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Solid State Materials & Devices
Dr. Abid Karim
akarimpk@iqra.edu.pk
Lecture-1
Week-wise Course Break-up
Week Topic to be Covered
1. Introduction, Semiconductor Materials and their Properties, Crystal
Structures, Miller Indices
2 Crystal Growth
3 Quantization Concepts and carrier transport in Semiconductors
4 Semiconductor Model, Fermi Level Concept, Equilibrium Carrier
Concentration
5 Charged Particles in Solids: Drift, Mobility, Conductivity & Resistively,
Einstein Relationship
6 Diffusion, Generation and Recombination, Supplement Concepts,
Diffusion length, Quasi-Fermi levels
7 pn-junction in Equilibrium and Biased pn-junction
8 Diode Equation and Diode Characteristics
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Week-wise Course Break-up
Week Topic to be Covered
9 Switching Properties of a Diode
10 Microwave Diodes
11 Bipolar Junction Transistors (BJTs) and BJT Characteristics
12 Small Signal Models of BJT
13 Field Effect Transistors (FETs), Junction FETs and Small Signal Model
of JFETs
14 Metal Oxide Semiconductor FET (MOSFET) Essentials and Design
Criteria for a MOSFET
15 GaAs MESFET and MODFET
16 Heterojunction MODFET and Revision
Class Policies and Recommended
Books
Marks Distribution:
Assignments + Presentation(s) + Midterm Examination 30%
Final Examination 70%
Assignments:
Assignments would be assigned at least one week before the due
date and must be submitted on or before due date. No late
assignment will be accepted. You have to be very careful while you
are solving your assignment. Please do not try copy from someone
else in order to avoid any problem at the end of the semester
Recommended Books:
1. Solid State Electronics Device by Ben G. Streetman , Sanjay
Banerjee
2. Semiconductor Device Fundamentals by Robert F. Pierret
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Solid State Electronics
Why semiconductors are called
semiconductor?
Why Semiconductor?
Worldwide applications of Computer and
Information Technology is the direct result
of progress made in the field of Si based
Integrated Circuits (ICs).
A Semiconductor material posses the
properties of both Conductor and
Insulator. Hence its Electrical properties
can tailored according to requirements.
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Course Objectives
Develop an Understanding of the Physical
Properties of Solid State Materials & Devices
to be able to read Device Physics Literature
Develop of Physical Principals that form the
basis for Solid State Physics
Conductors
Insulators
Semi-conductors
Study the Physical, Structure and Behavioral
properties of the Devices
What are Electronic Devices?
Classes of Active Devices
Thermionic (Tubes)
Solid State <--- focus of this course
Types of Devices
Diodes
Bi-Polar Transistors
Field Effect Transistors (FETs)
Integrated Circuits (ICs)
Solid State Lasers
Solid State Switches
Negative Resistance (IMPATT, TRAPATT, GUNN Effect)
Physics of Devices
Crystal Growth
Band Theory of Solids
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Why is the Study of Electronic
Devices Important?
Modern Basis for:
Computers
Telecommunications
Radar
Automotive emission
control
High Reliability
Devices
High Density
Packaging
Robotic Devices
Bio-Medical Devices
Etc
10% GWP
Electronics industry
exceeds automotive
industry
Semiconductor market
will exceed steel within
the next few years
Brief History
Quantum
theory
(1925)
Quantum
theory
of Solids
(1930-1940)
Bi-Polar
Transistor
(1947)
Laser
(1962)
VLSI
(1975-90)
VHSIC
(1980-1990)
Bio-Chips
(???)
LEDs
(1975)
Blue
LEDs
(2000)
Metal
semiconductor
contact (1874)
Light
emitting
diode (1907)
Crystal
rectifier
(1906-16)
P-n Junction
(1949)
Thyristor
(1952)
Solar Cell
(1954)
Heterojunction
polar
transistor
(1957)
Tunnel
diode
(1958)
MOSFET
(1960)
Heterostructure
laser
(1963)
Transferred-
electron
diode (TED)
(1963)
IMPATT
diode
(1965)
MESFET
(1966)
Hybrid
integrated
circuit
(1959)
Monolithic
integrated
circuit
(1959)
CMOS
(1963)
Non-volatile
semi-conductor
memory
(1967)
DRAM
(1967)
CCD
(1970)
SSI
(1958-64)
MSI
(1964-68)
LSI
(1968-75)
Resonant
tunneling
diode (1974)
MODFET
(1980)
Room temperatur
single-electron
memory cell
(1994)
20 nm
MOSFET
(2001)
4004 Micro-
Processor
(1971)
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How a Semiconductor can be
differentiated?
Crystal Structure
Bandgap
Bonding Mechanism
Electrical Properties
The spatial arrangement of atoms within a
material plays an important role in determining
the precise properties of the material. Based on
the degree of atomic order, materials can be
classified as:
Amorphous: No recognizable long-range order
Polycrystalline: Completely ordered in segments
Crystalline: Entire solid is made up of atoms in an
orderly array
Classification of Solids
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Classification of Solids
Types of solids according to atomic
arrangement
Elemental Semiconductors
C (diamond), Si, Ge, Sn (grey) are
elemental semiconductors
All have the diamond structure
All are indirect band gap
Sn: ~0.08 eV
Ge: 0.67 eV
Si: 1.12 eV
C: 5.5 eV
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Elemental Semiconductors
Si- preeminent material, indirect bandgap
poor optical properties, good thermal oxide,
native oxide passivation of surfaces
Ge historically first used, lower bandgap
than Si (0.68 vs 1.12 eV), H
2
O soluable
oxide, SiGe
C - very high bandgap for diamond, SiC
The table below list some semiconducting elements and compounds together with
their bandgaps at 300 K
Material
Direct / Indirect
Bandgap
Band Gap
Energy at 300
K (eV)
Elements C (diamond)
Ge
Si
Sn
Indirect
Indirect
Indirect
Direct
5.47
0.66
1.12
0.08
Groups III-V
compounds
GaAs
InAs
InSb
GaP
GaN
InN
Direct
Direct
Direct
Indirect
Direct
Direct
1.42
0.36
0.17
2.26
3.36
0.70
Groups IV-IV
compounds
-SiC Indirect 2.99
Groups II-VI
compounds
ZnO
CdSe
ZnS
Direct
Direct
Direct
3.35
1.70
3.68
Data from R.E. Hummel, Electronic Properties of Materials, 3rd edition, Appendix 4, p. 413.
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Zinc-blende III-V's II-VI's
Binary Compound Semiconductors
Binary Compound Semiconductors
Zinc-blende III-V's II-VI's
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Material Applications
So what is a Crystal?
Ordered arrangement of atoms held
together by electrostatic forces
Bonds between atoms due to localized
electron states
Periodic arrangement of atoms in a crystal
is called lattice
Lattice determines the mechanical as well
as electrical properties
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A Unit Cell is a small portion of any given crystal
that could be used to reproduce the crystal
Unit cell can be repeated throughout the crystal
The smallest unit cell is called Primitive Cell
Representation of Lattice
Representation of Lattice
A, B, and C are primitive unit cells
D, E and F are not, in fact, they all have 2 lattice points.
G
H
Which cells are primitive?
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Unit Cell
a
Unit Cell
a is the Lattice Constant
A Unit Cell is a small portion of any given crystal
that could be used to reproduce the crystal
Unit cell can be repeated throughout the crystal
The smallest unit cell is called Primitive Cell
Some important, but not very well understood properties
of unit cells, are
Unit cells are not necessarily unique
Unit cells need not be primitive (the smallest cell
possible)
Possible unit cell
Unit Cell
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Some examples
All important
semiconductors
have the same
structure
Lattice constants
change in the range
0.35-0.6 nm
A unit unit cell can
be translated
anywhere in the
crystal provieded
r = pa + qb + sc
Where a, b and c
are basis vector
and p, q and s are
integers
A two-dimensional lattice showing translation of a unit cell by
r = 3a + 2b
Unit Cell
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Cubic Lattices
sc: an atom located at each corner of the unit cell
bcc: an additional atom at the center of the cube + SC
fcc: atoms at the eight corners and centered on six
faces
Simplest 3-D lattice where the unit cell is a cubic volume
[sc] [bcc] [fcc]
Cubic Lattices
[sc]
[bcc]
[fcc]
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Atomic Packing Factor (APF)
Hard Ball Model : Assume that the atoms are hard spheres
APF depends upon nearest neighbor distance
sc Structure
APF =
a
3
4
3
t (0.5a)
3
1
atoms
unit cell
atom
volume
unit cell
volume
APF = 0.524
close-packed directions
a
R=0.5a
contains 8 x 1/8 =
1 atom/unit cell
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bcc Structure
a
R
bcc Structure
Unit cell contains:
1 + 8 x 1/8
= 2 atoms/unit cell
APF =
a
3
4
3
t ( 3a/4)
3
2
atoms
unit cell
atom
volume
unit cell
volume
APF = 0.68
Spacing b/w closely spaced atom
3
2 2
3
2 2 2
2 2 2 2
a a a a a
= |
.
|

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|
= |
.
|

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|
+ |
.
|

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|
+ |
.
|

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|
=
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fcc Structure
APF = 0.74
4
Example: Copper
p =
nA
V
c
N
A
# atoms/unit cell Atomic weight (g/mol)
Volume/unit cell
(cm
3
/unit cell)
Avogadro's number
(6.023 x 10
23
atoms/mol)
crystal structure = FCC: 4 atoms/unit cell
atomic weight = 63.55 g/mol (1 amu = 1 g/mol)
atomic radius R = 0.128 nm (1 nm = 10 cm)
-7
V
c
= a
3
; For FCC, a = 4R/ 2 ; V
c
= 4.75 x 10
-23
cm
3
Compare to actual: p
Cu
= 8.94 g/cm
3
Result: theoretical p
Cu
= 8.89 g/cm
3
Theoretical Density,
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Density of Si
Crystal structure =Diamond Lattice: 8 atoms/unit
cell
Atomic weight = 28.1g/mol (1 amu = 1 g/mol)
Lattice Constant = 0.543 nm (1 nm = 10
-7
cm)
3
23 3 7
3
g/cm 33 . 2
atom/mole) 10 023 . 6 ( cm) 10 543 . 0 (
(g/mole) 1 . 28 8
8
=


=

A
N a
A

Diamond Lattice Structure

Diamond lattice can be thought of as an FCC
structure with an extra atom placed at a/4 +b/4 +
c/4 from each of the FCC atoms (Si, Ge) within a
unit cell
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Crystal Structure of Diamond Silicon
The inter-atomic
distance is twice the
covalent radii, or
2.346 Angstromin Si.
The PRIMITIVE LATTICE
vector has a length that is
times the nearest neighbor
distance, or 3.83 Angstrom
in Si.
3 / 2 2
The edge of the NORMAL CELL is
times the inter-atomic spacing or 5.418
Angstromin Si.
3 / 4
|
.
|

\
|
4
1
,
4
1
,
4
1
|
.
|

\
|
0 ,
2
1
,
2
1
(0,0,0)
(1,0,0)
Diamond lattice unit cell, showing the four nearest
neighbor structure
Diamond Lattice Unit Cell
Blue balls represent
extra atoms
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Zincblende Lattice Structure
Zincblende lattice are basically diamond structure,
but atoms are different on alternating sites (III-V
compounds)
For example: In GaAs each Ga surrounded by 4
As, each As surrounded by 4 Ga
Miller Indices
Used for representation of planes and directions
Uses reciprocal of intercepts
Taking the reciprocals of the intercepts is to
avoid infinities in the notation
Intercept is infinity for a plane parallel to an axis;
however, the reciprocal of such an intercept is taken
as zero
Crystals are based on integer lattices
(hkl) denotes a family of planes: e.g., (100) or (010),
(111) etc.
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Planes and Directions
How to find plane (hkl) in a cubic lattice (h,k,l
are called Miller indices)
Find the intercepts of the plane with crystal axes
and express these intercepts as integral multiples of
the basis vectors.
Take the reciprocals of the 3 integers found in step 1
and reduce these to the smallest set of integers, h, k,
l
Label the plane (hkl)
Transfer a plane (2, 4, 1) in Cartesian co-ordinate
system into Miller indices (i.e. (hkl))
Intercepts: 2, 4, 1
Reciprocals: , , 1
Smallest set of integers: 2, 1, 4
Label: (214) plane
Example
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Take (x,y) plane
In terms of basis vector it can be
written as (110)
Intercepts: 2, 4, 1
Reciprocals: , , 1
Smallest set of integers: 2, 1, 4
Label: (214) plane
Crystal Planes
Directions expressed as combinations of basis vectors a,b,c
[hkl] : Bracket used for direction indices
[hkl] is perpendicular to plane (hkl)
Crystal Directions
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CONVETION INTERPERATION
(hkl) - Parenthesis Crystal Plane
{hkl} - Braces Equivalent Plane
[hkl] - Brackets Crystal Direction
<hkl> - Angular Brackets Equivalent Direction
Miller Indices Representation