Lab 5: Part I: Semiconductor Diodes

Edited 5/5/16 by Joseph Skitka, Stephen Albright, & DGH

PURPOSE OF EXPERIMENT:
Students will measure the I-V characteristics of a diode of unknown semiconductor composition.
Using theory from the solid-state physics of inhomogeneous semiconductors, in particular the
Shockley Diode Equation (with corrections), they will be able to measure the band gap energy
and identify the semiconductor material used in the diode. A Zener diode will also be
characterized, albeit with less subsequent analysis.

THEORY AND BACKGROUND:

This lab explores the behavior of semiconductor devices, specifically diodes and transistors. The
physics of these devices pertain to high-level solid state physics and are not typically
encountered until advanced graduate coursework, if at all. Chapters 28-29 of Ashcroft &
Mermin, Solid State Physics [1], the canonical graduate-level solid-state textbook, lays
rudimentary groundwork, but more detailed theory is necessary to describe the realistic behavior
of diodes and transistors that you will encounter [2], [4], [5]. If these texts are not easily
accessible, a quick understanding of semiconductors and diodes can be gleaned from a more
advanced lab manual written by Eugene Wagner for a chemistry course at the University of
Pittsburg [6]. Discussion of transistors will be covered in the manual for part II of lab 5. The
bare essentials of theory and background that you need to know to perform and appreciate this
part of the lab follow.

You may recall having derived the discrete energy levels an electron may occupy for a single,
isolated atom in quantum mechanics. When atoms on an infinite, periodic lattice are considered,
electrons are found to occupy an infinite number of nonlocal states that form an energy
continuum. Depending on the lattice geometry, however, this continuous energy band need not
extend to all energies, and in general, energy gaps will exist.

At absolute zero temperature, electrons will occupy strictly the lowest energy states. The energy
which electrons are filled to is called the Fermi energy. At nonzero temperatures, a few
electrons will be excited above the Fermi energy due to thermal noise according to Boltzmann
statistics:
.
𝑃𝑟𝑜𝑏𝑎𝑏𝑖𝑙𝑖𝑡𝑦 ∝ 𝑒 -/0 (1)

Here, E is the energy of an outcome (an electron state), k is the Boltzmann constant, and T is the
temperature in Kelvin. When the Fermi energy falls within a permitted energy band, electrons
are free to be excited continuously to more energetic states. This allows for a net current flow
under an applied voltage; hence, this band is known as a conduction band and the material is
known as a conductor.


When the Fermi energy falls between permitted energy bands, electrons cannot be excited to
higher energy levels without an applied voltage equal to the gap between permitted bands. This
energy gap is known as the band gap. If the band gap is small enough that some thermally
excited electrons can jump it, the material is known as a semiconductor, otherwise, if the band
gap is large, the material is known as an insulator. In either case, the permitted energy band
above the Fermi energy is referred to as the conduction band, while the full energy band below
the Fermi energy is referred to as the valence band. This lab focuses on the behavior of
semiconductors.

Because electrons can be thermally excited to the conduction band in a semiconductor, they will
develop miniscule conductivity as the temperature is increased. This is most clearly described in
terms of holes. When an electron in a semiconductor is somehow excited to the conduction
band, it leaves behind an empty state known as a hole. This hole behaves exactly as a positively
charged and massive analogue of the electron and so can be used to model solid-state conduction
effectively.

A semiconductor’s conductivity can be enhanced by doping. When simple elemental

compounds with exactly one extra or fewer electrons than a full valence band, called a dopant,
are added in small quantities to the semiconductor, it will conduct much more readily thanks to
the addition of electron or hole charge carriers, respectively. The former case is known as an
n-type semiconductor, while the latter is known as a p-type semiconductor. In these cases, the
charge carrier contributed by the dopant are called the majority carriers, while the other, which
is only present through thermal excitation in much smaller quantities, are the minority carriers.

Figure 1: Image Wikimedia Commons. A depiction of the depletion zone (a.k.a. space charge
region) at no applied voltage. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P–n_junction


When p-type and n-type semiconductors are placed in contact with one another, interesting
conductive behavior is observed that is the bedrock of all electronic devices. Consider a single
piece of p-type semiconductor in contact with a single piece of n-type semiconductor. This
boundary between the two materials is known as a p-n junction and constitutes the primary
component of a diode in electronic circuitry.

At the p-n junction, the electrons in the n-type semiconductor will be thermodynamically favored
to combine with holes in the p-type semiconductor. This forms a thin layer in which the majority
carriers are gone called the depletion zone or the space charge region. The depletion zone has
an electric field pointing towards the n-type semiconductor due to its excess of positive charge.
See figure 1.

Consider now what happens when an external voltage is applied across a diode with positive
terminal hooked up to the p-type semiconductor. This configuration is called forward bias. If
we ignore the details of the depletion zone, based on simple electrostatic attraction, it would
make sense for both the electrons in the n-type semiconductor and the holes in the p-type
semiconductor, that is, the majority carriers, to move towards the junction. Now, it is necessary
that the charge flow obey Kirchoff’s law - charge needs to go somewhere in a steady current, it
cannot pile up - we can imagine the flow of charge around the loop being conserved if, at the
junction, the holes and the electrons annihilate one another. This is known as recombination
current, which can be described as approximately [4, 6]:

9 .; <=
-
𝐼234 (𝑉) ∝ 𝑇 𝑒 : :/0 𝑒 :/0 −1 (2)

Where I is the current, V is the applied voltage, and q is the carrier charge. In practice, some
minority carriers will actually move across the entire depletion zone and drift a while before
combining with the majority carriers. This is termed diffusion current [2], even though it still
involves minority carriers recombining with majority carriers. The I-V characteristics of this
contribution can be shown to be approximately [4, 6]:

.; <=
𝐼@ABB (𝑉) ∝ 𝑇 C 𝑒 - /0 𝑒 /0 −1 (3)

If we switch the applied voltage so that the positive terminal is connected to the n-type
semiconductor in a reverse-bias configuration, the majority carriers are pulled further from the
junction, increasing the width of the depletion zone. At large enough reverse biases, the current
approaches an asymptote known as the reverse saturation current.

The combined current as a function of voltage can be expressed as [6]:



9 .; <= .; <=
-
𝐼(𝑉) = 𝐵F,234 𝑇 𝑒 : :/0 𝑒 :/0 −1 + 𝐵F,@ABB 𝑇 C 𝑒 - /0 𝑒 /0 − 1 (4)

Where B0,rec and B0,diff are constants approximately independent of temperature and voltage.
When the temperature does not change much, the prefactors of the parenthetical terms are
approximately constant and may be lumped together by introducing the diode ideality factor, η,
which is parameter between 1 and 2, dependent only on the semiconductor material:

<=
𝐼 𝑉 = 𝐼F 𝑒 I/0 −1 (5a)
.;
-
𝐼F ∝ 𝑒 I/0 (approximation for far from 0K) (5b)

where 𝐼F is an effective reverse saturation current in this approximation. William Shockley first
proposed this form of the current for an ideal diode with η = 1 in 1949 [3]. This form of the I-V
dependence is depicted in figure 2. In practice, the current will typically be dominated by either
the reverse or the recombination currents, which may allow for additional explicit temperature
dependence to be used in equation (5) as shown in equations (2) – (4).

Figure 2: I-V Curves. (a) The Shockley Diode Law with a breakdown at large reverse bias. (b)
The effects of SCL electron-hole-pair generation current.

In both forward and reverse-bias configurations, nearly all of the voltage drop is across the
depletion zone; the doped semiconductors outside of this layer will conduct readily with small
resistances in either direction. The large electric field in the depletion zone can spontaneously
create electron-hole pairs which fly apart, thereby contributing what is known as the space
charge layer (SCL) generation current [2]. This results in equation (5) being inaccurate at
larger negative voltages (see figure 2b).

As the reverse bias increases and the electric field in the depletion zone gets large, the diode will
experience breakdown (see figure 2a). Two types of breakdown may occur: an avalanche
breakdown occurs when electrons are pulled loose of the lattice and knock other electrons loose


in the process. The current will instantaneously increase, often generating enough heat to
damage the diode. A Zener breakdown is more gradual in nature, making it suitable for
controlled electronic use. Diodes for which the Zener breakdown occurs at much lower voltage
than the avalanche breakdown are known as Zener diodes and are often used in the reverse bias
configuration past breakdown, while other diodes do not have a special name and breakdown is
normally avoided. We refer to these as signal diodes in this lab.

Your objective in this lab is to estimate the composition of the semiconductor in a signal diode
using equations (5a), (5b), and perhaps (2), (3) or (4). Most semiconductors are made with either
silicon, which has an energy gap of 1.11eV or germanium, which has an energy gap of 0.66eV.
You will record I(V) curves as a function of temperature. Because you do not know the material
in advance, you will need to fit for the ideality factor first, and then solve for the energy gap. If a
nonlinear fit is used, it is possible to use a more accurate temperature dependence in (3) if
9 .; .;
recombination or reverse currents are found to dominate, i.e. 𝐼F ∝ 𝑇 : 𝑒 -: /0 or 𝐼F ∝ 𝑇 C 𝑒 -J /0 ,
which can improve results by a few percent.

As a secondary experiment, the I(V) curves will be recorded and characterized for a Zener diode
at room temperature.

EXPERIMENT:

1. Take manual measurements of the signal diode.

Figure 3a: Circuit diagram for reverse bias manual measurement of the signal diode.


Figure 3b: Circuit diagram for forward bias manual measurement of the signal diode.
a) Construct the circuit depicted in figure 3a. Note: The wire color code convention
for diodes is: .
b) On the function generator, set the amplitude to 0.0V, use the shift key to set the
impedence to High-Z.
c) Using the Offset, record the current on the Ammeter (Keithley Electrometer) from
-10V up to 3.0V taking at least a dozen data points. Do not exceed 15mA or 3V
on the function generator
d) When the current exceeds 100 micro amps, around 0.5V on the signal generator,
switch to the alternate configuration in figure 3b. The first configuration allows
for small current measurements without a current contribution going through the
voltmeter. The second configuration allows for larger voltages across the diode
to be measured even if a significant voltage drop occurs over the protective
resistor.

2. Take automated measurements of the signal diode at 4 different temperatures

focusing on both forward and reverse bias regimes. To reduce noise at low voltages,
a shielding box is used. Note that there is no resistor in the circuit, so be very careful
not to overload the diode by applying too large a voltage!

Figure 4: Circuit diagram for automated measurements.



a) Using the light-blue metal shielding box, construct the circuit depicted in figure 2.
The BNC cables should automatically connect with the correct bias to the
components assuming you are aware of the ground on the BNC-to-banana
splitters.
b) Set the function generator to High-Z and the frequency to 0.06 Hz (be sure it
reads Hz and not kHz!)
c) Consult Appendix A for how to save data using the oscilloscope and appendix B
for the use of the electrometer.
d) Take data sets for each of the temperatures listed below. Please go in this order as
water will freeze around the diode if it is wet when submerged in liquid nitrogen.
Consult your TA about using the provided heat baths if he/she has not addressed
this already. Take two data sets for each temperature; one zoomed in on the
reverse bias voltages from -0.1V to 0.0V, another zoomed out on the forward
bias up to about 0.3V, with the exception of liquid nitrogen, for which only
forward is necessary. Consult with Table 1 for recommended settings and ranges
for each configuration.
i. Room Temperature (~293K)
ii. Liquid Nitrogen (77K)
iii. Freezing Water (273K)
iv. Boiling Water (373K)

Wavefunction Wavefunction Electrometer

Temperature Bias
Generator. Amplitude Generator Offset Scale
Room Temp Forward 0.2 Vpp 0.11 V 0.000µA
Room Temp Reverse 0.12 Vpp -0.04 V 0.000nA
Liquid N2 Forward 0.4 Vpp 0.8 V 00.00µA
Ice Water Forward 0.3 Vpp 0.12 V .0000µA
Ice Water Reverse 0.12 Vpp -0.04 V .0000nA
Boiling Water Forward 0.3 Vpp 0.11 V 00.00µA
Boiling Water Reverse 0.12 Vpp -0.04 V TBD
Table 1: Recommended Settings for Signal Diode Automated Measurements

3. Take automated data for the Zener diode. Do this for room temperature. This time,
you must find your own wavefunction amplitude, wavefunction offset, and
electrometer scale to capture the breakdown and forward bias. Try sweeping in both
the forward and reverse direction (using a negative wavefunction amplitude) so the
waterfall is triggered at the the beginning and end of the cycle, respectively.

ANALYSIS:

To answer the questions posed in this lab, your data will need to be fit to the theoretical
predictions in (5a) and (5b) or, if you are ambitious, to one of the more accurate models (2), (3),
or (4). This can be done in a number of ways. You could add I0 to both sides and take the log of


the RHS of (5a) and use a linear plot to fit the data. (If you are taking the log of predominantly
negative data on the RHS, then you are doing something wrong). You could also choose to
directly fit the nonlinear dependences to the data; this will likely produce a more accurate fit.
Either way, the physical parameters C, I0, and Eg can be solved for from the fitting parameters.
Please choose a fitting program that provides you with uncertainty estimates of the fitting
parameters. One free program that can perform nonlinear fits and easily provides uncertainty
ranges of fitting parameters is Kaleidagraph; see appendix C for information on how to access
and use this software. Remember that the ideality factor must be solved for before the energy
gap can be computed. Also note that there is not enough information here to solve for the energy
gap as a function of temperature – it is the temperature dependence of the I-V curve that gives
the the gap.

As a reminder of expectations as stated in the Guide to Writing Lab Reports, you are responsible
for plotting and simplifying data for presentation when appropriate, including and utilizing
uncertainty estimates in your responses, and adequately discussing results, limitations, and
possible improvements in the experiments. Be sure to review the guide if you forget other key
requirements.

1. What is the ideality factor of the signal diode? Is this consistent with diffusion or
recombination currents? [Hint: the liquid nitrogen data should yield an ideality factor
within the same ballpark as the other ideality factors if you manage to get the fit right,
which can be tricky. Your r2 value for the fit should be closer to .999 than .97 for a
nonlinear fit. You may need to fine tune the initial guesses of the fit parameters to get
this nonlinear fit to converge.]

[Optional discussion ideas]: Based on observation and theory, do you think it is

appropriate to assume the ideality factor is constant over temperature? Are there any
difficulties (besides tricky fitting) with working at liquid nitrogen temperatures? [hint:
what is the reverse saturation current at this temperature?]

2. What is the semiconductor energy gap, Eg? Is this consistent with Silicon (~1.11eV) or
Germanium (~0.66eV)? Note the stated gaps are given for room temperature, but the
variation in Eg is < 0.1eV across the temperatures tested, allowing for identification.

[Optional discussion ideas]: How does the slight variation in Eg across temperatures
affect your uncertainty estimates? What about the small sample size of temperatures?

3. If you had taken reverse bias data much lower than -0.1V, how might this have affected
your ability to find the energy gap, Eg?

4. For the Zener diode, were you able to observe a consistent breakdown of the reverse
current? Did this process exhibit hysteresis in the voltage? (i.e. did it depend on the way
the voltage was swept?) Would you expect an avalanche breakdown to exhibit more or
less hysteresis?


5. What are the limitations of manual measurements? Why is the voltage across the diode
measured across the signal generators instead of actually across the diode? Considering
both the manual and automated setups, does this limit the range of voltages at which the
data is accurate?

REFERENCES:

[1] Ashcroft, Neil W. and Mermin, David M. Solid State Physics. Cengage Learning. 1976.

[2] Kasap, S. O. Principles of Electronic Materials and Devices, 3rd Edition. McGraw Hill, New
York. 2006. pp 481-491.

[3] Shockley, W. (1949), The Theory of p-n Junctions in Semiconductors and p-n Junction
Transistors. Bell System Technical Journal, 28: 435–489. doi: 10.1002/j.1538-
7305.1949.tb03645.x

[4] Strutt, Max J. O. Semiconductor Devices: Volume I: Semiconductors and Semiconductor

Diodes. Academic Press, New York. 1966

[5] Sze, S. M., Lee M. K. Semiconductor Devices, Physics, and Technology, 3rd Edition. John
Wiley & Sons, New York 2012. pp 99-106.

[6] Wagner, Eugene. Investigating Band Gap Energies of Semiconductors. Electronic Resource.
<http://chemicaleducation.org/chem1440/manual/Semiconductor%20Band%20Gap%20
Determination.pdf> Updated 8.5.2015. Accessed 11.10.2015.

APPENDIX A: ELECTROMETER USE

First of all, please be aware that the electrometers are sensitive devices. Leave “zero check”
enabled when not taking a measurement and do not let the device overload (which happens when
a “- 0L” is displayed due to too large a signal for a given scale.)

In this lab, you will be measuring current, so “Amps” should be selected on the left side of the
control board, and the range will be set manually depending on the configuration being tested.

To use the electrometer, the circuit should be connect in series to the “input” on the back of the
device through a BNC cable. Do not remove the TRX adapter from the input. For the automated
sections of the lab, the “2V Analog Output” signal will be routed to channel 2 of the
oscilloscope.


The output signal of the electrometer will be a voltage scaled in such a way that the maximum
reading in amps (about 2*10^n for some n) will scale to 2V. For instance, on the .0000nA-scale,
the maximum reading of 2.0000nA would be output as 2V, and on the 00.00µA-scale, a reading
of 01.00µA would be 0.01V. Note that the maximum value is 2 in the digit to the left of that
displayed at zero. As you can see, it is important that the scale be recorded for each data set so
that the data (in volts) can be converted to currents, otherwise the data will be meaningless!

Troubleshooting
• Make sure that the range is not set to “auto”, this will change the scale and mess up the
output.
• Make sure you remember to disengage “zero check” when you are ready to take data,
otherwise you will not see anything.
• Check that the TRX adapter has not been removed from the input

APPENDIX B: SAVING WITH THE OSCILLOSCOPE

Acquiring good data for reverse voltages is tricky due to the small currents and the lack of
availability of research-grade apparatuses for diode characterizations. This is why we are using
the electrometer-oscilloscope combination – it is capable of discerning very small currents, and
the oscilloscope is easy enough that students can quickly learn to save data within a single lab.
Nonetheless, the data collection of this lab is demanding; in some cases, especially at very cold
temperatures, you will have to measure very small and large currents in the same voltage sweep.
For this reason, you need to be extra careful that you are ensuring the quality of your data by
following these instructions:
1. General Setup:
a. Make sure that your signal fills as large a portion of the screen as possible as the
oscilloscope will essentially coarsen the precision of signal in the output on the
scale of the pixels on the screen.
b. At the same time, be very careful not to “clip” or cut off your signal at the top or
bottom of the screen. This goes for both channels. If you do, the oscilloscope
will spuriously output the maximum or minimum value in the range displayed on
the screen. This will ruin your results. This also applies to the time scale if you
are sweeping the signal too fast.
c. Do not use any filtering or the “glitch capture” feature; these can introduce bias in
the signal if the user is not careful and experienced using it.
2. Saving:
a. Once you get the hang of it, it normally takes about 5 seconds to actually capture
what is on the screen from the moment you hit the “Menu” button, so initiate your
saving sequence in advance. With small currents, movement of the researchers
will perturb the signal, so do not move until you have to.
b. To set up the oscilloscope for data saving:
i. select the “Menu” button below the screen.


ii. Select “Save Waveform” using the appropriate blank button below the
screen.
iii. Use the knob “Multipurpose a” to select under “Source”: “All Displayed
Waveforms” so you capture both your independent and dependent
variables.
iv. Use the knob “Multipurpose b” to select under “Destination”:
“Spreadsheet File (.csv)”.
v. Make sure that “Waveform Resolution” is set to “Reduced.” Use the
blank button to the right to set it if it is incorrect.
vi. Note that the “Menu Off” button to the lower right of the screen can
always be pressed repeatedly to close the menus you have opened.
c. To save a data set:
i. At the opportune moment, a few seconds before the signal has scrolled to
where you will capture it, select “Menu.”
ii. Select “Save Waveform.”
iii. Select “Save” on the bottom right of the screen.
iv. Note the number of the file being saved in the “Save To” text field.
v. Select “OK Save All” on the bottom right of the screen.
3. Analyzing Data
a. Open the data set with Excel or a similar program.
b. Be sure not to use the “peak” data columns (columns 3 and 5), just use columns 2
and 4 for your channel 1 and channel 2 measurements.
c. If using Kaleidagraph, you can copy-paste from Excel. Be careful not to include
the first cell label, or Kaleidagraph will incorrectly format the column to “text”.

APPENDIX C: KALEIDAGRAPH

Kaleidagraph is a super-quick solution to data analysis and it is more versatile than Excel (at
least for the untrained user.) The biggest advantage, besides its efficiency, is that it will provide
uncertainty in fit parameters, both linear and non-linear. Kaleidagraph is available on the lab
computers, but is generally not installed on other campus computers. The software should be
available for download from http://www.brown.edu/information-technology/software/ , but if
not, then a free trial may be downloaded from www.synergy.com. Here are a few key things you
need to know to utilize the software:
• Don’t label columns in the top-most cell with text. Rather there are specific title boxes, initially
labeled A, B, C, etc. If you do enter text in a box, the column will format for text entry and will
throw an error when you try to plot. (To fix this, go to column formatting under the data menu.
Format the column for “float”.)
• Simply enter columns of data for the independent and dependent variables you wish to plot.
• To manipulate data, press the up/down wedges/arrows at the top right of the page to expand the
column labels for reference. A “formula entry” window should be floating around the screen
somewhere. Columns can be edited with simple commands. For instance, if you put your
Voltage data in column c1 and wish to use voltage squared, simply type: “c2 = c1^2” in the
formula entry. Press “Run” and you will see the voltage squared has its own column.


• You may wish to input a column of uncertainties for later use as error bars.
• To plot: select the Gallery dropdown menu. Select the Linear menu. Select a Scatter plot.
Choose one column for your independent variable, and one or more for your dependent variable.
• To fit: select the Curve Fit dropdown menu. The presets like “linear” may be used for a quick
fit, but they will not give you uncertainty on the fitting parameters. To do this, select General. If
you’d like a linear fit, fit1 should be set to this be default. Upon clicking it, a box should come
up. Select Define to double check the form of the fit. It should read:
m1 + m2 * M0; m1 = 1; m2 = 1

Here, {m1, m2, m3…} are the fit parameters and M0 is the independent variable. Clearly
this is just a linear fit. If you, for instance, wanted to make this a quadratic fit instead,
you would write:
m1 + m2 * M0 + m3 * M0^2; m1 = 1; m2 = 1; m3 = 1
The values on the right are initial guesses and must be provided for each parameter. When you
are done, select OK. Check the box of the dependent variable you would like to fit. Then select
OK. The uncertainty in the fit parameter is listed in the Error column in the plot
• To generate error bars, right click on the plot and select Error bars. Error bars can be added as
a percent of the value (in either variable) or from a different column of data.