INTRODUCTION

TO
SEMICONDUCTOR
ENGR. Jess Rangcasajo,ECE ECT, MMME(Cand.)
Instructor
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TOPIC OUTLINE
1.1 Atomic Structures
1.2 Semiconductors, Conductors, and Insulators
1.3 Covalent Bonds
1.4 Conduction in Semiconductor
1.5 N-Type and P-Type Semiconductor

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OBJECTIVES :

 Discuss the basic structure of atoms

 Discuss properties of insulators, conductors and
semiconductors
 Discuss covalent bonding
 Describe the properties of both p and n type
materials
 Discuss both forward and reverse biasing of a p-n
junction
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HISTORY
Diode , in 1939 was using Ge
Transistor, in 1947 was using Ge
In1954 Si was used in Transistor because Si is less
temperature sensitive and abundantly
available.
High speed transistor was using GaAs in 1970
(which is 5 times faster compared to Si)
Si, Ge and GaAs are the semiconductor of
choice 4
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 ATOMIC STRUCTURE
basic Atomic
structure number

Electron shells
ATOM
Valence electron

ionization Free electron

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ATOM
- IS THE SMALLEST PARTICLE OF AN ELEMENT.
- IT CONTAIN 3 BASIC PARTICLES:
Protons Neutrons
(positive charge) (uncharged)

Nucleus Electrons
(core of atom) (negative charge)

ATOM
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ATOMIC STRUCTURE

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BASIC STRUCTURES (ATOMIC NUMBER)

 Element in periodic table are arranged according to

atomic number
 Atomic number = number of protons in nucleus

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 BASIC STRUCTURES (BOHR MODEL)
Bohr model of an atom
• This model was proposed by Niels
Bohr in 1915.
• electrons circle the nucleus.
• nucleus made of:
• i) +protons
• ii) Neutral:neutron

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ELECTRON SHELLS AND ORBITS

 In an atom, the orbits are

group into energy bands –
shells
 Diff. in energy level within
a shell << diff. an energy
between shells
 Energy increases as the
distance from the nucleus
increases.
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VALENCE SHELL AND VALENCE ELECTRONS
• Electrons with the highest energy levels exist in the outermost shell.
• Electron in the valence shell called valence electrons.
• The term valence is used to indicate the potential required to
removed any one of these electrons.

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VALENCE SHELL AND VALENCE ELECTRONS

• Atom can be represented by the valence shell and a core

• A core consists of all the inner shell and the nucleus

Carbon atom:
-valence shell – 4 e
+6 for the nucleus
-inner shell – 2 e
and -2 for the two
Nucleus: inner-shell electrons
-6 protons
-6 neutrons

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Semiconductors are a special class of elements
having a conductivity between that of a good
conductor and that of an insulator.

The three semiconductors

used most frequently in
the construction of
electronic devices are Ge,
Si, and GaAs.
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SEMICONDUCTORS, CONDUCTORS AND
INSULATORS

Conductors
 material that easily conducts electrical current.
 The best conductors are single-element material (copper,
silver, gold, aluminum)
 One valence electron very loosely bound to the atom- free
electron
Insulators
 material does not conduct electric current
 valence electron are tightly bound to the atom – less free
electron

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SEMICONDUCTORS, CONDUCTORS AND
INSULATORS

Semiconductors
 material between conductors and insulators in its ability to
conduct electric current
 in its pure (intrinsic) state is neither a good conductor nor a
good insulator
 most commonly use semiconductor ; silicon(Si),
germanium(Ge), and carbon(C).
 contains four valence electrons

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ENERGY BANDS
• The materials can be classified by the energy gap
between their valence band and the conduction band.
• The valence band is the band consisting of the valence
electron, and the conduction band remains empty.
• Conduction takes place when an electron jumps from
valence band to conduction band and the gap
between these two bands is forbidden energy gap.

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ENERGY LEVELS

The farther an
electron is from the
nucleus, the higher is
the energy state. 19
ENERGY GAP

The relation between energy gap and absolute

temperature for Si and Ge are given as,

Where, T = absolute temperature in oK

Assuming room temperature to be 300oK,

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ENERGY LEVELS

eV (electron volt) – the energy absorbed by an

electron when it is subjected to a 1V
difference of potential

An electron in the valence band of silicon must absorb more energy than one in the valence band
of germanium to become a free carrier. [free carriers are free electrons due only to external
causes such as applied electric fields established by voltage sources or potential difference.
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• At room temperature resistivity of semiconductor is in between
insulators and conductors.
• Semiconductors show negative temperature coefficient of
resistivity that means its resistance decreases with increase in
temperature.
• Both Si and Ge are elements of IV group i.e. both elements have 4
valence electrons. Both form the covalent bond with the
neighboring atom.
• At absolute zero temperature both behave as insulator i.e. the
valence band is full while conduction band is empty but as the
temperature is raised more and more covalent bonds break and
electrons are set free and jump to the conduction band.
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 COMPARISON OF A
SEMICONDUCTOR ATOM AND CONDUCTOR ATOM
A Silicon atom: A Copper atom:
•4 valence electrons •only 1 valence electron
•a semiconductor •a good conductor
•Electron conf.: 2:8:4 •Electron conf.:2:8:18:1

14 protons 29 protons
14 nucleus 29 nucleus
10 electrons 28 electrons in
in inner shell inner shell

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 BONDING
Covalent bonding – holding atoms together by sharing valence electrons

sharing of valence electron

produce the covalent bond
To form Si crystal

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COVALENT BONDING

The result of the bonding:

1. The atom are held together forming a solid substrate

2. The atoms are all electrically stable, because their valence shells are
complete
3. The complete valence shells cause the silicon to act as an insulator-
intrinsic (pure) silicon is a very poor conductor

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COVALENT BONDING

This bonding of atoms,

strengthened by the
sharing of electrons, is
called covalent
bonding 26
 Conduction in Semiconductor
(Conduction Electron and holes)

Figure 1. Energy band diagram for a pure (intrinsic) silicon crystal

with unexcited atoms. There are no electrons in the conduction band.
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 Conduction in Semiconductor
(Conduction Electron and holes)
Absorbs enough energy
(thermal energy)
to jumps

Figure 2. Creation of electron-hole pairs in a silicon crystal. Electrons 28

in the conduction band are free.
 Conduction in Semiconductor
(Conduction Electron and holes)

Figure 3. Electron-hole pairs in a silicon crystal. Free electrons are

being generated continuously while some recombine with holes. 29
 Conduction in Semiconductor
(Conduction Electron and holes)

Electron current
free
electrons

Figure 4. Electron current in intrinsic silicon is produced by the

movement of thermally generated free electrons. 30
 Conduction in Semiconductor
(Conduction Electron and holes)

Figure 5. Hole current in intrinsic silicon.

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 INTRINSIC SEMICONDUCTORS
• Semiconductor in its pure form is called as intrinsic
semiconductor.
• In pure semiconductor number of electrons (n) is equal to
number of holes (p) and thus conductivity is very low as
valence electrons are covalent bonded.
• In this case we write n = p = ni, where ni is called the intrinsic
concentration.
• Where, ni can be written

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 Where:
n0 is a constant,
T is the absolute temperature,
VG is the semiconductor band gap voltage,
VT is the thermal voltage.

The thermal voltage is related to the temperature by VT = kT/q

Where,
k is the Boltzmann constant,
k = 1.381 × 10 − 23 J/K
q = charge, 1.69 x 10-19 Coulombs

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 EXTRINSIC SEMICONDUCTORS

 Impure semiconductors are called extrinsic semiconductors.

 Extrinsic semiconductor is formed by adding a small amount of
impurity.

Depending on the type of impurity added we have two types of

semiconductors:
1. N-type
2. P- type

Note:
In 100 million parts of semiconductor one part of impurity is added.
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SEMICONDUCTOR MATERIALS

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 N-type semiconductor:
- Pentavalent impurities are added to Si or Ge, the result is an
increase the free electrons
- Extra electrons becomes a conduction electrons because it is not
attached to any atom
- No. of conduction electrons can be controlled by the no. of impurity atoms
- Pentavalent atom gives up an electron -call a donor atom
- Current carries in n-type are electrons – majority carries
- Holes – minority carries

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Pentavalent impurity atom in a Si crystal
The free electrons due to the added atoms have higher energy levels
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and require less energy to move to conduction band.
In this case, an
insufficient number of
electrons to complete the
covalent bonds.
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P-type semiconductor:
- Trivalent impurities are added to Si or Ge to create a deficiency of
electrons or hole charges
- The holes created by doping process
- The no. of holes can be controlled by the no. of trivalent impurity atoms
- The trivalent atom can take an electron- acceptor atom
- Current carries in p-type are holes – majority carries
- electrons – minority carries

Trivalent impurity atom in a Si crystal 40

 Doping
N-types and P-types Semiconductors
Doping - the process of creating N and P type materials
- by adding impurity atoms to intrinsic Si or Ge to imporove the
conductivity of the semiconductor
- Two types of doping – trivalent (3 valence e-)
& pentavalent (5 valence e-)

p-type material – a semiconductor that has added trivalent impurities

n-type material – a semiconductor that has added pentavalent impurities

Trivalent Impurities: Pentavalent Impurites:

•Aluminum (Al) •Phosphorus (P)
•Gallium (Ga) •Arsenic (As)
•Boron (B) •Antimony (Sb)
•Indium (In) •Bismuth (Bi) 41
MAJORITY AND MINORITY
CARRIERS
Majority Carriers
•The majority carriers in n-type materials are electrons.
•The majority carriers in p-type materials are holes.

Minority Carriers
•The minority carriers in n-type materials are holes.
•The minority carriers in p-type materials are electrons.

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 P-N JUNCTIONS

• One end of a silicon or germanium

crystal can be doped as a p-type
material and the other end as an n-
type material.
• The result is a p-n junction.
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TO BE CONTINUE…

Assignment:
1. Consult your reference library and determine the level
of Eg for GaP, ZnS and GaAsP, three semiconductor
materials of practical value. In addition, determine the
written name for each material.
2. Describe the difference between donor and acceptor
impurities.

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