UNIT 1

Based on Electrical Conductivity Materials are classified into Three types

i)Conductors ii) Semiconductors iii) Insulators

Conductors: These are the materials which allows flow of Electrons Completely
through it.
Ex: Copper, Silver, Aluminium
Semiconductors: These are the materials which allows flow of Electrons
Partially through it.
Ex: Silicon, Germanium
Insulators: These are the materials which don’t allow flow of Electrons through
it.
Ex: Rubber, Glass, Plastic

Semiconductor Types

A pure form of semiconductors is called as intrinsic semiconductor. Conduction

in intrinsic sc is either due to thermal excitation or crystal defects. Si and Ge are
the two most important semiconductors used. Other examples include Gallium
arsenide GaAs, Indium Antimonide (InSb) etc.

Let us consider the structure of Si. A Si atomic no. is 14 and it has 4 valance
electrons. These 4 electrons are shared by four neighboring atoms in the crystal
structure by means of covalent bond. Below figure shows the crystal structure of
Si at absolute zero temperature (0K). Hence a pure SC acts has poor conductivity
(due to lack of free electrons) at low or absolute zero temperature.

At room temperature some of the covalent bonds break up to thermal energy and
The valance electrons that jump into conduction band are called as free electrons
that are available for conduction.
The absence of electrons in covalent bond is represented by a small circle usually
referred to as hole which is of positive charge. Even a hole serves as carrier of
electricity in a manner similar to that of free electron.
In a pure semiconductor, the number of holes is equal to the number of free
electrons.

Extrinsic Semi-conductor
Intrinsic semiconductor has very limited applications as they conduct very
small amounts of current at room temperature. The current conduction capability
of intrinsic semiconductor can be increased significantly by adding a small
amounts impurity to the intrinsic semiconductor. By adding impurities, it
becomes impure or extrinsic semiconductor. This process of adding impurities is
called as doping.
N type semiconductor: If the added impurity is a pentavalent atom, then the
resultant semiconductor is called N-type semiconductor. Examples of pentavalent
impurities are Phosphorus, Arsenic, Bismuth, Antimony etc.
A pentavalent impurity has five valance electrons. Below Fig shows the crystal
structure of N-type semiconductor material where four out of five valance
electrons of the impurity atom(antimony) forms covalent bond with the four
intrinsic semiconductor atoms. The fifth electron is loosely bound to the impurity
atom. This loosely bound electron can be easily Excited from the valance band to
the conduction band by the application of electric field or increasing the thermal
energy. The energy required to detach the fifth electron form the impurity atom is
very small of the order of 0.01ev for Ge and 0.05 eV for Si.

Fifth Valence Electron

P type semiconductor: If the added impurity is a trivalent atom, then the resultant
semiconductor is called P-type semiconductor. Examples of trivalent impurities
are Boron, Gallium, indium etc.
The crystal structure of p type sc is shown in the below fig. The three valance
electrons of the impurity forms three covalent bonds with the neighboring atoms
and a vacancy exists in the fourth bond giving rise to the holes. The hole is ready
to accept an electron from the neighboring atoms. Each trivalent atom contributes
to one hole generation and thus introduces a large no. of holes in the valance band.
At the same time the no. electrons are decreased compared to those available in
intrinsic sc because of increased recombination due to creation of additional
holes.

Hole (donor impurity)

Thus in P type sc , holes are majority carriers and electrons are minority carriers.
Since each trivalent impurity atoms are capable accepting an electron, these are
called as acceptor atoms. The following fig 1.5b shows the pictorial
representation of P type sc
The conductivity of N type sc is greater than that of P type sc as the mobility of
electron is greater than that of hole.
For the same level of doping in N type sc and P type sc, the conductivity of an
Ntype sc is around twice that of a P type sc

PN Junction Diode:
Definition:
Diode is an electronic device or Component which allows the current to flow only
in one direction. It is a device which is widely used in modern-day electronics.
A diode is made up of two words i.e., “Di” means Two, and “Ode” means
Electrodes which means that a device or component has two electrodes. (i.e.,
cathode and anode).
Representation or Symbol of Diode:

In the given diagram it is clear that a diode has two terminals which are called the
cathode and anode.

Construction and Operation of Diode:

In a piece of Pure semiconductor, if one half is doped by p type impurity and the
other half is doped by n type impurity, a PN junction is formed. The plane dividing
the two halves or zones is called PN junction.
Operation of PN Junction can be explained in three cases:
Under Zero Bias:

As shown in the fig the n type material has high concentration of free
electrons, while p type material has high concentration of holes. Therefore, at the
junction there is a tendency of free electrons to diffuse over to the P side and the
holes to the N side. This process is called diffusion.
As the free electrons move across the junction from N type to P type, the donor
atoms become positively charged. Hence a positive charge is built on the N-side
of the junction. The free electrons that cross the junction uncover the negative
acceptor ions by filing the holes. Therefore, a negative charge is developed on the
p –side of the junction. This net negative charge on the p side prevents further
diffusion of electrons into the p side. Similarly, the net positive charge on the N
side repels the hole crossing from p side to N side. Thus, a barrier sis set up near
the junction which prevents the further movement of charge carriers i.e. electrons
and holes.
As a consequence of induced electric field across the depletion layer, an
electrostatic potential difference is established between P and N regions, which
are called the potential barrier, junction barrier, diffusion potential or contact
potential, Vo or VB. The magnitude of the contact potential Vo varies with doping
levels and temperature. Vo is 0.3V for Ge and 0.72 V for Si.
Under Forward Bias:

When a diode is connected in a Forward Bias condition, a negative Potential is

applied to the N- type material and a positive Potential is applied to the P-type
material. Because of Positive Potential at side of P type, Holes will move towards
the junction and Negative Potential at the side of N type, Electrons will move
towards the junction
If this external voltage (Vf) becomes greater than the value of the Built in voltage,
approx. 0.7 volts for silicon and 0.3 volts for germanium, the potential barriers
opposition will be overcome and current will start to flow.

Under Reverse Bias:

 When a diode is connected in a Reverse Bias condition, a positive Potential
is applied to the N-type material and a negative Potential is applied to the P-type
material. The positive potential applied to the N- type material attracts electrons
towards the positive electrode and away from the junction, while the holes in the
P-type end are also attracted away from the junction towards the negative
electrode. The net result is that the depletion layer grows wider due to a lack of
electrons and holes and presents a high impedance path, almost an insulator. The
result is that a high potential barrier is created thus preventing current from
flowing through the semiconductor material.

V-I characteristics of PN Junction Diode

In forward bias condition p-type is connected to positive terminal of battery and

the n-type to the negative terminal of the battery, there is a reduction in the
potential barrier, in this condition. For germanium diodes, when the voltage is 0.3
V, and for silicone diodes, when the voltage is 0.7 V the potential barriers decrease
and there is a flow of current.
When the diode is in forward bias, as the voltage applied to the diode is
overcoming the potential barrier, the current increases slowly and the curve
obtained is non-linear. Once the potential barrier is crossed by the diode, the diode
behaves normally and the curve rises sharply as further external voltage increases
and the curve obtained is linear.
When the PN junction diode is under reverse bias, this results in an increase in
the potential barrier and resistance also increases. Minority carriers are present in
the junction which creates reverse saturation current flows in the beginning.
If the applied voltage increases rapidly, there is increased kinetic energy due to
minority charge carriers which affect the majority charges. In this stage the diode
breaks down. or the voltage is called breakdown voltage, this may also destroy
the diode.
Diode as a Switch:
Diode is a two terminal PN junction that can be used in various applications. One
of such applications is an electrical switch. The PN junction, when forward biased
acts as close circuited and when reverse biased acts as open circuited. Hence the
change of forward and reverse biased states makes the diode work as a switch,
the forward being ON and the reverse being OFF state.

Working of Diode as a Switch:

Whenever a specified voltage is exceeded, the diode resistance gets increased,

making the diode reverse biased and it acts as an open switch. Whenever the
voltage applied is below the reference voltage, the diode resistance gets
decreased, making the diode forward biased, and it acts as a closed switch.
The following circuit explains the diode acting as a switch.

A switching diode has a PN junction in which P-region is lightly doped and N-

region is heavily doped. The above circuit symbolizes that the diode gets ON
when positive voltage forward biases the diode and it gets OFF when negative
voltage reverse biases the diode.
Diode Switching Times

While changing the bias conditions, the diode undergoes a transient response.
The response of a system to any sudden change from an equilibrium position is
called as transient response.
The sudden change from forward to reverse and from reverse to forward bias,
affects the circuit. The time taken to respond to such sudden changes is the
important criterion to define the effectiveness of an electrical switch.
• The time taken before the diode recovers its steady state is called
as Recovery Time.
• The time interval taken by the diode to switch from reverse biased
state to forward biased state is called as Forward Recovery
Time(tfr)
• The time interval taken by the diode to switch from forward biased
state to reverse biased state is called as Reverse Recovery Time(trr)
To understand this more clearly, let us try to analyse what happens once the
voltage is applied to a switching PN diode.
From the above figure, let us consider the diode current graph.
➢ Before t1 diode is under steady state forward bias condition.
➢ At t1 time the diode is suddenly brought to OFF state from ON state; it is
known as Storage time.
➢ Storage time is the time required to remove the excess minority carrier

charge. The negative current flowing from N to P type material is of a

considerable amount during the Storage time. This negative current is -IR.

➢ The next time period from t2- t3 is transition time. Transition time is the
time taken for the diode to get completely to open circuit condition.
➢ After t3 diode will be in steady state reverse bias condition.
➢ Reverse recovery time (trr)=Storage time (Ts)+Transition time (Tt)
➢ Whereas to get to ON condition from OFF, it takes less time called
as Forward recovery time. Reverse recovery time is greater than Forward
recovery time. A diode works as a better switch if this Reverse recovery
time is made less.