Rizal Technological University

College of engineering and industrial technology

ECE 3I RESEARCHES WORK

1 Semiconductor materials and diodes

Armodia Tevarms, t BS ECE

TF 9;00AM : 1O;30AM Engr ; Nasuli

December 02, 2011

SEMICONDUCTOR MATERIALS AND PROPERTIES Most electronic are fabricated by using semiconductor materials along with conductors and insulators. To again a better understanding of the behavior of the electronic devices in circuit. We must first understand a few of the characteristics of the semiconductor material. Silicon is by far the most common semiconductor material used for semiconductor devices and integrated circuits. Other semiconductor materials are used for specialized applications. For example. Gallium arsenide and related compounds are used for very-high speed devices and optical devices.

>> INTRINSIC SEMICONDUCTORS An intrinsic semiconductor is a single crystal semiconductor material with no other atoms in it. Since absorbing thermal energy from surrounding generates electron hole pairs, the number of electrons and holes in intrinsic semiconductor is equal under the condition of thermal equilibrium. Number of electrons or holes per unit volume in an intrinsic semiconductor is known intrinsic concentration.

>> EXTRINSIC SEMICONDUCTORS Main advantage of semiconductor materials is that their conduction properties can be altered in a controlled manner by addition of trivalent (acceptor) or pentavalent (donor) type of impurity. This process is known as DOPING and the resultant

semiconductor is known as extrinsic semiconductor. The amount of impurity atoms added is such that it increase the conductivity of extrinsic semiconductor appreciably. >> DOPED SEMICONDUCTORS When pentavalent/trivalent impurity atoms are introduced into the crystalline structure of a structure (Si or Ge), there is tremendous increase in the concentration of free electrons holes with the corresponding enhancement of the material which is then known as DOPED or extrinsic semiconductor. The commonly used pentavalent elements are nitrogen,phosphorus, arsenic and antimony. While the trivalent elements are boron, aluminum, gallium and indium.

>> n-TYPE SEMICONDUCTORS Since electrons are charge carriers involved in electric current, this type of extrinsic semiconductor is identified to be ntype (n stands for negative charge on electron). Thermal agitation process also gives rise to an electronhole pair. Hence there are also a small number of holes present in n-type semiconductor. Since a large number of electrons are present in n-type semiconductor, they are called as majority carriers. Holes on the other hand are known as minority carriers in n-type semiconductor. When donor type impurity is added to an intrinsic semiconductor, a new allowable energy level is introduced in resulting n-type semiconductor.

>> p-TYPE SEMICONDUCTORS The hole is relatively free to leave the covalent bond. Thus, the trivalent impurities make positive holes available. As the holes can accept electrons hence trivalent impurities are called acceptors and the trivalent impurities added to intrinsic semiconductors yield p-type semiconductors. In the p-type semiconductors the holes are predominant carriers. A few of these holes combine with electrons available in the intrinsic Si ( which we denoted by n;). Thus, in an equilibrium state the net number of inbounded electrons is less than n and net number of holes is much more than p.

Free negative and positive concentrations is a constant. This is called the mass action law ;
Where : n = Concentration of ve (electron) after doping p = Concentration of +ve ( Holes ) after doping n = p = Concentration of electron n or of holes p in the intrinsic semiconductor.

>> Drift and diffusion currents The two basic processes which cause electrons and holes to move in a semiconductor are : (a) DRIFT, which is the movement caused by electric fields and (b) DIFFUSION, which is flow caused by variations in the concentration. That is, concentration gradients. Such gradients can be caused by a nonhomogeneous doping distribution, or by the injection of a quantity of electrons or holes into a region.

>> The pn JUNCTION We looked at caharcteristics of semiconductor materials. The real power of semiconductor electronics occur when p and n regions are directly adjacent to each other, forming Pn junction. One important concept to remember is that in most integrated circuit applications. The entire semiconductor material is a single crystal with one region doped to be p-type and the adjacent region doped to be n-type.

JUNCTION DIODES Though doping greatly enhances the conductivity of a semiconductor, still the conduction takes place in both directions. However, if a junction is formed between n- and p type doped semiconductors, the conduction across the junction ( called pn junction) has a strongly unidirectional property. In the other words, the current is conducted with great facility in one direction( i.e., the resistance offered by the junction is very small), while it hardly conducts anuy current in the other direction(i.e., the resistance offered by the junction is very high). Such a junction device, called semiconductor diode, has current control properly and finds abundant applicatios in electronic circuits.

>> pn JUNCTION DIODES A small diffusion current which still persists under steady conditions is neutralized by the fact that the space charge potential gradient causes the drift of minority electrons ( these are thermally generated ) under steady state conditions the junction exists in a balance with net zero current. The equilibrium value of the contact potential for the open circuited diode is of the order of a few tenths volts. If the external terminals of the diode anode(p-side terminal) and cathode (n-side terminal) are connected by a conducting wire, no current would flow as the contact potential across the junction is cancelled by the opposite potentials across the contacts between the two terminals and nand p-type materials of the diode. Forward bias : In forward biasing of a pn-junction diode the positive terminal of a battery is applied to p-side terminal called anode and the batterys negative terminal is conncted to n-side terminal called cathode. This biasing causes the junction potential barrier to reduce from with consequent reduction in the width of the depletion region. The energy required by majority carriers to move across the junction now reduces in place of open circuit case. Therefore, there is great enhancement in the probability of the majority carriers moving across the junction. Reverse bias : In reverse biasing, the anode is made negative with reference to the cathode by the biasing battery. This biasing causes the majority electrons to be attracted away from the junction by the positive polarity of the battery and similarly the majority holes are attracted away towards the negative polarity of the battery. As s result. The width of the depletion region greatly increases and the barrier potential rises to (Vo + V) This almost cuts off the majority carrier current.

 Characteristics of a diode
The current across a pn-junction as we learnt above comprises two components: (i) injection component Ii (caused by diffusion of majority carriers) and (ii) reverse saturation current IS (caused by drift of minority carriers). The injection current Ii is related to the probability of electrons and holes to posses energy in excess of e(Vo V), where V is the biasing potential.

 Bibliography :
I.J. Nagrath, Electronic devices and circuits, 2007 ,published by Asoke k. Ghosg, EEE eastern economy edition, pp 1 18.

Balbir kumar and shail b. jain, Electronic devices and circuits, 2007 ,published by Asoke k. Ghosg, EEE eastern economy edition, pp 4 20. B. P. Singh Rekha Singh, Electronics devices and integrated circuits, first impression,2006, published by Dorling Kindersley ( India) pvt. Ltd, licenses of pearson in sounth Asia. pp 1 50. S. salivahanan, N.suresh kumar, A vallavaraj, Electronic devices and circuits, 1998, Tata McgrawHill Publishing Company Limited, This edition can be exported from india only by the publishers.