given on Tuesday  Thursday, 18:30
 Homeworks given on Thursday  Monday, 23:59

 There will be 3 quizzes. Only the best 2 will be counted.

 Make up of quizzes must be requested within one week after
the schedule of the respective quiz.
 Extra points will be given every time you solve a problem in
front of the class or answer a question. You will earn 1 or 2
points.
 Lecture slides are available on the lecture homepage. Please
check regularly.
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 Semiconductor Device Physics

Greek Alphabet

—new
nu
—zz-eye
ksi
—pie
pi

—taw tau

—fie fi
—k-eye
chi
—sigh
—mew psi
miu

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 Semiconductor Device Physics

Chapter 1
Semiconductors: A General Introduction

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 Chapter 1 Semiconductors: A General Introduction

What is a Semiconductor?
 Low resistivity  “conductor”
 High resistivity  “insulator”
 Intermediate resistivity  “semiconductor”

 The conductivity (and at the same time the resistivity) of

semiconductors lie between that of conductors and insulators.

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 Chapter 1 Semiconductors: A General Introduction

What is a Semiconductor?
 Semiconductors are some of the purest solid materials in
existence, because any trace of impurity atoms called “dopants”
can change the electrical properties of semiconductors
drastically.
 Unintentional impurity level:
1 impurity atom per 109 semiconductor atom.
 Intentional impurity ranging from 1 per 108 to 1 per 103.
No recognizable
long-range order
Entire solid is made up of
Completely ordered atoms in an orderly
in segments three- dimensional array

polycrystalline amorphous crystalline

 Most devices fabricated today employ crystalline

semiconductors.

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 Chapter 1 Semiconductors: A General Introduction

Semiconductor Materials

Elemental: Si, Ge, C

Compound: IV-IV SiC

III-V GaAs, GaN
II-VI CdSe

Alloy: Si1-xGex
AlxGa1-xAs

As : Arsenic
Cd : Cadmium
Se : Selenium
Ga : Gallium

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 Semiconductor Device Physics
Lecture 1

Dr.-Ing. Erwin Sitompul

President University

http://zitompul.wordpress.com

2 0 2 1
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 Chapter 1 Semiconductors: A General Introduction

The Silicon Atom

 14 electrons occupying the first 3 energy levels:
 1s, 2s, 2p orbitals are filled by 10 electrons.
 3s, 3p orbitals filled by 4 electrons.

 To minimize the overall energy, the 3s and

3p orbitals hybridize to form four
tetrahedral 3sp orbital.
 Each has one electron and is capable of
forming a bond with a neighboring atom.

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 Chapter 1 Semiconductors: A General Introduction

The Si Crystal
• Each Si atom has 4 nearest
neighbors.
• Atom lattice constant
(length of the unit cell side)
° 1A=10
a = 5.431A, ° –10
m

• Each cell contains:

8 corner atoms
6 face atoms
4 interior atoms

“Diamond Lattice”

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 Chapter 1 Semiconductors: A General Introduction

How Many Silicon Atoms per cm–3?

 Number of atoms in a unit cell:
 4 atoms completely inside cell
 Each of the 8 atoms on corners are shared among 8 cells
 count as 1 atom inside cell
 Each of the 6 atoms on the faces are shared among 2 cells
 count as 3 atoms inside cell
Total number inside the cell = 4 + 1 + 3 = 8

 Cell volume = (.543 nm)3 = 1.6 x 10–22 cm3

 Density of silicon atom
= (8 atoms) / (cell volume)
= 5 × 1022 atoms/cm3
• What is density of
silicon in g/cm3?

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 Chapter 1 Semiconductors: A General Introduction

Compound Semiconductors

 “Zincblende” structure
 III-V compound semiconductors: GaAs, GaP, GaN, etc.

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 Chapter 1 Semiconductors: A General Introduction

Crystallographic Notation
Miller Indices Notation Interpretation
(hkl) crystal plane
{hkl} equivalent planes
[hkl] crystal direction
<hkl> equivalent directions

h: inverse x-intercept of plane

k: inverse y-intercept of plane
l: inverse z-intercept of plane
(h, k and l are reduced to 3
integers having the same ratio.)

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 Chapter 1 Semiconductors: A General Introduction

Crystallographic Planes

_
(632) plane (001) plane (221) plane

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 Chapter 1 Semiconductors: A General Introduction

Crystallographic Planes

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 Chapter 1 Semiconductors: A General Introduction

Crystallographic Planes of Si Wafers

 Silicon wafers are usually cut along a {100} plane with a flat or
notch to orient the wafer during integrated-circuit fabrication.
 The facing surface is polished and etched yielding mirror-like
finish.

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 Chapter 1 Semiconductors: A General Introduction

Crystal Growth Until Device Fabrication

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 Semiconductor Device Physics
Lecture 1

Dr.-Ing. Erwin Sitompul

President University

http://zitompul.wordpress.com

2 0 2 1
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 Semiconductor Device Physics

Chapter 2
Carrier Modeling

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 Chapter 2 Carrier Modeling

Electronic Properties of Si
 Silicon is a semiconductor material.
 Pure Si has a relatively high electrical resistivity at room
temperature.
 There are 2 types of mobile charge-carriers in Si:
 Conduction electrons are negatively charged,
e = –1.602  10–19 C
 Holes are positively charged,
p = +1.602  10–19 C

 The concentration (number of atom/cm3) of conduction

electrons & holes in a semiconductor can be influenced in
several ways:
 Adding special impurity atoms (dopants)
 Applying an electric field
 Changing the temperature
 Irradiation

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 Chapter 2 Carrier Modeling

Bond Model of Electrons and Holes

 2-D Representation
Si Si Si

Si Si Si

Si Si Si

Hole
 When an electron breaks
loose and becomes a Si Si Si
conduction electron, then a
hole is created.
Si Si Si
Conduction
Si Si Si electron

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 Chapter 2 Carrier Modeling

What is a Hole?
 A hole is a positive charge associated with a half-filled covalent
bond.
 A hole is treated as a positively charged mobile particle in the
semiconductor.

 

  

  

  

 


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 Chapter 2 Carrier Modeling

Conduction Electron and Hole of Pure Si

• Covalent (shared e–) bonds exists

between Si atoms in a crystal.
• Since the e– are loosely bound,
some will be free at any T,
creating hole-electron pairs.

ni = intrinsic carrier ni ≈ 1010 cm–3 at room temperature

concentration
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 Chapter 2 Carrier Modeling

Si: From Atom to Crystal

Energy states
(in Si atom)

Energy bands
(in Si crystal)

• The highest mostly-filled

band is the valence band.
• The lowest mostly-empty
band is the conduction band.

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 Chapter 2 Carrier Modeling

Energy Band Diagram

Electron energy Ec
EG, band gap energy

Ev

• For Silicon at 300 K, EG = 1.12 eV

• 1 eV = 1.6 x 10–19 J

 Simplified version of energy band model, indicating:

 Lowest possible conduction band energy (Ec)
 Highest possible valence band energy (Ev)
 Ec and Ev are separated by the band gap energy EG.

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 Semiconductor Device Physics
Lecture 1

Dr.-Ing. Erwin Sitompul

President University

http://zitompul.wordpress.com

2 0 2 1
President University Erwin Sitompul SDP 1/30
 Chapter 2 Carrier Modeling

Carriers

 Completely filled or empty bands do not allow current flow,

because no carriers available.
 Broken covalent bonds produce carriers (electrons and holes)
and make current flow possible.
 The excited electron moves from valence band to conduction
band.
 Conduction band is not completely empty anymore.
 Valence band is not completely filled anymore.
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 Chapter 2 Carrier Modeling

Band Gap and Material Classification

Ec Ev
Ec
EG= ~8 eV
Ec
EG = 1.12 eV Ec
Ev Ev Ev

SiO2 Si Metal

 Insulators have large band gap EG.

 Semiconductors have relatively small band gap EG.
 Metals have very narrow band gap EG .
 Even, in some cases conduction band is partially filled,
Ev > Ec.

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 Chapter 2 Carrier Modeling

Carrier Numbers in Intrinsic Material

 More new notations are presented now:
n : number of electrons/cm3
p : number of holes/cm3
 ni : intrinsic carrier concentration
 In a pure semiconductor, n = p = ni.
 At room temperature,
ni = 2  106 /cm3 in GaAs
ni = 1  1010 /cm3 in Si
ni = 2  1013 /cm3 in Ge

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 Chapter 2 Carrier Modeling

Homework 1
 1.
The unit eV (electron-volt) is a unit of energy, representing the energy
gained by an electron passing through a 1-V potential difference in vacuum.
(a) Find out the formulas which can explain the relation between eV and
Joule; (b) Determine the conversion factor; (c) What is 4 eV in Joules?

 2.
(N0.4)
The lattice constant of silicon is 5.43 A, with the shape of diamond-lattice.
Calculate (a) the distance between the centers of two neighboring silicon
atoms; (b) the number density of silicon atoms (number of atoms per cm3);
(c) the mass density (grams per cm3) of silicon.
 Always try to understand the homework that you write. Ask questions if you
have problems.

 Deadline:
 Homeworks given on Tuesday  Thursday, 18:30
 Homeworks given on Thursday  Monday, 23:59

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