Artigos

Artigo 1

Semi-Condutores Introduo
Os semicondutores tm tido um impacto incrvel em nossa sociedade. Eles so encontrados nos chips de microprocessadores e em transistores. Tudo que computadorizado ou que utiliza ondas de rdio depende de semicondutores. Atualmente, a maioria dos chips semicondutores e transistores produzida com slicio. Voc j deve ter ouvido expresses como "Vale do Silcio" e "economia do silcio", exatamente por isso o silcio o corao de qualquer aparelho eletrnico.

Em sentido horrio, de cima para baixo: um chip, um LED e um transistor so todos feitos de material semicondutor

O diodo o dispositivo semicondutor mais simples possvel e, por isso, um excelente ponto de partida para entender como funcionam os semicondutores. Neste artigo, voc aprender o que um semicondutor, como funciona a dopagem e como um diodo pode ser criado utilizando semicondutores. O silcio um elemento muito comum: ele o principal elemento na areia e no quartzo, por exemplo. Se voc procurar "silcio" na tabela peridica (em ingls), ver que ele est ao lado do alumnio, abaixo do carbono e sobre o germnio.

O silcio est posicionado ao lado do alumnio e abaixo do carbono na tabela peridica

O carbono, o silcio e o germnio (que assim como o silcio, tambm um semicondutor) possuem uma propriedade nica em sua estrutura de eltrons, cada um possui quatro eltrons em sua rbita mais externa. Isso permite que eles formem bons cristais. Os quatro eltrons formam ligaes covalentes perfeitas com quatro tomos vizinhos, criando uma reticulado. No carbono, conhecemos a forma cristalina como diamante. No silcio, a forma cristalina uma substncia metlica prateada.

Em um reticulado de silcio, todos os tomos do silcio ligam-se perfeitamente a quatro vizinhos, no deixando nenhum eltron livre para conduzir a corrente eltrica. Isso torna um cristal de silcio isolante, ao invs de condutor

Metais tendem a ser bons condutores de eletricidade, j que normalmente possuem "eltrons livres", que conseguem se mover facilmente entre os tomos e a eletricidade envolve o fluxo de eltrons. Apesar de os cristais de silcio terem aparncia metlica, no so, de fato, metlicos. Todos os eltrons externos em um cristal de silcio esto envolvidos em ligaes covalentes perfeitas, de forma que no podem se mover entre os tomos. Um cristal de silcio puro praticamente um isolante, muito pouca eletricidade passa por ele. possvel alterar o comportamento do silcio e transform-lo em um condutor dopando-o. Na dopagem, mistura-se uma pequena quantidade de impurezas a um cristal de silcio.

Existem dois tipos de impurezas:

Tipo N - Na dopagem tipo N, o fsforo (em ingls) ou o arsnico (em ingls) adicionado ao silcio em pequenas quantidades. O fsforo e o arsnico possuem cinco eltrons externos cada um, de forma que ficam fora de posio quando entram no reticulado de silcio. O quinto eltron no tem a que se ligar, ganhando liberdade de movimento. Apenas uma pequena quantidade de impurezas necessria para criar eltrons livres o suficiente para permitir que uma corrente eltrica flua pelo silcio. O silcio tipo N um bom condutor. Os eltrons possuem uma carga negativa, da o nome tipo N. Tipo P - Na dopagem tipo P, o boro (em ingls) ou o glio (em ingls) o dopante. O glio e o boro possuem apenas trs eltrons externos cada um. Quando misturados no reticulado de silcio, formam "buracos" ou "lacunas" na trelia e um eltron do silcio no tem a que se ligar. A ausncia de eltron cria o efeito de uma carga positiva, da o nome tipo P. Lacunas podem conduzir corrente. Uma lacuna aceita muito bem um eltron de um vizinho, movendo a lacuna em um espao. O silcio tipo P um bom condutor.

Uma quantidade minscula de dopagem tipo N ou tipo P leva um cristal de silcio de bom isolante a um condutor vivel, mas no excelente - da o nome "semicondutor". Os silcios tipo N e tipo P no so to impressionantes sozinhos; mas quando voc os coloca juntos, consegue um comportamento bem interessante na unio dos dois.

O diodo o dispositivo semicondutor mais simples possvel. Um diodo permite que a corrente flua em uma direo, mas no na outra. Voc j deve ter visto catracas em um estdio ou em uma estao de metr, que deixam as pessoas passarem em apenas uma direo. Um diodo uma catraca de sentido nico para eltrons. Quando voc coloca juntos o silcio tipo N e tipo P como mostrado nesse diagrama, obtm um fenmeno bem interessante, que d ao diodo suas propriedades nicas.

Mesmo que o silcio tipo N e o silcio tipo P sozinhos sejam condutores, a combinao mostrada no diagrama no conduz eletricidade. Os eltrons negativos no silcio tipo N so atrados para o terminal positivo da bateria. As lacunas positivas no silcio tipo P so atradas para o terminal negativo da bateria. Nenhuma corrente flui pela juno, pois as lacunas e os eltrons esto se movendo na direo errada. Se voc inverter a bateria, o diodo conduz a eletricidade muito bem. Os eltrons livres no silcio tipo N so repelidos pelo terminal negativo da bateria. As lacunas no silcio tipo P so repelidas pelo terminal positivo. Na juno entre o silcio tipo N e o silcio tipo P as lacunas e os eltrons se encontram. Os eltrons preenchem as lacunas. Ambos deixam de existir e novas lacunas e eltrons surgem em seu lugar. O efeito que a corrente flui pela juno. Um dispositivo que bloqueia a corrente em uma direo, enquanto a deixa fluir em outra, chamado de diodo. Os diodos podem ser utilizados de diferentes maneiras. Um dispositivo que utiliza pilhas, por exemplo, normalmente contm um diodo que o protege se voc inserir as pilhas ao contrrio. O diodo simplesmente bloqueia qualquer corrente que tente deixar a pilha se ela estiver ao contrrio; isso protege os sensveis componentes eletrnicos no dispositivo. O comportamento do diodo semicondutor no perfeito, como mostrado neste grfico:

Se polarizado inversamente, um diodo ideal bloquearia toda a corrente. Um diodo real deixa passar 10 microampres, o que no muito, mas ainda assim no perfeito. Se voc aplicar suficiente tenso (V) invertida suficiente, a juno se quebra e deixa a corrente passar. Geralmente, a tenso de quebra muito maior do que o circuito jamais receber, ento irrelevante. Quando polarizado diretamente, uma pequena quantidade de tenso necessria para fazer o diodo funcionar. No silcio, essa tenso de cerca de 0,7 volts. Essa tenso necessria para iniciar o processo de combinao lacuna-eltron na juno. Um transistor criado utilizando trs camadas ao invs das duas utilizadas no diodo. Voc pode criar tanto uma combinao NPN quanto PNP. Um transistor pode atuar como chave ou amplificador. Um transistor se parece com dois diodos de costas um pro outro. Assim, voc teria de imaginar que nenhuma corrente poderia fluir por um transistor, j que os diodos bloqueariam a corrente dos dois lados. Isso verdade. Contudo, quando se aplica uma pequena corrente camada central da estrutura em sanduche, uma corrente muito maior pode fluir pelo sanduche como um todo. Isso d ao transistor seu comportamento de interruptor. Uma pequena corrente pode ligar e desligar uma grande corrente. O chip de silcio uma pea de silcio que pode comportar milhares ou mesmo milhes de transistores. Com transistores atuando como chaves, possvel criar portas lgicas, e com elas pode-se criar chips de microprocessador. A evoluo natural do silcio para o silcio dopado, para transistores e para chips o que tornou os microprocessadores e outros dispositivos eletrnicos to baratos e onipresentes na sociedade atual. Os princpios fundamentais so incrivelmente simples. O milagre o constante refinamento desses princpios ao ponto que, hoje, milhes de transistores podem ser criados de forma barata em um nico chip.

Artigo 2

The p-n Junction Diode (o diodo de juno p-n)

Contents

Introduction Conduction in Solids

Doped Semiconductors Current Flow in Semiconductors The P-N Junction Junction Diode Behaviour The Diode Equation Summary References

Introduction
The most basic property of a junction diode is that it conducts an electric current in one direction and blocks it in the other. This behaviour arises from the electrical characteristics of a junction, called a p-n junction. fabricated within a semiconductor crystal. The most commonly used semiconductor material is silicon. The junction diode is useful in a wide variety of applications including the rectification of ac signals (producing dc from ac), the detection of radio signals, the conversion of solar power to electricity, and in the generation and detection of light. It also finds use in a variety of electronic circuits as a switch, as a voltage reference or even as a tunable capacitor. The p-n junction is also the basic building block of a host of other electronic devices, of which the most well-known is the junction transistor. For this reason, a study of the properties and behaviour of the p-n junction is important. In this chapter, the conduction of electricity in solids is reviewed first and the conduction properties of semiconductors are then explained. The construction of the p-n junction of an ideal diode is described and an explanation of the operation of the device is presented.

Conduction in solids
All matter consists of atoms. Each atom has electrons orbiting the nucleus. The nucleus contains the same amount of positive charge as the negative charge possessed by the orbiting electrons. The ability of any material to conduct electricity depends primarily on the behaviour of the electrons in the outer orbits. Therefore, it is necessary to review briefly some aspects of solid-state physics. This subject will be dealt with in more detail later in the course.

Conductors
In a metallic conductor such as copper, the atoms are arranged in a regular array called a crystal lattice. The electrons in the outer orbits of each metal atom are only loosely bound to the nucleus. These electrons are not closely associated with any particular atom and are free to move through the crystal lattice. Once an electron has left its orbit around a particular atom, that atom is left with an excess positive charge. The electron-deficient atom is called a positive ion. The electron that is now free to move is called a free electron. The free electrons in a conductor can be visualized as a cloud of electrons surrounding fixed positive ions as shown in Figure 1. At normal temperatures, the ions possess energy and vibrate. Collisions between vibrating ions and free electrons cause the electrons to move in a random manner. Over a long period of time, the net motion of these free electrons is zero. If an electric field is applied to the conductor, the free electrons will acquire additional energy and will tend to move in the direction dictated by the field. There will be a resulting net motion of free electrons. The net motion of charge carriers constitutes an electric current.

Insulators

In an insulator, nearly all electrons are very tightly bound to their respective atoms. There are practically no electrons that are able to move under the influence of an applied electric field. Therefore, an insulator cannot conduct any appreciable electric current under normal conditions.

Semiconductors
A semiconductor, such as silicon, has properties somewhere between those of a conductor and an insulator. The ability of a semiconductor to conduct electricity can be changed dramatically by adding small numbers of a different element to the semiconductor crystal. This process is called doping. Early experiments showed that an electric current through a semiconductor was carried by the flow of positive charges as well as negative charges (electrons).

Doped Semiconductors
A semiconductor crystal is called n-type if the addition of an impurity element results in a large number if free electrons (negative charge carriers) available for conduction. Each impurity atom is called a donor atom since it donates an electron. The electron is free to move and can contribute to an electric current. The positive ion left behind is fixed and cannot take part in conduction (see Figure 2). A semiconductor crystal can be made p-type by doping it with a different element so that there are a large number of positive charge carriers available for conduction. The positive charge carriers actually correspond to vacancies or deficiencies of electrons in the bonds holding the atoms in the crystal lattice. The positive charges are called holes. These holes can move through the lattice as illustrated in one dimension in Figures 3(a) and 3(b). The dotted lines represent the crystal lattice. Note that the movement of a hole is due to the movement of a bound electron from one bond to another. It is not due to the motion of free electrons. In a p-type semiconductor, most of the mobile charge carriers are holes. A hole moving away from its host impurity atom is equivalent to the atom gaining or accepting an electron into its bonding structure. The host atom gains an excess negative charge and is then called an acceptor ion. This situation is illustrated in Figure 4. Note again that the ions are locked in the crystal lattice and therefore reperesent fixed charges and cannot contribute to current. On the other hand, the holes are mobile charge carriers and can contribute to current flow. Even in a highly doped p-type semiconductor there will always be some free electrons. This very small number of free electrons have been omitted in Figure 4 for clarity. Similarly, n-type semiconductors always contain some holes. The predominant mobile charge carriers are called majority carriers, whilst those in the minority are called minority carriers. For example, the majority carriers in n-type material are free electrons. The terms majority carriers and minority carriers have meaning only if the type of semiconductor (n- or p-) is specified. A pure or undoped semiconductor is said to be intrinsic. Such material has equal numbers of holes and free electrons. These carriers are produced as a result of thermal agitation of the atoms, even at room temperature. Some bound electrons can acquire sufficient energy to escape from their atoms, becoming free electrons and leaving holes behind., This process of producing holeelectron pairs is called thermal generation.

It is possible for a free electron and a hole to come near each other in the course of their random wandering through the crystal. The free electron can then occupy the vacant position represented by the hole. The hole and electron are said to recombine. There is then no mobile charge carrier at that point. The rate of recombination depends upon the number of carriers present. Thermal generation and recombination occurs in both doped and undoped semiconductor material. When a semiconductor material is in thermal equilibrium, the rate of generation of holeelectron pairs equals the rate of recombination. The density or concentration of both holes and electrons then remains constant.

Current flow in Semiconductors

An electric current can flow through a semiconductor as a result of the movement of holes and/or free electrons. There are two important processes that account for current flow in semiconductors. These processes are called drift and diffusion.

Drift
Applying an electric field across a semiconductor will cause holes and free electrons to drift through the crystal in the directions shown in Figure 5. The total current is equal to the sum of hole current (to the right) and electron current (tpo the left).

Diffusion
A drop of ink in a glass of water diffuses through the water until it is evenly distributed. The same process, called diffusion, occurs with semiconductors. For example, if some extra free electrons are introduced into a p-type semiconductor, the free electrons will redistribute themselves so that the concentration is more uniform. In the example shown in Figure 6, the free electrons will tend to move to the right. This net motion of charge carriers constitutes a diffusion current. (In Figure 6 the holes and acceptor ions are omitted for clarity.) In this example, the free electrons move away from the region of highest concentration. The higher the localized concentration, the greater will be the rate at which electrons move away. The same process applies to holes in an n-type semiconductor. Note that when a few minority carriers (such as the electrons in Figure 6) are diffusing through a sample, they will encounter a large number of majority carriers. Some recombination will occur. A number of both types of carrier will be lost.

The p-n Junction

Imagine that a p-type block of silicon can be placed in perfect contact with an n-type block. Free electrons from the n-type region will diffuse across the junction to the p-type side where they will recombine with some of the many holes in the p-type material. Similarly, holes will diffuse across the junction in the opposite direction and recombine, as shown in Figure 7. The recombination of free electrons and holes in the vicinity of the junction leaves a narrow region on either side of the junction that contains no mobile charge. This narrow region which has been depleted of mibile charge is called the depletion layer. It extends into both the p-type and n-type regions as shown in Figure 8(a). Note that the diffusion of holes from the p-type side of the depletion layer leaves behind some uncovered fixed negative charges (the acceptor ions). Similarly, fixed positive charges (donor ions) are uncovered on the n-type side of the depletion layer. There is then a separation of charges: negative fixed charges on the p-type side of the

depletion layer and positive fixed charges on the n-type side. This separation of charges causes an electric field to extend across the depletion layer. A potential difference must therefore exist across the depletion layer. The variation of potential with distance is shown in Figure 8(b). The uncovered charges give rise to a built-in potential of V_i_ volts. For a typical silicon p-n junction, V_i_ ≈ 0.6 to 0.7 volts. It varies with doping levels and temperature. The significance of this built-in potential is that it opposes the flow of holes and electrons across the junction. For this reason, the built-in potential is called a potential barrier or potential hill. In practice, a p-n junction is formed within a single crystal rather than simply joining two pieces together. Electrical contacts on either side of the crystal enable connection to an external circuit. The resulting device is called a junction diode.

Junction Diode Behaviour

The most important property of a junction diode is its ability to pass an electric current in one direction only. If the diode is connected to a simple circuit consisting of a battery and a resistor, the battery can be connected in either of two ways as shown in Figures 9(a) and 9(b). When the p-type region of the p-n junction is connected to the positive terminal of the battery, current will flow. The diode is said to be under forward bias. However, when the battery terminals are reversed, the p-n junction almost completely blocks the current flow. This is called reverse bias. If the diode is not connected at all, it is said to be open-circuited and of course no current can flow through the diode.

Forward bias
The application of a forward bias voltage V to a junction diode reduces the built-in potential from V_i_ to V_i_ - V, as shown in Figure 10. The reduction in the built-in potential is due to the applied voltage forcing more electrons into the n-type region and more holes into the p-type region, thus covering some of the fixed charges and narrowing the depletion layer. Since the total uncovered charge is reduced, the built-in potential must be lower. Remembering that the built-in potential opposes the flow of majority carriers across the junction, a reduction in that potential makes it easier for holes in the p-type region to cross the junction and for electrons in the n-type region to cross the junction in the opposite direction. As the forward bias voltage is increased, the current through the junction becomes greater. When the applied voltage V approaches V_i_, the potential hill is almost removed. There is then little opposition to the flow of carriers across the junction and a large current can flow through the diode. The variation of diode current with voltage under forward bias is shown in the first quadrant of a typical junction diode current-voltage characteristic shown in Figure 11.

Reverse Bias
The application of a reverse voltage V_R_ extracts holes from the p-type region and free electrons from the n-type region and so uncovers more bound charges near the junction, as shown in Figure 12. The depletion layer therefore widens and the height of the potential hill is increased to (V_i_ + V_R_ ) volts. Majority carriers are thereby firther inhibited from crossing the junction. As the reverse voltage is increased, the current is reduced to almost zero. However, a very small reverse current does flow. This reverse saturation current depends only on the thermal generation of holes and electrons near the junction, not on the height of the potential

barrier. In practice, this reverse saturation current is quite small but it increases with increasing temperature.

Junction Breakdown
The large increase in reverse current evident in Figure 11 is the result of junction breakdown. It occurs when the reverse voltage reaches a critical value.

The diode equation

A complete analysis of the abrupt p-n junction shows that that current I varies exponentially with applied voltage V. The exact relationship between current and voltage is given by the diode equation I = I_S_ (e^qV/kT^ - 1 ) where I_S_ is the saturation current, qis the electronic charge, k is Boltzmann's constant and T is temperature (\(deK). The diode equation applies for both forward and reverse bias. At extremes of high forward bias and large reverse voltages the behaviour of practical devices deviate from the above diode law. The diode equation is a very important description of diode behaviour and is the basis for the mathematical description of the behaviour of many other electronic devices which employ p-n junctions.

References
A.J. Diefenderfer, Principles of Electronic Instrumentation, Saunders, 1979 (Chapter 5). H.V. Malmstadt et al., Electronic Measurements for Scientists, Benjamin, Menlo Park, 1974 (Section 2-1). J. Millman and C.C. Halkias, Integrated Electronics: Analog and Digital Circuits and Systems, McGraw-Hill, N.Y., 1972 (Chapters 1 and 2). R.J. Smith, Electronics: Circuits and Devices, Wiley, N.Y., 1973 (Chapter 5). P.A. Tipler, Physics, Worth, N.Y., 1976 (Section 34-5). R.J. Tocci and M.E. Oliver, Fundamentals of Electronic Devices, Fourth Edition, Merrill, N.Y., 1991, (Chapter 5).

Artigo 3

Britney Spears' Guide to Semiconductor Physics

Britney Spears, was not the first star to juggle the weight of fame and a gift for technical matters. Austrian born film star, Hedy Lamarr, of the 1930 and 40s was also a gifted electrical engineer.

Lamarr was frequently quoted as saying, " Any girl can be glamorous. All you have to do is stand still and look stupid ." She may have played that role on the silver screen, but when it came to real life, Hedy proved that brainpower was everything. Before examining her important contribution, let's take a quick look at her background. First of all, Lamarr was only her stage name. She was actually born Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler in Vienna, Austria back on November 9 th, 1913. As a teenager, Hedy attended acting school and quickly made the transition into films. Like most movie stars, her first few films were forgettable. Yet, the one that she made at age seventeen made her an international star. A very controversial star, that is. In the 1933, Czech film Ecstasy, Lamarr acted in a steamy love scene and appeared nude in a 10-minute swimming sequence. That was definitely not the thing to do. While mild by today's standards, her nudity was considered morally unacceptable at the time, and the film was banned in the United States for several years on charges of indecency. In 1933 (at age nineteen), her parents placed her into an arranged marriage with an Austrian armament manufacturer named Fritz Mandl. Mandl was the type of shady character who would sell arms to anyone, even if it meant selling them in violation of the Versailles Treaty. Of course, to make these deals, Mandl had to entertain all of his prospects. This included attending hundreds of dinners with the likes of Hitler and Mussolini. And what would a business dinner be like without Mandl's gorgeous and equally famous wife dazzling these arms developers, buyers, and manufacturers? But, as we will soon learn from the outcome of this story, Hedy did not just entertain these men. She listened carefully and learned a great deal. To an outsider, Hedy had everything. She was married to one of the wealthiest men in Europe. She lived in the famous Salzburg castle where the Sound of Music was filmed. Add to that all the clothes, jewellery, servants, and cars (one 1935 Mercedes owned by Mandl sold for over $200,000 several years ago) one could ever want. It sure sounds like the ideal life to me, but it was not. Hedy, became more of a trophy than a wife to Mandl. He was a control freak and would not even let her go swimming without his supervision. After four years of marriage, Hedy could take no more. She decided to escape. In her first attempt to see if she could get away, Mandl followed her. She was forced to sneak into a club that had peep shows upstairs. Hedy paid off the attendant to keep his mouth shut, but Mandl paid even more to get in. Hedy was forced to hide in one of the rooms. While in there, a male customer came in and assumed that she was the lady he had hired. Without going into all of the details, Hedy was forced into the position of making love to the man to avoid her husband (she claimed that he was banging on the door). During her real escape, Hedy supposedly drugged the maid that was assigned to her, put on a maid's uniform, and walked out the service entrance to freedom. Hedy eventually made it to London where she appeared on the stage. Hedy, hopped aboard the ship Normandie on a cruise for Hollywood and stardom. She signed a contract with MGM's Louis B. Mayer while on the boat, but he insisted on a name change to avoid the controversy from Ecstasy. At this point, MGM publicist Howard Strickland (according to a 1970 New York Times article) approached Hedy and handed her a typewritten list of last names and asked her to make a choice. You guessed it - she chose Lamarr and the rest is Hollywood history. Lamarr was immediately crowned the most beautiful woman in the world by MGM and quickly became one of Hollywood's glamour gals. Which leads us to the real focus of this story - her incredible invention.

The other lead character in this story, George Antheil. Antheil was internationally famous for his mechanistic avant-garde musical style. When Antheil moved to Hollywood, he became a film composer and a syndicated columnist for Esquire magazine, for which he also contributed articles on romance and endocrinology. He even published a book on the subject the 1937 Every Man His Own Detective: A Study of Glandular Endocrinology . What made him an expert on this subject one will never know. In the summer of 1940, Lamarr sought out Antheil. They were neighbours in Hollywood and supposedly met at a party. The topic of conversation changed to the impending war and torpedoes. Lamarr feared Hitler (remember that she actually knew the guy) and began to talk about an idea that she had for the radio control of torpedoes. At the time, radio control sounded like a great idea, but was not practical. All one had to do was jam the particular frequency that the torpedo operated on and the missile would fail to reach its target. Lamarr was sitting at the piano with Antheil when that flash of genius struck her. Antheil was hitting keys on the piano and she would follow. It became clear that Antheil was changing the keys that he was hitting, yet he was still able to communicate to her. What if this could be translated into radio control for a torpedo? The next day they sat on his floor and figured the whole scheme out. Lamarr realised that the frequency needed to randomly change so that the enemy could not jam it. Any attempt to knock out the signal controlling the missile would only knock out a small blip of the communication stream and have virtually no effect on its overall control. Hence, the concept known as "frequency hopping" was born. Of course, getting this grand scheme to actually work was another story. Keep in mind that this was the time of large vacuum tubes, not the miniaturised microprocessors that rule our world today. Antheil offered the solution to the problem. He had previously composed his Ballet Mechanique , which was scored for sixteen player pianos to perform at the same time. He suggested using punched piano rolls to keep the radio transmitter and torpedo receiver in synch. The transmitting signal was designed to broadcast over a band of eighty-eight possible frequencies - one for each key of the piano keyboard. It took Lamarr and Antheil several months to work out the exact details of their invention.

Then, in December of 1940, they sent a description of their idea to the National Inventor's Council (set up by the government to get ideas from the general public). Very few of the hundreds of thousands of submissions that the Council ever received actually caused any kind of excitement, but Lamarr and Antheil's did. Under the direction of the Council's chairman (and inventive bigwig over at General Motors) Charles Kettering, the government helped to improve on the concept. Patent 2,292,387 for the "Secret Communication System" was granted on August 11, 1942. (The patent is actually under her married name at the time - Hedy Kiesler Markey.) Unfortunately, other members of the council were less than enthusiastic. There's no surprise here - just think about the feasibility of placing a synchronised player piano mechanism into a torpedo and having it operate properly. The Navy declared the mechanism too cumbersome and shelved the idea. The concept of frequency hopping was too far ahead of its time. Lamarr and Antheil pursued their invention no further. Yet, Lamarr was still able to help out in another way - by selling war bonds. As part of one promotion, anyone that purchased $25,000 worth of bonds could get a kiss from Lamarr. She was actually able to sell $7 million worth in one night. Not all great ideas are forgotten, however. In 1957, engineers at the Sylvania Electronics Systems Division, located in Buffalo, New York, used transistor electronics to accomplish the goal that Lamarr and Antheil had set out to conquer years before. Finally, in 1962 (three years after the Lamarr/Antheil patent expired), the concept of frequency hopping was used by the United States government in the communication systems placed aboard ships sent out to blockade Cuba. Today, the concept is not only used by the military (it is used in the Milstar defence communications satellite system), but has also become the technology behind the latest in wireless Internet transmission and the newest cellular phones. A quick search of the United States Patent Office shows 1203 patents dealing with frequency shifting (now called "spread spectrum") between 1995 and 1997. How much influence the Lamarr-Antheil patent has had, if any, on this technology will probably never be known. Lamarr never earned a penny from this invention that so many others have profited from. Instead, she slowly faded from public view. She was married and divorced six times between 1933 and 1965 to Fritz Mandl, Gene Markey, Sir John Loder, Ted Stauffer, W. Howard Lee (who later married actress Gene Tierney , and Lewis J. Boles. In 1966, Lamarr made international headlines when she was arrested for shoplifting in the May department store in Los Angeles, but was acquitted by a 10-2 jury vote. The bad publicity from this incident coupled with her controversial autobiography "Ecstasy and Me" (purportedly ghost written and not approved by Ms. Lamarr) brought an end to her movie career. On March 12, 1997, Hedy Lamarr was finally honoured by the Electronic Frontier Foundation for her great contribution to society. Her son Anthony Loder accepted the award for his mother and played an audio-tape for the audience - the first time she had publicly spoken in over two decades. Hedy Lamarr passed away on January 19, 2000 at her Casselberry home in Florida. The bulk of her nearly three million dollar estate was willed to her two children, but a portion was left to her former personal secretary and to a friend. Most surprisingly, however, was that she bequeathed $83,000 to a local police officer who had befriended her in the last years of her life. Lamarr asked that her ashes be scattered over the Vienna Woods, near where she was born in Austria.

Artigo 4

Basic Semiconductor Physics

Introduction
Materials can be categorised into conductors , semiconductors or insulators by their ability to conduct electricity.

It is a popular belief that insulators do not conduct electricity because their valence electrons are not free to wander throughout the material. In fact they are free to move around, however, in an insulator there are as many electrons as there are energy levels for them to occupy. If an electron swaps place with another electron no change is made since electrons are indistinguishable. There are higher energy levels, but to promote the electrons to these energy levels requires more energy than is usually practical.

Metals conduct electricity easily because the energy levels between the conduction and valence band are closely spaced, or there are more energy levels available than there are electrons to fill them so very little energy is required to find new energies for electrons to occupy. The resistivity of a material is a measure of how difficult it is for a current to flow. Semiconductors have a resistivity between 10 -4< <108 m although these are rough limits. The band theory of materials explains qualitatively the difference between these types of materials. Electrons occupy energy levels from the lowest energies upwards. However, some energy levels are forbidden because of the wave like properties of atoms in the material. The allowed energy levels tend to form bands. The highest filled level at T=0 K is known as the valence band . Electrons in the valence band do not participate in the conduction process. The first unfilled level above the valence band is known as the conduction band . In metals, there is no forbidden gap; the conduction band and the valence band overlap, allowing free electrons to participate in the conduction process. Insulators have an energy gap that is far greater than the thermal energy of the electron, while semiconductor materials the energy gap is typically around 1eV. The diagram below shows the differences in metals, semiconductors and insulators in terms of the how the energy bands are separated Elemental semiconductors are semiconductors where each atom is of the same type such as Ge, Si. These atoms are bound together by covalent bonds, so that each atom shares an electron with its nearest neighbour, forming strong bonds. Compound semiconductors are made of two or more elements. Common examples are GaAs or InP. These compound semiconductors belong to the III-V semiconductors so called because first and second elements can be found in group III and group V of the periodic table respectively. In compound semiconductors, the difference in electro-negativity leads to a combination of covalent and ionic bonding. Ternary semiconductors are formed by the addition of a small quantity of a third element to the mixture, for example Al x Ga 1-x As. The subscript x refers to the alloy content of the material, what proportion of the material is added and what proportion is replaced by the alloy material. The addition of alloys to semiconductors can be extended to

include quaternary materials such as Ga x In (1-x) As y P (1-y) or GaInNAs and even quinternary materials such as GaInNAsSb. Once again, the subscripts denote the proportion elements that constitute the mixture of elements. Alloying semiconductors in this way allows the energy gap and lattice spacing of the crystal to be chosen to suit the application. Intrinsic semiconductors are essentially pure semiconductor material. The semiconductor material structure should contain no impurity atoms. Elemental and compound semiconductors can be intrinsic semiconductors. At room temperature, the thermal energy of the atoms may allow a small number of the electrons to participate in the conduction process. Unlike metals, where the resistance of the material decreases with temperature. For semiconductors, as the temperature increases, the thermal energy of the valence electrons increases, allowing more of them to breach the energy gap into the conduction band. When an electron gains enough energy to escape the electrostatic attraction of its parent atom, it leaves behind a vacancy which may be filled be another electron. The vacancy produced can be thought of as a second carrier of positive charge. It is known as a hole . As electrons flow through the semiconductor, holes flow in the opposite direction. If there are n free electrons in an intrinsic semiconductor, then there must also be n holes. Holes and electrons created in this way are known as intrinsic charge carriers. The carrier concentration, or charge density, defines the number of charge carriers per unit volume. This relationship can be expressed as n=p where n is the number of electrons and p the number of holes per unit volume. The variation in the energy gap between different semiconductor materials means that the intrinsic carrier concentration at a given temperature also varies. An extrinsic semiconductor can be formed from an intrinsic semiconductor by adding impurity atoms to the crystal in a process known as doping . To take the most simple example, consider Silicon. Since Silicon belongs to group IV of the periodic table, it has four valence electrons. In the crystal form, each atom shares an electron with a neighbouring atom. In this state it is an intrinsic semiconductor. B, Al, In, Ga all have three electrons in the valence band. When a small proportion of these atoms, (less than 1 in 10 6 ), is incorporated into the crystal the dopant atom has an insufficient number of bonds to share bonds with the surrounding Silicon atoms. One of the Silicon atoms has a vacancy for an electron. It creates a hole that contributes to the conduction process at all temperatures. Dopants that create holes in this manner are known as acceptors. This type of extrinsic semiconductor is known as p-type as it creates positive charge carriers. Elements that belong to group V of the periodic table such as As, P, Sb have an extra electron in the valence band. When added as a dopant to intrinsic Silicon, the dopant atom contributes an additional electron to the crystal. Dopants that add electrons to the crystal are known as donors and the semiconductor material is said to be n-type. Doping of compound semiconductors is slightly more complicated. The effect of the dopant atom depends on the site occupied by the atom in the lattice . In III-V semiconductors, atoms from group II act as a acceptors when occupying the site of a group III atom, while atoms in group VI act as donors when they replace atoms from group V. Dopant atoms from group IV have the property that they can act as acceptors or donors depending on whether they occupy the site of group III or group V atoms respectively. Such impurities are known as amphoteric impurities

Intrinsic

p-type

n-type

Schematic diagram showing the only the valence electron shell to illustrate intrinsic, p-type and n-type semiconductors. Often, we are interested in transitions that occur near the bottom of the conduction band minimum to valence band maximum; In this case, it is useful to draw the bandstructure energy as a function of position, setting the wavevector k =0. In this representation of the energy bands, the donors and acceptors form levels in the energy gap region. At T=0 K, any free carriers from donors and acceptors are bound to their atoms. So there is no conduction. For non-zero temperatures, the sites can be thermally ionised, releasing carriers in the bands so conduction can occur.

These shallow level impurities are known as hydrogenic impurities . For donor atoms, an electron orbits a lattice site, while for acceptors a hole orbits around a lattice site with residual negative charge. The energy required to ionise these carrier is much less than the binding energy of the hydrogen atom since the effective mass is smaller and the radius of the carrier orbit larger than that of the hydrogen atom. A table of common impurities and their activation energy is to be found in the reference section.

(1)

A rough estimate for the temperature of ionisation is at room temperature. Initially when the temperature is low, excitation from donors and acceptors can be the only source of carriers: in this range the conductivity is extrinsic. In this regime, the doping of the semiconductor determines whether the semiconductor is n-type or p-type. At higher enough temperatures, direct thermal excitation from the valence band to the conduction band swaps the extrinsic density. There is then an equal number of electrons and holes; the conductivity is intrinsic with distinction between n and p.

Artigo 5

Semiconductor Crystals
The Lattice and the Basis
A crystal is a regular, ordered arrangement of atoms over a large scale. The atoms may be of a single type or the repetition of a complex arrangement of many different types of atoms. The crystal can be thought of as consisting of two separate parts: the lattice and the basis. The lattice is an ordered arrangement of points in space, while the basis consists of the simplest arrangement of atoms which is repeated at every point in the lattice to build up the crystal structure. A good analogy is patterned wallpaper. The basis is like a motif on the wallpaper and the lattice would be periodic pattern of points on which of the motif is repeated. In Figure 1, the lattice points correspond with the centre of the basis, but this does not have to be the case.

Figure 1. A crystal can be thought of as being like wallpaper. The motif is analogous to the basis and the arrangement of the motif over the surface is like the lattice. The points on the lattice are specified using vectors. Lattice vectors are the shortest distances to the nearest neighbouring points on the lattice and are conventionally denoted by a, band c. The angles between these vectors are given the symbols , , and . A simple two-dimensional example is shown in Figure. 2. Any two lattice points can be reached using a combination of the lattice vectors a and b. Obviously, in three dimensions, any point on the lattice can be reached using a combination of the three lattice vectors a, b and c. In 2-dimensions this is,

The basis vector , R is a vector from one lattice point to another in terms of the lattice vectors. Since the lattice looks the same (invariant) in going from one lattice point to another, the lattice has translational symmetry.

Primitive Cell
The primitive cell is the smallest part of the lattice that if repeated would reconstruct the entire crystal structure. The unit cell - is a volume repeated throughout the entire lattice. The unit cell does not have to be the primitive cell.

Figure 2. Lattice vectors are a linear combination of the basis vectors.

The Fourteen Bravais Lattices

The ways in which we can specify the lattice points in space and keep translational symmetry is limited. In 1848, Auguste Bravais demonstrated that there are in fact only fourteen possible point lattices and no more. For his efforts, the term Bravais lattice is often used in place of point lattice. System Cubic Tetragonal Orthorhombic Monoclinic Triclinic Trigonal Hexagonal Number of Lattices 3 2 4 2 1 1 1 Restriction on crystal cell angle P or sc, I or bcc,F or a=b=c fcc = ==90 P, I a=bc = ==90 P, C, I, F ab c = ==90 F, C ab c ==90 P ab c R a=b=c = = <120 ,90 P a=bc = =90 =120 Lattice Symbol

Table 1. Seven crystal systems make up fourteen Bravais lattice types in three dimensions. P - Primitive: simple unit cell F - Face-centred: additional point in the centre of each face I - Body-centred: additional point in the centre of the cell C - Centred: additional point in the centre of each end R - Rhombohedral: Hexagonal class only

Artigo 6

Photonic Crystals

The periodic arrangement of ions on a lattice gives rise to the energy band structure in semiconductors. Energy bands control the motion of charge carriers through the crystal. Similarly, in a photonic crystal, the periodic arrangement of refractive index variation, controls how photons are able to move through the crystal. Replacing the ions on a lattice are regions of low refractive index within a high-refractive index material or vice-versa. Photons react to the refractive index contrast in an analogous manner to the way electrons react when confronted with a periodic potential of ions. Each results in a range of allowed energies and a band structure characterised by an energy gap or photonic band gap. A band gap forms when the electron wavelength is comparable to the inter-atomic spacing. Photonic band gaps were first predicted in 1987 by two physicists working independently. They were Eli Yablonovitch, at Bell Communications Research in Red Bank, New Jersey, and Sajeev John of the University of Toronto. An array of 1mm holes milled into a slab of material of refractive index 3.6, latter to be known as Yablonovite, was found to prevent microwaves from propagating in any direction. An estimate of the distance between voids is given by the wavelength of the light divided by the refractive index of the material. This relationship means that it is even more difficult to create photonic crystals in materials with high refractive index. Finding materials and techniques of producing photonic crystals has remained illusive until 1997. Breaking the periodicity of the voids in the photonic crystal, either by enlarging or reducing the size of a few of the voids, introduces new energy levels within the photonic band gap. This is analogous to the creation of energy levels within the band gap by the addition of dopant atoms in semiconductor crystals. Narrow line width lasers [1], that are so important in the area of Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM) communication systems, can be fabricated using photonic crystals formed from the III-V semiconductors or rare-earth doped glass. The defect mode or microcavities formed by breaking the periodicity of the crystal amplify only those wavelengths of light that are able to pass freely through the crystal. The wavelength range of emission is related to the diameter of the microcavity divided by the diameter of the regular holes. Photonic crystal microcavities are more efficient than conventional semiconductor diode lasers since there are few directions in the which the photons can escape.

In passive devices, such as optical filters, where it is often required to filter a weak signal, the aim is to minimise further loss. Unfortunately, these losses are greater in materials with a high refractive index and photonic crystals use the contrast in refractive index to create energy band gaps. Altering the geometry of the voids, in such a way as to increase the symmetry of the periodic structure, the band gap can be restored in a low refractive index material. For example, by going from a rectangular array of voids in which the spacing of the holes is different for the two perpendicular directions within the plane, to a triangular arrangement which has a sixfold degree of symmetry within the plane. A quasiperiodic arrangement of holes have a photonic band gap what ever the angle of the light travels.

Source: IOP publications Photonic crystals are also being exploited in the technology of optical fibres by Phillip Russell and Jonathan Knight et Al. at the University of Bath to create fibres that are carry light at high powers. Traditional optical fibres have a glass core surrounded by a cladding layer. The cladding has a lower refractive index than the core. The difference in the refractive index between the two materials is slight, but it is enough to cause light within the core to be reflected along the core by total internal reflection. At high powers, the light is concentrated in a very small region of space. Raman scattering can result, causing the light signal to be corrupted and at high powers the fibre can even be damaged. The first photonic crystal fibres used a hexagonal array of air holes running the entire length of the fibre. The light travelled close to the fibre axis and so the power was still limited. By removing the central tubes to leave a central hole of 15 m in diameter. The hole acts as a waveguide, the light being trapped by the photonic crystal structure around the hole. The photonic crystal allows only some of the light to propagate along the fibre. Photonic crystal fibre is made by stacking pure silica tubes in a hexagonal array, and then heating and stretching it. This reduces the width of the structure, while retaining the geometry. Ultimately, Professor Russell sees hollow-core fibres as the basis of ultra high-power fibre-delivery systems, in which light from a powerful laser source is delivered to a cutting head in surgery and machining. And one day soon, hollow-core fibre might guide atoms or particles over long distrances, forming the basis of fibre-optic devices that move matter.