EE 121B / Winter 2008 / Prof. Chui Homework #01, p.

EE 121B Principles of Semiconductor Device Design

Winter 2008 Homework#1
(Due Date: Jan 22nd, 2008, 2pm)

Physical constants:
I. Electronic charge = 1.60 × 10-19 C
II. Vacuum Permittivity = 8.85 × 10-14 F/cm
III. Boltzmann constant = 8.62 × 10-5 eV/K
IV. Planck constant = 6.63 × 10-34 J-s
V. Electron mass in vacuum = 9.10 × 10-31 kg

General assumptions in all problems unless specifically stated otherwise:

I. Temperature = 300 K
II. Semiconductor = Silicon
a. Intrinsic carrier concentration ≈ 1 × 1010 cm-3
b. Permittivity = 11.8

Wb

P N P
(Nae) (Ndb) (Nac)

Emitter Base Collector

-3
Doping (cm ) 1019 1017 1015
Minority Carrier Lifetime (s) 10-6 10-5 10-4
Minority Carrier Diffusion Coefficient (cm2/s) 10 14 16

Figure 1

1) For the PNP BJT shown in Fig. 1 with Wb = 3 µm that is maintained under equilibrium,
a) Sketch as a function of position inside the BJT:
i) The energy band diagram together with the Fermi level positions,
ii) The electrostatic potential, setting V = 0 in the emitter region
iii) The electric field, and
iv) The charge density
b) Calculate the potential difference between the collector and emitter
c) Determine the neutral base width
d) Calculate the maximum magnitude of the electric fields in the E-B and C-B depletion
regions
EE 121B / Winter 2008 / Prof. Chui Homework #01, p.2

2) For the same BJT in 1), with a 0.5 V forward bias and 10.0 V reverse bias respectively
applied across the emitter-base and collector-base junction,
a) Plot the excess carrier density in the base region
b) Calculate:
i) The emitter injection efficiency,
ii) The base transport factor,
iii) The common base current gain, and
iv) The common emitter current gain
c) Repeat a) and b) if the minority carrier lifetime in base becomes 10-9 s; Identify and
explain any difference(s) observed

3) The expression for the excess minority carrier density in the neutral base region was derived
in terms of hyperbolic functions. Show under appropriate conditions that,
a) It becomes a linear function, and
b) It becomes an exponentially decaying function