BEEE Unit IV
BEEE Unit IV
Conductor:
Conductors are the substances that permit easy flow of electric
current through them.
• It permits easy flow of electron from an atom to the other when a
proper electric field is applied to it.
•The conductors have very low electrical
resistance Eg. Copper, Silver, Al,
• Conductors are the materials that exhibit a positive temperature
coefficient of resistance, as resistance increases with the
increase in temperature
Energy level diagram of conductors:
As the two bands i.e., valence band and conduction band are overlapped with
each other. Thus when some certain voltage is applied to such materials, then
electrons easily moves from valence band to conduction band due to the
influence of the electric field.
This movement of charge carriers generates a large electric
current through the device.
Semiconductor:
Semiconductors are the materials that possess the property of
electrical conductivity less than conductors.
The charge carriers in case of semiconductors are electrons and
holes.
When the temperature is absolute zero, then no any movement of
charge carriers takes place in case of semiconductors. In such case,
it behaves as insulators.
Eg. Germanium (Ge) and Silicon (Si)
Semiconductors possess negative temperature coefficient of
resistance as their resistivity decreases with the increase in
temperature.
Energy level diagram of semiconductors:
This large band gap does not allow the electrons to jump into the conduction
band. Hence, the current flow is not possible.
The band gap in case of the insulator is larger as compared to both conductors
and insulators.
Insulators, Conductors, Semiconductors
from energy band structures
Parameter Conductor Semiconductor Insulator
Forbidden energy gap Not exist Small (1 eV) Large (>5 eV)
Conductivity High Medium Very Low (Almost
negligible)
Resistivity Low Moderate High
Flow of current Due to movement of Due to movement of Almost negligible but
free electrons. electrons and holes. only due to free
electrons.
Temperature coefficient Positive Negative Negative
of resistance
Charge carriers in Completely filled Partially filled Completely vacant
conduction band
Charge carriers in Almost vacant Partially filled Completely filled
valence band
Example Copper, Aluminium, Silicon, Germanium, Paper, rubber, glass,
graphite etc. arsenic etc. plastic etc.
The figure above clearly shows that silicon consists of 4 electrons in the valence
shell. Here, 4 covalent bonds are formed between the electrons of the silicon atom.
Electric conduction:
Phosphorous
A pentavalent impurity is doped to a pure silicon crystal. In this case,
4 electrons of phosphorus are covalently bonded with the adjacent
silicon atom. But, still, a free electron is left in this case.
Thus, the movement of these free electrons generates high
conduction.
n-type extrinsic semiconductor has electrons as the majority charge
carrier.
2.P-type semiconductor
• The p-type semiconductors are formed by doping group III
elements or trivalent impurity into the pure semiconductor.
• These are also known as an acceptor impurity, as a trivalent
impurity has only 3 electrons in the valence shell.
• Eg. Boron, Gallium, Aluminium etc.
• Group III dopants are the atoms with a hole in their valence
shell
(only “missing” one electron).
• In an p-type semiconductor, the majority carrier is the hole,
and the
minority carrier is the electron.
2.P-type semiconductor
Aluminium
3 valence electrons of aluminium atom make covalent bonds with 3 electrons
of silicon. However, in this case, a vacancy of an electron (or a hole) appears.
The movement of this hole is mainly responsible for the conduction in the
p- type semiconductor to take place.
Summary of Charge Carriers
• The dominant charge carriers in a doped semiconductor (e.g.
electrons in n-type material) are called majority charge carriers.
Other type are minority charge carriers
• The overall doped material is electrically neutral
n-type versus p-type
In n-type - the electrons are the majority carriers and holes are the
minority carriers.
In p-type - the holes are called the majority carriers and
electrons are the minority carriers.
The p-n Junction
• When p-type and n-type materials are joined this
forms a p-n junction
Unbiased p-n junction:
When the two types of semiconductor materials are joined together, the
electrons from the n-type material diffuse into p-type material and combines
with holes.
This creates a layer of negative ions near the junction in p-type material.
Similarly the holes from the p-type material diffuse into n-type material
resulting in a layer of positive ions in the n-type material.
These two layers of positive and negative ions form the depletion region.
This p-n junction is nothing but a
layer of immobile ions termed as
depletion layer.
• The diffusion of positive
charge in one direction
and negative charge in
the other produces a
charge imbalance
– this results in a potential
barrier across the
junction
Diode
Definition: An electronic component made of semiconductor material
that allows conduction of current in only one direction is termed as a
Diode.
The p region is called anode and n type region is called cathode
p n
Depletio
n region
When forward biasing is applied.
The holes in the p side experience
a repulsive force from the positive
terminal. Similarly, electrons
experience a repulsion from the
negative terminal of the supply
provided.
The barrier potential offered
Reverse bias:
If the p-type side is made negative with respect to the n-type side the height
of the barrier is increased
In the reverse biased condition p side is connected to the negative terminal of
the supply and n side is connected with the positive terminal. Then the device is
said to be reverse biased.
When a reverse potential is applied the holes
from the p side experience attraction from the
negative terminal. And electrons in n side
experiences attraction from the positive
terminal of the supply provided.
Due to this, the majority carriers present in
both the side move in the direction away from
the junction. This broadens the width of the
depletion region and hence the potential
barrier is increased.
This takes the device to a non-conducting
state.
PN-Junction Diode Characteristics
Forward Bias --- External battery makes the Anode more positive than the
Cathode --- Current flows in the direction of the arrow in the symbol.
Reverse Bias --- External battery makes the Cathode more positive than the
Anode --- A tiny current flows opposite to the arrow in the symbol.
29
Diode Current
The diode as a function of the voltage applied across it.
Mathematically the diode current equation can be expressed as:
where
Whenever a load is connected in parallel with zener diode, voltage across the load is
same as the zener diode voltage.
Zener Diodes have a sharp reverse breakdown voltage and breakdown voltage will
be constant for a wide rang of currents.
The reverse bias voltage across the zener diode exceeds the knee voltage, the
voltage across the load will be constant.
Zener vs. Avalanche Breakdown
34
Zener breakdown Avalanche breakdown
1. Breakdown is due to intense 1. Breakdown is due to the collision
electric field across the junction of accelerated charge carriers with
the adjacent atoms
2. Occurs for zeners with zener
2. Occurs for zeners with zener
voltage less than 6V
voltage more than 6V
3. Negative temperature 3. Positive temperature coefficient
coefficient
4. The breakdown voltage 4. The breakdown voltage increases
decreases as junction as junction temperature increases
temperature increases 5. It occurs in diodes that are lightly
5. It occurs in diodes that are highly doped.
doped. 6. The VI characteristic curve of the
6. The VI characteristics of a Zener avalanche breakdown is not as
breakdown has a sharp curve. harp
s as the Zener breakdown.
Basis For Comparison PN Junction Diode Zener Diode
Reverse Current Effect Damage the junction. Do not damage the junction.
Doping Level Low High
Breakdown Occurs in higher voltage. Occur in lower voltage.
Ohms Law Obey Do not obey.
Applications For rectification Voltage stabilizer, motor
protection and wave shaping.
Rectifier Circuits
𝐷𝐶 𝑝𝑜𝑤𝑒𝑟
𝜂=
𝑑𝑒𝑙𝑖𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑒𝑑
𝐴𝐶 𝑝𝑜𝑤𝑒𝑟
𝑅𝑀𝑆
𝐹𝑜𝑟𝑚 𝑣𝑎𝑙𝑢𝑒
𝐴𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑔𝑒
Peak Inverse Voltage: The maximum amount of reverse bias that a diode will be
exposed to is called the peak inverse voltage or PIV.
The load sees a reasonably constant DC voltage now, with a ripple voltage on top of it.
2. Full wave Rectifier
The transformer has a centre-tapped secondary winding. The voltage from the
centre tap to either end terminal on this winding is equal to one half of the total
voltage measured end-to-end.
During the positive half-cycle, the upper diode is forward-biased and the lower
diode is reverse-biased.
During the negative half-cycle, the lower diode is forward-biased and the
upper
diode is reverse-biased
When one of the diodes in a full-wave rectifier
is reverse biased, the peak voltage across that
diode will be approximately equal to 2Vm.
During both the positive and negative half cycles, the diode pair will be in forward biased
condition and the capacitor gets charged as well as the load gets supply. The interval of
the instantaneous voltage at which the stored energy in capacitor is higher than the
instantaneous voltage the capacitor supplies the stored energy in it. The more the energy
storage capacity the lesser the ripple in the output waveform.
Bridge Rectifier
• The Bridge Full-Wave rectifier uses four diodes connected across the
entire secondary as shown
As the current flowing through the load is unidirectional, so the voltage developed across
the load is also unidirectional the same as for the previous two diode full-wave rectifier.
The voltage obtained across the load resistor of the full-wave bridge rectifier
described above has a large amount of ripple. A capacitor filter may be added to
smoothen the ripple in the output, as shown below.
MOSFET
• The MOSFET (Metal Oxide Semiconductor Field Effect Transistor)
transistor is a semiconductor device which is widely used
for switching and amplifying electronic signals in the electronic
devices.
• MOSFET is a voltage controlled field effect transistor.
MOSFET
Depletion MOSFET has the ability to work at both positive and negative gate potential.
With a negative gate voltage, the negative charges on the gate repel conduction electrons
from the channel, leaving positive ions in their place. Thereby, the n channel is depleted
of some of its electrons, thus decreasing the channel conductivity.
This increases the channel resistance which resultantly reduces the drain current.
Saturation Region:
In the saturation or linear region, the transistor will be biased so that the maximum amount
of gate voltage is applied to the device which results in the channel resistance RDS being as
small as possible with maximum drain current owing through the MOSFET switch. Therefore
for the enhancement type MOSFET the conductive channel is open and the device is switched
“ON”.
MOSFET as an amplifier
An amplifier is an electronics device which raises the strength of a weak signal.
MOSFET is an excellent choice for small signal linear amplifiers because of its extremely
high input impedance which makes them easy to bias. For linear amplification, it has to
operate in its saturation region.
When signal (Vin) is applied, Vgs swings above and below its zero value , producing a swing in
drain current Id .
A small change in gate voltage produces a large change in drain current. This fact makes
MOSFET capable of raising the strength of a weak signal; thus acting as an amplifier.
During the positive half-cycle of the signal, the positive voltage on the gate increases and
produces the enhancement-mode .This increases the channel conductivity and hence the
drain current .
During the negative half-cycle of the signal, the positive voltage decreases and produces
depletion-mode. This decreases the conductivity and hence the drain current .
The result of above action is that a small change in gate voltage produces a large change in
the drain current.
This large variation in drain current produces a large a.c. output voltage across drain
resistance RD .
In this way, D-MOSFET acts as an amplifier .