Fundamental Part

1. Explain the photoelectric effect.

A: The photoelectric effect occurs when matter emits electrons upon exposure to electromagnetic radiation,
such as photons of light. When a surface is exposed to sufficiently energetic electromagnetic energy, light will be
absorbed, and electrons will be emitted. The threshold frequency is different for different materials. It is visible
light for alkali metals, near-ultraviolet light for other metals, and extreme-ultraviolet radiation for nonmetals.
The photoelectric effect occurs with photons having energies from a few electronvolts to over 1 MeV. At the
high photon energies comparable to the electron rest energy of 511 keV.

Einstein's interpretation of the photoelectric effect results in equations which are valid for visible and ultraviolet
light:

energy of photon = energy needed to remove an electron + kinetic energy of the emitted electron

h = W + E

where
h is Planck's constant, is the frequency of the incident photon and W is the work function, which is the
minimum energy required to remove an electron from the surface of a given metal. E is the maximum kinetic
energy of ejected electrons: 1/2 mv2, 0 is the threshold frequency for the photoelectric effect, m is the rest
mass of the ejected electron and v is the speed of the ejected electron.

Applying Einstein's special theory of relativity, the relation between energy (E) and momentum (p) of a particle
is

E = [(pc)2 + (mc2)2] (1/2)

where m is the rest mass of the particle and c is the velocity of light in a vacuum.

2. What do we mean by tunneling in a quantum perspective?

A:
Tunneling is a phenomenon by which particles can pass through a potential well even when they dont
have the energy to do so. Tunneling is a quantum mechanical phenomenon. As, from classical theory of
reaction rates:
/
with some proportionality constant that depends on vibrational frequencies.
A quantum particle can go over energy barriers even at T=0K. Thus, the classical rate equation does
not strictly apply, especially as we go to low temperatures. This is especially important in electrons
where tunneling is very important. Electron tunneling is in fact responsible for many important research
areas, such as imaging) or the breakdown of Moores law in electronics.

3. What does it mean that there is an energy band gap in the semiconductors?
A: Energy band gap is usually referred to the energy difference between the conduction band and
the valence band. The conduction band is the outermost energy band where the free electrons lie
and below that there is the valence band. An electron residing in the valence band cannot jump to
 the conduction band until and unless it is provided the amount of energy needed for the electron to
cross the energy barrier between the bands, which is just the band gap energy. As soon as the
electron is provided energy equal or greater than the band gap energy, it can go to the conduction
band, become a free electron which is the main reason behind the high conductivity of metals.
4. What happens if a semiconductor is illuminated with a photon energy less than energy band gap?
A: Photons energy less than the band gap energy interact only weakly with the semiconductor and
passes through it as if it were transparent. It means the photon energy is not absorbed and passes
straight through the semiconductor.
5. What happens if a semiconductor is illuminated with a photon energy larger than the energy band
gap?
A: when a semiconductor is illuminated with a photon energy larger than the energy band gap then
the photons are strongly absorbed. It means the electron-hole pair releases thermal energy and
relaxes to the band edges. The excess energy is waste.
6. What describes the fermi level in a band diagram?
A: In band diagram fermi level is used to describe the top of the collection of electron energy levels at
absolute zero temperature. So, at absolute zero they pack into the lowest available energy states and build
up a "Fermi sea" of electron energy states. The Fermi level is the surface of that sea at absolute zero where
no electrons will have enough energy to rise above the surface.
7. What describes the quasi fermi level in a band diagram?
A: A quasi Fermi level used for the Fermi level that describes the population of electrons separately
in the conduction band and valence band, when their populations are displaced from equilibrium.
This displacement could be caused by the application of an external voltage, or by exposure to light
of energy, which alter the populations of electrons in the conduction band and valence band. Since
recombination rate tends to be much slower than the energy relaxation rate within each band, the
conduction band and valence band can each have an individual population that is internally in
equilibrium, even though the bands are not in equilibrium with respect to exchange of electrons.
The displacement from equilibrium is such that the carrier populations can no longer be described
by a single Fermi level, however it is possible to describe using separate quasi-Fermi levels for each
band.
8. What does it mean that a charge carrier has a certain diffusion?
A: diffusion is the net motion of the carriers from regions of high carrier concentration to region of
low carrier concentration. The reason is when excess carriers are created nonuniformly in a
semiconductor, the electron and hole concentrations vary with position in the sample.
9. Describe the occurrence of contact potential in a p-n junction.
A: A difference in electric potentials arising between the pn-junction that are in contact and in
thermo-dynamic equilibrium. When the pn-junctions are brought into contact, an exchange of
electrons takes place between them; at first the electron transfer will occur predominantly from the
n side with a lower work function to the p side with a higher work function.
10. To get a large injection of charge carriers in a diode needs
11. If you know the area and capacitance of a p-n junction what can be calculated?
A: knowing the area and capacitance of a p-n junction we can calculate the depletion width.
12. A silicon diode has a leakage current. What components consist this leakage current of?
A: Source and drain consist of leakage current.
13. What similarities are there between a JFET and MOS transistor?
A: Similarities
a. JFET and MOSFET are types of FET.
b. Both can be used as switches and amplifiers.

14. What are the essential differences between a JFET and MOS transistor?
A: Differences
 a. MOSFET can be operated in both depletion and enhancement mode. JFET can only be operated in
the depletion mode.
b. MOSFETs have lower leakage current because their input impedance is higher than JFETs, although
the input impedance of JEFTs is still quite high.
c. Characteristic curves of JFET are flatter than the curves of MOSFET. It relates to different drain
resistance which is high for JFETs and low for MOSFETs.
d. They have different ways to control the current: for MOSFETS it is an isolated gate while JFETs use
PN junction.
e. Conductivity is controlled by the reverse biasing of the gate in JFET while in MOSFET the carriers
induced in the channel are used for this purpose.
f. JFETs are rather static insensitive, while MOSFETs may lack the static protection diodes what makes
them static sensitive due to the fact that they have a thin gate oxide layer.
15. What is a strong inversion in a MOS capacitance?
A: In MOS capacitance strong inversion is the condition where the surface has strong n-type as the
substrate is p-type. That is, Et lies as far below EF at the surface as it is above EF far from the surface
16. Describe the function of a bipolar transistor with terms such as injection, minority carrier
recombination, forward bias p-n junction and reverse bias p-n junction.
A: A bipolar transistor consists of a three-layer sandwich of doped semiconductor materials, either P-
N-P in or N-P-N. The functional difference between a PNP transistor and an NPN transistor is the proper
biasing of the junctions when operating. For any given state of operation, the current directions and
voltage polarities for each kind of transistor are exactly opposite each other.
A BJT is ordinarily designed so that the minority carrier injection into the base is far larger than the
minority carrier injection into the emitter. It is also ordinarily designed such that almost all the minority
carriers injected into the base make it all the way across to the collector.
There are two types of forward biases, emitter-base forward biased and base-collector reverse biased.
Reverse bias is achieved by emitter-base reverse bias and base-collector reverse bias. Transistor
operation is poor in this direction, because is low: lighter doping of the layer designed to be the
collector means that there is a lot of minority carrier injection out of the Base.