B.

TECH FIRST YEAR

ACADEMIC YEAR: 2020-2021

Course name: Basic Electronics

Course code : EC 1001
lecture series no : 02 (Two)
Credits : 3
Mode of delivery : online (Power point presentation)
Faculty : Dr. Tejpal
Email-id : [email protected]
PROPOSED DATE OF DELIVERY:
 “Understanding of Doping,
Session outcome Intrinsic and extrinsic
semiconductors ”
 Assignment
quiz
mid term examination –I
mid term examination –II
Assessment criteria’S
END TERM EXAMINATION
 PROGRAM
OUTCOMES
MAPPING WITH CO1
[[EC1001.1]. Apply principles of physics
to describe the working of semiconductor
devices. ]

[PO1]

Engineering knowledge: Demonstrate and apply

knowledge of Mathematics, Science, and Engineering to
classical and recent problems of electronic design &
communication system.
Introduction to Semiconductors
Objective of the lecture: Understand intrinsic
and extrinsic semiconductor behaviour, know how
to affect this behaviour through doping.
 Electrons and Holes
Si and Ge are tetravalent elements – each atom of Si (Ge) has 4
valence electrons in crystal matrix

T=0 all electrons are bound in For T> 0 thermal fluctuations can
covalent bonds break electrons free creating
electron-hole pairs
no carriers available for
conduction. Both can move throughout the lattice
and therefore conduct current.
 Electrons and Holes
For T>0
some electrons in the valence band receive
enough thermal energy to be excited
across the band gap to the conduction
band.
The result is a material with some electrons
in an otherwise empty conduction band
and some unoccupied states in an
otherwise filled valence band.
An empty state in the valence band is
referred to as a hole.
Electron-hole pairs in a semiconductor.
If the conduction band electron and the
The bottom of the conduction band
denotes as Ec and the top of the valence hole are created by the excitation of a
band denotes as Ev. valence band electron to the conduction
band, they are called an electron-hole
pair (EHP).
 Silicon Lattice Structure
At 0K, all Free electron
electrons
are tightly
- - - - Vacancy
shared with - Si -- Si -- Si - - Si - left by
neighbours - - - - electron.
- - - -
 no - on
Si Overall
current - Si- - - Si - - Si - Si - charge
-
flow silicon is
- - - - zero 
- - - - this “hole”
- Si - - Si - - Si - - -Si +- - Si - must be
-
- -- - - - - positive
- -
- S i- - -S i - - S i -+- S i
- -- - -
Shares electrons
-
- S i - with 4 neighbouring
atoms  8
-
electrons in outer
shell
Adding heat (even to room
temperature) allows some bonds to
 Intrinsic Material
A perfect semiconductor crystal with no impurities or lattice defects is called an
intrinsic semiconductor.

At T=0 K – At T>0
No charge carriers Electron-hole pairs(EHPs) are
Valence band is filled with electrons generated
Conduction band is empty
EHPs are the only charge carriers in
intrinsic material

Since electron and holes are created in

pairs – the electron concentration in
conduction band, n (electron/cm3) is
equal to the concentration of holes in the
valence band, p (holes/cm3).
Each of these intrinsic carrier
concentrations is denoted ni.
Thus for intrinsic materials n=p=ni

Electron-hole pairs in the covalent

bonding model in the Si crystal.
 Intrinsic Material
• At a given temperature there is a certain concentration of electron-hole pairs ni. If a
steady state carrier concentration is maintained, there must be recombination of EHPs at the
same rate at which they are generated. Recombination occurs when an electron in the conduction
band makes a transition to an empty state (hole) in the valence band, thus annihilating the pair.
If we denote the generation rate of EHPs as gi (EHP/cm3·s) and the recombination rate as ri,
equilibrium requires that
ri = gi
• Each of these rates is temperature dependent. For example, gi(T) increases when the
temperature is raised, and a new carrier concentration ni is established such that the higher
recombination rate ri (T) just balances generation. At any temperature, we can predict that the
rate of recombination of electrons and holes ri, is proportional to the equilibrium
concentration of electrons n0 and the concentration of holes p0:

ri = r n0 p0 =  r ni 2 = gi
• The factor r is a constant of proportionality which depends on the
particular mechanism by which recombination takes place.
 Increasing conductivity by temperature
As temperature increases, the number of free electrons and
holes created increases exponentially.
17 Carrier Concentration vs Temp (in Si)
1 10
16
1 10
15
1 10
14
1 10
13
1 10
Intrinsic Concentration (cm^-3)
12
1 10
11
1 10
ni 10
T 1 10
9
1 10
8
1 10
7
1 10
6
1 10
5
1 10
4
1 10
3
1 10
1
0 250 300 350 400 450 500
0
1 T
5 Temperature (K)
Therefore the conductivity of a semiconductor is influenced by
0
2
temperature 0
0
 Increasing conductivity
• The conductivity of the semiconductor material increases when the
temperature increases.
• This is because the application of heat makes it possible for some
electrons in the valence band to move to the conduction band.
• Obviously the more heat applied the higher the number of electrons
that can gain the required energy to make the conduction band
transition and become available as charge carriers.
• This is how temperature affects the carrier concentration.

• Another way to increase the number of charge carriers is to add

them in from an external source.
• Doping or implant is the term given to a process whereby one
element is injected with atoms of another element in order to
change its properties.
• Semiconductors (Si or Ge) are typically doped with elements such as
Boron, Arsenic and Phosphorous to change and enhance their
electrical properties.
 Extrinsic Material
By doping, a crystal can be altered so that it has a predominance of either
electrons or holes. Thus there are two types of doped semiconductors, n-type
(mostly electrons) and p-type (mostly holes). When a crystal is doped such that
the equilibrium carrier concentrations n0 and po are different from the intrinsic
carrier concentration ni, the material is said to be extrinsic.

When impurities or lattice

Donor impurities (elements of defects are introduced,
group V): P, Sb, As additional levels are created
Acceptor elements (group III): B, Al, in the energy bands
Ga, In structure, usually within the
band gap.
Total number of electrons
III – Al – 13
IV – Si –
The valence and conduction bands 14
of silicon with additional impurity
energy levels within the energy gap. V- P-
15
Extrinsic Material – donation of electrons
An impurity from group V introduces an
n-type material energy level very near the conduction band
in Ge or Si. This level is filled with electrons
at 0 K, and very little thermal energy is
required to excite these electrons to the
conduction band. Thus, at about 50-100 K
nearly all of the electrons in the impurity
level are "donated" to the conduction band.
Such an impurity level is called a donor level,
and the group V impurities in Ge or Si are
called donor impurities. From figure we note
that the material doped with donor
impurities can have a considerable
concentration of electrons in the conduction
band, even when the temperature is too low
for the intrinsic EHP concentration to be
Donation of electrons from
appreciable. Thus semiconductors doped
a donor level to the
with a significant number of donor atoms
conduction band
will have n0>>(ni,p0) at room temperature.
This is n-type material.
Extrinsic Material – acceptance of electrons

P-type material Atoms from group III (B, Al, Ga, and
In) introduce impurity levels in Ge or Si
near the valence band. These levels are
empty of electrons at 0 K. At low
temperatures, enough thermal energy is
available to excite electrons from the
valence band into the impurity level,
leaving behind holes in the valence band.
Since this type of impurity level
"accepts" electrons from the valence
band, it is called an acceptor level, and
the group III impurities are acceptor
impurities in Ge and Si. As figure
Acceptance of valence band indicates, doping with acceptor
electrons by an acceptor level, impurities can create a semiconductor
and the resulting creation of with a hole concentration p0 much
holes. greater than the conduction band
electron concentration n0 (this is p-
type material).
Donor and acceptors in covalent bonding model
In the covalent bonding model, donor and acceptor
atoms can be visualized as shown in the Figure. An Sb
atom (group V) in the Si lattice has the four necessary
valence electrons to complete the covalent bonds with
the neighboring Si atoms, plus one extra electron. This
fifth electron does not fit into the bonding structure
of the lattice and is therefore loosely bound to the Sb
atom. A small amount of thermal energy enables this
extra electron to overcome its coulombic binding to
the impurity atom and be donated to the lattice as a
whole. Thus it is free toparticipate in current
conduction. This process is a qualitative model of the
excitation of electrons out of a donor level and into
the conduction band. Similarly, the group III impurity
Al has only three valence electrons to contribute to
Donor and acceptor atoms the covalent bonding, thereby leaving one bond
in the covalent bonding incomplete. With a small amount of thermal energy,
model of a Si crystal. this incomplete bond can be transferred to other
atoms as the bonding electrons exchange positions.
 Increasing conductivity by doping

- - -S -
- S i -- S i -+- i
- - -
- Si-
- -- - - -- + -
- S i - - AS si - - S i -+ - S i
- - -
- -- S i -
- -
-- - -- -- - -
-
- AS-- si - - S i - --
- - - - -
-
- S i - A-S-Ssi i ----SSi--i +- S i-- S-i -
- - - - -
• Inject Arsenic into the crystal with -
an implant
Si step.
- - in its outer shell, (one more than
• Arsenic is Group5 element with 5 electrons
silicon). -
• This introduces extra electrons into the lattice which can be released through
the application of heat and so produces and electron current
• The result here is an N-type semiconductor (n for negative current carrier)
 Increasing conductivity by doping
- - - -
Si -
- S i - - -+ -
S i S i -
- - - - - - + - -
- -
- Si - - S i - -- S i -+- S i
- - - -
- Si - Si - - SBi - -- -S Sii - -- -SBi
- - - -
-- --
- -
-+- + - -
- S- i - -- -S Bi - -- - +- S i
+ - -+-
- - -
-+ - S i - S i -
- - with an implant step.
• Inject Boron into the crystal
-
• Boron is Group3 element is has 3 electrons in its outer shell (one less than silicon)
• This introduces holes into the lattice which can be made mobile by applying heat. This
gives us a hole current
• The result is a P-type semiconductor (p for positive current carrier)
 n-Type and p-Type materials
n-Type Material
n-Type materials are created by
adding elements with five valence
electrons such as antimony, arsenic,
and phosphorous.

There is a fifth electron due to

the (Sb) atom that is relatively
free to move in the n-Type
material.

The atoms (in this case is

antimony (Sb)) are called donor
Doping with Sb, (antimony) atoms.
 n-Type and p-Type materials
n-Type Material

The free electrons due to the added atoms have higher energy
levels and require less energy to move to conduction band.
 n-Type and p-Type materials
p-Type Material p-Type materials are created by
adding atoms with three valence
electrons such as boron, gallium,
and indium.
In this case, an insufficient
number of electrons to complete
the covalent bonds.
The resulting vacancy is called a
“hole” represented by small circle
or plus sign indicating absence of a
negative charge.
The atoms (in this case boron(B))
Boron (B) are called acceptor atoms.