Electronics and Semiconductors

Read Chapter 1 Section 1.7-1.12

Sedra/Smith’s Microelectronic Circuits

Ching-Yuan Yang
National Chung Hsing University
Department of Electrical Engineering

Electronic Circuits (一)

Prof. Ching-Yuan Yang (楊清淵)
Room 823 Electrical Engineering Building, Email: ycy@nchu.edu.tw
TA: Room 720B Electrical Engineering Building
Website: http://aic.nchu.edu.tw/
Text book: Microelectronic Circuits, 6e, by Sedra/Smith (Oxford 2011)
Course Assessment:
15% Assignments
80% Three Term examinations
5% Other
Course Contents:
 Electronics and Semiconductors (Ch1)
 Diodes (Ch3)
 Bipolar Junction Transistors (Ch4)
 MOS Field-Effect Transistors (Ch5)
Electronics (I) 1-1 Ching-Yuan Yang / EE, NCHU
Brief History of Electronics

 Identification of the electron by J.J. Thomson late in the 19th

century and the measurement of its electric charge by Robert A.
Millikan in 1909.
 Invention of vacuum tube in 1906 by Lee De Forest
 Invention of the transistor in 1947 by John Bardeen, Walter H.
Brattain, and William B. Shockley of the Bell Lab.
 Invention of integrated circuits (IC) independently by Jack Kilby
of Texas Instruments in 1958 and by Jean Hoerni and Robert
Noyce of Fairchild Semiconductor in 1959.
 Discover of Moore's law (1965): The number of transistors per
silicon chip doubles every 18 months.

Electronics (I) 1-2 Ching-Yuan Yang / EE, NCHU

Honoring the Trailblazing Transistor

Bell Labs’ first point-contact transistor

The transistor was invented by researchers

John Bardeen and Walter Brattain, under
physicist William Shockley’s leadership, in
December 1947 at Bell Telephone
Laboratories in Murray Hill, N.J.

Transistors are:
 The most important invention of the 20th century
 Solid-state devices used to amplify or switch electronic signals.
 Made of layers of semiconductor materials and three terminals that
connect to an external circuit.

Electronics (I) 1-3 Ching-Yuan Yang / EE, NCHU

Examples of Analog IC
 Gyroscope system
Single-chip gyroscopic sensor
Tiny
Robust
Lower power
Angular-rate-to-voltage transducer
 BiCMOS process
 Chip area: 3mm  3mm
 Power: 30mW @ 5V
 Product by Analog Devices, USA

Electronics (I) 1-4 Ching-Yuan Yang / EE, NCHU

Examples of Analog IC (on the Cover of the Textbook)

 Accelerometer
Measure acceleration forces
Protect hard drives from damage
Detect car crashes ….
 Product by Analog Devices, USA

Electronics (I) 1-5 Ching-Yuan Yang / EE, NCHU

Circuit simulation using SPICE
SPICE
 SPICE: Simulation Program with Integrated Circuited Emphasis
 An open-source program developed by the U.C. Berkeley (1970s)
 Computer programs to simulate the operation of electronic circuits
 PSpice is a commercial PC version available from Cadence
 Others: ISPice, HSpice, …

In this course, ….
 It is not our objectively to teach how SPICE works nor the intricacies
of using it effectively.
 Our objective is twofold:
 To describe the models that are used by SPICE to represent the
various electronic devices
 To illustrate how useful SPICE can be in investigating circuit
operation

Electronics (I) 1-6 Ching-Yuan Yang / EE, NCHU

Basic Semiconductor Physics

 At 0 K, all bonds are intact and no free electrons are available for
current conduction.
 At room temperature, some of the covalent are broken by thermal
ionization. Each broken bond gives rise to a free electron and a hole,
both of which become available for current conduction.

Electronics (I) 1-7 Ching-Yuan Yang / EE, NCHU

Basic Semiconductor Physics
 A semiconductor (Silicon, Germanium) is neither a perfect conductor
(metal) nor an insulator (sand).
 Pure semiconductor (Intrinsic semiconductor) has tetrahedron
crystal structure. Four valence electrons orbit around the most outer-
shell orbit of each atom.
 Electron & Holes:
Raising temperature breaks covalent bond and produces electron-
hole pair.
 In thermal equilibrium, n = p = ni.
ni : intrinsic concentration at a given temperature.
ni2  BT 3e  EG / kT
B = 5.4×1031, EG = 1.12 eV (bandgap energy)
k = 8.62×105 eV/K (Boltzmann’s constant)
For silicon at T = 300K, ni  1.5×1010 carriers/cm3.

Note that silicon has 5×1022 atoms/cm3.

Electronics (I) 1-8 Ching-Yuan Yang / EE, NCHU

N-type Semiconductor
 Increasing electron density (n)
by introducing pentavalent
atoms, which have “5” valence
electrons, one extra electron to
donate after forming covalent
bonds with silicon.
 One short of forming 4
covalent bonds with silicon
thereby creating a “electron”.
 N-type atom  donor
 The major carrier is electron
(majority).
nn0  ND (donor concentration)
 The minor carrier is hole (minority).
 In thermal equilibrium,
nno pn 0  ni2 ni2
(mass - action law)  pno 
ND
Electronics (I) 1-9 Ching-Yuan Yang / EE, NCHU
 P-type Semiconductor
 Increasing hole density (p) by
doping with P-type atoms.
Trivalent atom has only “3”
valence electrons.
 One short of forming 4
covalent bonds with silicon
thereby creating a “hole”.
 When the p-type atom captures
an electron, it accepts an electron.
 P-type atom  acceptor
 Hole is majority.
pp0  NA (acceptor concentration)
 Electron is minority.
 In thermal equilibrium,
n po p p 0  ni2 (mass - action law) ni2
 n po 
NA

Electronics (I) 1-10 Ching-Yuan Yang / EE, NCHU

Current Flow in Semiconductors:  Drift Current

v p -drift   p E
p : hole mobility
480 cm2/Vs for intrinsic silicon.
vn -drift   n E
n : electron mobility
1350 cm2/Vs (~2.5 p) for intrinsic silicon.

Drift current for hole: I p  Aqpv p -drift  Aqp  p E For Electron: I n  Aqp  n E
Ip J n  qp  n E
Current density: J p   qp  p E
A
Total drift current density J  J p  J n  q ( p  p  n n ) E   E
1 1 V / cm
Conductivity:   p  p  nn Resistivity:      cm 
 p  p  n n A / cm2
Electronics (I) 1-11 Ching-Yuan Yang / EE, NCHU
Current Flow in Semiconductors:  Diffusion Current
Free electrons or holes will diffuse
from the region of high concentration
to the region of low concentration.
This process gives rise to a net flow
of charge, or diffusion current,
which is proportional to the
concentration gradient:
dp dn
J p   qD p J n  qDn unit: A/cm2
dx dx
Dp and Dn are diffusion constants, unit: cm2/s.
Dp = 12 cm2/s Dn = 35 cm2/s in intrinsic silicon

Electron injection case

Electronics (I) 1-12 Ching-Yuan Yang / EE, NCHU

Example

Hole concentration profile: p ( x)  p0e  x / Lp Let p0 = 1016/cm3, Lp = 1 m.

Find the hole-current density at x = 0.

J p   qD p
dp
dx
  qD p
d
dx
p0e p 
 x/ L

D
J p (0)  q p p0
Lp
12
 1.6  1019   1016
1 104
 192 A / cm2

If the cross-section area of the bar is

100 m2, find the current Ip.
Ip  Jp  A
 192  100  108
 192  A

Electronics (I) 1-13 Ching-Yuan Yang / EE, NCHU

Relationship between D and 
A simple but powerful relationship ties the diffusion constant with the mobility:
Dn Dp
  VT Einstein relationship
n p

kT
Thermal voltage VT 
q

At root temperature, T  300 K and VT = 25.9 mV.

Electronics (I) 1-14 Ching-Yuan Yang / EE, NCHU

PN junction diode
Symbol

Structure

Junction
Electronics (I) 1-15 Ching-Yuan Yang / EE, NCHU
I-V characteristic
Three operational regions:
 Forward-bias, v > 0
 Reverse-bias, v < 0
 Breakdown, v < VZK

Electronics (I) 1-16 Ching-Yuan Yang / EE, NCHU

Physical operation of PN junction – under open circuit conditions

Diffusion current
Holes: p side → n side neutral region neutral region
Electrons: n side → p side
Current: p side → n side

Carrier depletion
 Holes diffused to n-side
recombine with the majority
there (electrons), making the
region close to the junction
depleted of free electrons and
containing uncovered bound
positive charges.
 Called “depletion region” or
“space-charge region”, a
carrier-depletion region exists
on both sides of the junction.

Electronics (I) 1-17 Ching-Yuan Yang / EE, NCHU

Physical operation of PN junction – under open circuit conditions

Carrier depletion (cont’)

 A electric field is established neutral region neutral region
across the region.
 The resulting electric field
opposites the diffusion of
holes into the n-region and
electrons into the p-region.
 The diffusion strongly
depends on the voltage drop
across the junction.
 A barrier has to be overcome
for holes to diffuse into the n
region and electrons to
diffuse into the p region.

Electronics (I) 1-18 Ching-Yuan Yang / EE, NCHU

Physical operation of PN junction – under open circuit conditions

Drift current IS & equilibrium

 Minorities diffused to the edge neutral region neutral region
of the depletion region will
experience the electric field and
drift current will be generated.
 Direction: n side → p side
 Drift current is carried by
thermally generated minorities
and thus strongly depends on
temperature.
 It is independent of the barrier
voltage.
 Under open-circuit condition,
ID = IS.
This equilibrium is maintained
by the barrier voltage V0.

Electronics (I) 1-19 Ching-Yuan Yang / EE, NCHU

Physical operation of PN junction – under open circuit conditions

Junction built-in voltage

neutral region neutral region
N N 
V0  VT ln  A 2 D 
 ni 

 Depend on doping
concentrations and
temperature
 In the range of 0.6 to 0.8 V
 Under open circuit, V0 does
not appear between the
diode terminal because the
contact voltages counter
and exactly balance the
barrier voltage.

Electronics (I) 1-20 Ching-Yuan Yang / EE, NCHU

Depletion region width

 Charge-equality condition
qx p AN A  qxn AN D
xn N A
 
xp ND
A: cross-sectional area of the junction

 The depletion region exists almost

entirely on the lightly doped side.

Wdep  xn  x p

2 s  1 1 
 
q  N A N D 
 V0

where  s  11.7 0  1.04  10 12 F/cm,

Wdep : 0.1~1  m

Electronics (I) 1-21 Ching-Yuan Yang / EE, NCHU

Depletion region width
NA
xn  W
N A  ND
ND
xp  W
N A  ND
 Stored charge:
QJ  Q  Q
 N N 
QJ  Aq  A D W
 N A  ND 

 N N 
QJ  A 2 s q  A D V0
 N A  ND 

Electronics (I) 1-22 Ching-Yuan Yang / EE, NCHU

PN Junction with an Applied Voltage

Electronics (I) 1-23 Ching-Yuan Yang / EE, NCHU

Physical operation of PN junction – under reverse-bias conditions

 Apply a reverse constant current

source I (I < IS to avoid break-down)
across the diode.
 Holes leave p material and free
electrons leave n material to the
external source.
 Depletion layer widens.
 The barrier voltage increases.
 ID decreases.
 Equilibrium is reached when
IS  ID = I.
 In equilibrium, the increase in barrier
2 s  1 1 
voltage above the built-in voltage V0 Wdep  xn  xp   V0  VR 
will appear as an external voltage q  N A ND 

(VR) that can be measured between
the diode terminals.  N N 
QJ  A 2 s q  A D V0
 N A  ND 

Electronics (I) 1-24 Ching-Yuan Yang / EE, NCHU

Physical operation of PN junction – under reverse-bias conditions

Depletion capacitance
As the voltage across the pn junction changes, the charge stored in
the depletion layer changes accordingly – the junction behaviors like
a capacitor.

dqJ s A
Cj  or Cj 
dVR V Wdep
R VQ

2 s  1 1 
Wdep   V0  VR 
q  N A N D 


The resulting expression is:

C j0
Cj 
VR
1   q  N N  1 
V0 where C j 0  A  s   A D   
 2   N A  N D  V0 
Electronics (I) 1-25 Ching-Yuan Yang / EE, NCHU
Physical operation of PN junction – in the breakdown region

 When a reverse current source I > IS is applied across the diode, the
barrier voltage continuous to climb until a breakdown mechanism
sets in to support the external current I.
 Breakdown
 Zener breakdown
 Avalanche breakdown

Electronics (I) 1-26 Ching-Yuan Yang / EE, NCHU

Physical operation of PN junction – in the breakdown region

 Two possible breakdown
mechanisms are the zener
effect (the breakdown voltage <
5 V) and the avalanche effect
(the breakdown voltage > 7 V)
or the combination of the two.
 Breakdown is not a destructive
process provided that the
maximum specified power
dissipation is not exceeded.

Electronics (I) 1-27 Ching-Yuan Yang / EE, NCHU

Physical operation of PN junction – in the breakdown region
 Zener breakdown:
The electric field in the depletion layer reach a point that it can break
the covalent bonds and generate electron-hole pairs. These
electrons and holes constitute a reverse current across the junction
that helps support the external current I.
 Avalanche breakdown:
The minority carriers that across the depletion layer under the
influence of the electric field gain sufficient kinetic energy to be able
to break covalent bonds in atoms which they collide. The carries
liberated by this process may have sufficiently high energy to be
able to cause other carriers to be liberated in this manner. This
process occurs in the fashion of an avalanche, with the result that
many carriers are created that are able to support any value of
reverse current as determined by external circuits, with a negligible
change in the junction voltage drop.

Electronics (I) 1-28 Ching-Yuan Yang / EE, NCHU

Physical operation of PN junction – under forward-bias conditions

 Majority carriers are supplied from the external source:

free electrons → n side, holes → p side.
 Depletion layer narrows and barrier voltage decreases.
 ID increases, in equilibrium: ID  IS = I
 The decrease in barrier voltage appears as an external voltage V.

Electronics (I) 1-29 Ching-Yuan Yang / EE, NCHU

Physical operation of PN junction – under forward-bias conditions

Minority-carrier distribution

Electronics (I) 1-30 Ching-Yuan Yang / EE, NCHU

Current-voltage relationship
 Law of the junction: pn ( xn )  pn 0 eV / VT
 The excess holes decays exponentially with x-axis as they recombine
with the majority carriers, i.e., free electrons.
pn ( x)  pn 0   pn ( xn )  pn 0  e
 ( x  xn ) / L p

where Lp is diffusion length of holes in the n-type silicon.

D
 q p pn 0  eV / VT  1 e
dpn  ( x  xn ) / L p
 Hole current density: J p  qD p
dx Lp
Jp is largest at x = xn , and decays exponentially with distance due to recombination.
In steady stage, the electrons will be supplied from external circuits to the n region
at a rate that will keep the current constant at the value it has at x = xn . Thus,

pn0  eV /VT 1 np0  eV /VT 1

Dp Dn
Jp  q Similarly, Jn  q
Lp Ln
 Total current: I = A(Jp + Jn) Reminder that : pn0  ni2 / ND and np0  ni2 / NA
 qD p qD n   D D 
I  A p n0  n p0  eV /VT 1  Aqni2  p  n  eV /VT 1  IS  eV /VT 1
 L Ln  L N L N 
 p  p D n A
Electronics (I) 1-31 Ching-Yuan Yang / EE, NCHU
Saturation Current IS

I  IS  eV /VT 1
 D D 
IS  Aqni2  p  n 
L N L N 
 p D n A

 Typical values range from 10-18 to 10-12 A.

 Relationships:
 A
2
  ni , a very strong function of temperature

Electronics (I) 1-32 Ching-Yuan Yang / EE, NCHU

Diffusion capacitance
The excess minority-carrier charges is a function of terminal
voltage – a capacitive effect referred to as diffusion capacitance.
 Total excess minority carrier charge: Q  T I   p I p  n In
T is called the mean transit time and is related to minority carriers lifetimes.
 Small signal diffusion capacitance:
 
Cd   T  I
 VT 
 To keep Cd small, the
transit time T must be
made small, an important
requirement for diodes
intended for high-speed
or high frequency
operation.

Electronics (I) 1-33 Ching-Yuan Yang / EE, NCHU

Terminal characteristics
 Forward-bias region: i  I S  ev / nVT  1
IS is the saturation current:
 Proportional to the area of the
junction
 A design parameter in IC to
scale the current for the same v
 Of the order of 1015 A
 Doubles in value for every 5C
rise in temperature
n has a value between 1 and 2,
depending on the material and
physical structure of the diode.
Diodes in IC exhibit n = 1. Discrete diodes generally exhibit n = 2.
 For v >> nVT , i  I S e T
v / nV

 Diode current is negligibly small for v < 0.5V and increases rapidly for v > 0.7V.
 Reverse-bias region: i = IS
 Breakdown region: Diode enters this region when the reverse bias voltage exceeds
the breakdown voltage. The reverse current increase rapidly with the associated
increase in voltage drop being very small.

Electronics (I) 1-34 Ching-Yuan Yang / EE, NCHU

IEEE symbol convention

iC  I C  ic

Total instantaneous signal: iC

Incremental instantaneous signal: ic
DC/Biasing level: IC
Incremental peak level: Ic

Electronics (I) 1-35 Ching-Yuan Yang / EE, NCHU