Microelectronics

Semiconductors
Transistors: BJT & MOS
Optoelectronics

ENGG1310

Reference book:
Fundamentals of Microelectronics,
Behzad Razavi (any edition)
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From design and
manufacturing….
To applications……
A few types of circuits
Circuit components
 Resistors, capacitors, inductors, sources etc
 Example: Find the branch currents I1, I2 and I3 using mesh analysis
• Step1. Identify the meshes and assign variables
• Step2. Apply KVL to each mesh
For mesh 1, -15+5i1+10(i1-i2)+10=0
For mesh 2, 6i2 +4i2 +10(i2-i1)-10=0
Simplifying the equations, we have
3i1 − 2i2 = 1 (1)

 i1 − 2i2 = −1 (2)
• Step3. Solving the equations
Method 1. By Elimination. (1) minus (2) gives 2i1=2 => i1=1A. Put this result
back into (2) gives i2=1A. From these results, we have
I1 =i1=1A, I2 =i2=1A and I3 = i1 -i2 = 0A
Method 2. By Cramer’s rule. Write the system of equations in matrix form
3 -2  i1  1
-1 2  i  = 1
  2  
• The determinants required by the Cramer’s rule are
3 -2 1 -2 3 1
Δ= = 4, Δ1 = = 4, Δ 2 = =4
-1 2 1 2 -1 1
• This gives i1=Δ1/Δ=1A, i2=Δ2/Δ=1A and the results for I1, I2 and I3 follows
Circuits comprising Passive Devices

 Components such as resistors,

capacitors and inductors, which are
passive devices, cannot control current
by means of another electrical signal
Active Devices
 Active devices has the ability to
electrically control electric charge flow
 Vacuum tubes and transistors are
examples of active devices
 Transistors (BJTs and MOSFETs) are
built from semiconductor pn junctions
Semiconductor Fundamentals

 Semiconductor devices serve as heart

of microelectronics.
 PN junction is the most fundamental
semiconductor device.
Semicondutors
 Semiconductors have conductivities
between those of metals and insulators
 The conductivity can be varied over
several orders of magnitude by adding
controlled amounts of impurity atoms
 The ability to control and change the
conductivity of semiconductors allows
for the design of a variety of
semiconductor devices
Charge Carriers in Semiconductor

 To understand PN junction’s IV
characteristics, it is important to
understand charge carriers’ behavior in
solids, how to modify carrier densities,
and different mechanisms of charge flow.
Periodic Table

 This abridged table contains elements

with three to five valence electrons, with
Si being the most important.
 a valence electron is an electron in the outer

Silicon shell associated with an atom

 Si has four valence electrons. Therefore, it can form

covalent bonds with four of its neighbors.
 When temperature goes up, electrons in the covalent
bond can become free.
Electron-Hole Pair Interaction

 With free electrons breaking off covalent

bonds, holes are generated.
 Holes can be filled by absorbing other
free electrons, so effectively there is a
flow of charge carriers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8MuD_xu6L4
Energy band
Energy

Electrons in a solid exhibit different energy levels.

The grouping of these different energy levels is
know as the energy band
 Metals

 In metals the bands either overlap or are partially filled

 Electrons and empty energy states are intermixed within the bands so
that electrons can move freely under the influence of an electric field
 Electrons in the conduction band contribute to the conduction process
Semiconductors
Semiconductors
 A band gap is the distance between the valence
band of electrons and the conduction band
 Essentially, the band gap represents the minimum
energy that is required to excite an electron up to a
state in the conduction band where it can participate
in conduction
 The difference between semiconductors and
insulators is the much smaller size of the bandgap
 For example Si has a bandgap of ~1.1 eV compared
with ~5eV for diamond
 This allows for excitation of electrons from the
valence band to the conduction band by reasonable
amounts of thermal or optical energy
Insulators

 Insulators have a filled valence band separated from an empty

conduction band by a bandgap containing no allowed energy states
 There can be no charge transport within the valence band since no
empty states are available into which electrons can move
Doping (N type)

 Pure Si can be doped with other elements to

change its electrical properties.
 For example, if Si is doped with P
(phosphorous), then it has more electrons, or
becomes type N (electron)
 Concentration of donor atoms: ND / cm3
Doping (P type)

 If Si is doped with B (boron), then it has

more holes, or becomes type P
 Concentration of acceptor atoms : NA / cm3
Summary of Charge Carriers
Properties of semiconductor
types in silicon

N-type (negative) P-type (positive)

Dopant Group V (e.g. Group III (e.g. Boron)
Phosphorus)
Bonds Excess Electrons Missing Electrons
(Holes)
Majority Carriers Electrons Holes
Minority Carriers Holes Electrons
 Silicon is the most common semiconductor.
Is it possible to use other elements in the
Periodic Table as semiconductors?
PN Junction
 Why do we need a PN junction?
From computers to logic gates to pn junctions
Boolean algebra
 Boolean algebra was formulated by George Boole, an
English mathematician (1815-1864) who described
propositions whose outcome would be either true or false
 In computer work it is used in addition to describe circuits
whose state can be either 1 (true) or 0 (false)
Examples of Boolean algebra
Boolean algebra can be physically
realized by transistor circuits
 Any operation that can be described in
boolean algebra can be turned into a
simple transistor circuit called a gate
 Gates are the building blocks of
computers
OR gate
 simple logic gate
 An OR gate
implements the PR
operation from boolean
algebra

 BUT how is it physically implemented?

PN Junction (Diode)

 When N-type and P-type dopants are

introduced side-by-side in a semiconductor, a
PN junction or a diode is formed.
Diode’s Three Operation Regions

 In order to understand the operation of

a diode, it is necessary to study its three
operation regions: equilibrium, reverse
bias, and forward bias.
Diode in Reverse Bias

 When the N-type region of a diode is connected to a

higher potential than the P-type region, the diode is
under reverse bias
 There is a built-in electric field across the junction
that blocks current flow
 Behaves as an open circuit under
Diode in Forward Bias

 When the N-type region of a diode is at a lower potential

than the P-type region, the diode is in forward bias.
 The built-in electric field decreased
 In forward bias, a current flows through the pn junction
which depends on the forward bias voltage VF
Water flow analogy

38
IV Characteristic of PN Junction
input-output characteristics
VD
I D = I S (exp − 1)
VT
𝑘𝑇
𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑚𝑎𝑙 𝑣𝑜𝑙𝑡𝑎𝑔𝑒 𝑉 = ≅ 26𝑚𝑉
𝑞
𝑠𝑎𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑐𝑢𝑟𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝐼 ≈ 10 𝐴

 The current and voltage relationship of

a PN junction is exponential in forward
bias region, and relatively constant in
reverse bias region.
What is the forward biased voltage VD of a pn
junction diode if the diode current ID is 1 mA, given
that Is = 1 x 10-12 A and VT = 25 mV?

40
For a forward-biased bipolar junction transistor (BJT), the collector
current IC is 1 mA when the base-emitter voltage VBE is 0.7 V. What is IC if
VBE is increased by 10%? (VT = 26 mV)
Logic gates:
the building blocks of digital circuits
Diode Logic: OR GATE
 Diodes together with resistors can be used to implement digital
logic functions
• Diodes connected to 5V inputs (logic 1) will conduct (forward biased)
• Current from source flow to resistor, so vY=5V
• and keep the diodes whose inputs are low (logic 0) in reverse bias
• Thus Y=A OR B OR C

Diode logic can only implement OR and AND, because

inverters (NOT gates) require an active device
What’s another common use of pn-junction
diodes?
What’s the difference between a resistor
and a diode?
More complex logic circuits
 Require logic gates beyond OR and
AND gates

 Active devices needed-> transistors

Bipolar Transistors
Active Devices
 Active devices has the ability to
electrically control electric charge flow
 Vacuum tubes and transistors are
examples of active devices
 Transistors (BJTs and MOSFETs) are
built from semiconductor pn junctions
Structure and Symbol of Bipolar Transistor

 Bipolar transistor can be thought of as a sandwich of

three doped Si regions. The outer two regions are
doped with the same polarity, while the middle region
is doped with opposite polarity.
Forward Active Region

 Forward active region: VBE > 0, VBC < 0.

Input-Output Characteristics of
Bipolar Transistor

 When an “input”
signal is applied
at the base
(VBE), an
“output” current
flows at the
collector (IC)

52
Water tap analogy

from internet
resources
Transconductance “gain”
 Transconductance, gm shows a measure of how well the
transistor converts voltage to current
 It is one of the most important parameters in circuit
design

Non-linear!

 gm can be visualized as the slope of IC versus VBE

 A large IC has a large slope and therefore a large gm
How do we use a BJT as a
voltage amplifier?
PNP transistors

 With the polarities of emitter, collector, and base reversed, a

PNP transistor is formed
 All the principles that applied to NPN's also apply to PNP’s, with
the exception that emitter is at a higher potential than base and
base at a higher potential than collector
56
What’s the difference between a diode and a BJT?
example: NOT Logic Gate

When input is LOW, the

transistor Q1 turns OFF.
Current flows through R1
to the output, thus output
is HIGH

When input is HIGH, the

transistor Q1 turns ON.
Current flows through
collector-emitter junction
to GND, causing output to
go LOW
Another type or transistor:
MOS Transistors
Parallel-plate Capacitor

 The capacitor consists of 2 conducting plates

separated with a dielectric (nonconducting)
materials
Parallel-plate Capacitor

 The charges are stored on the plates, thereby

maintaining an electric field between the plates
 This field therefore stores energy, and thus the
capacitor can store energy


Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor
(MOS) Capacitor

 The MOS structure can be thought of as a

parallel-plate capacitor, with the top plate
being the positive plate, oxide being the
dielectric, and Si substrate being the negative
plate. (We are assuming P-substrate.)
Structure and Symbol of n-MOSFET

 This device is symmetric, so either of the n+

regions can be source or drain.
Formation of Channel in nMOS

 First, a positive potential is applied to the metal gate

and a negative potential to the n-doped Drain and
Source
Formation of Channel in nMOS

 Next, the holes are repelled by the positive gate

voltage, leaving behind negative ions and forming a
depletion region.
Formation of Channel in nMOS

 Finally, electrons are attracted to the interface,

creating a channel (“inversion layer”)
 MOSFET Characteristics

 A potential is applied between the Drain and Source VD to

generate an output drain current ID
 The output drain current ID varies with a varying input
voltage VG while keeping VD constant

Non-linear!
PMOS Transistor

 It is possible to create a MOS device where holes are

the dominant carriers. It is called the PMOS
transistor.
 It behaves like an NMOS device with all the polarities
reversed.
CMOS
 CMOS stands for “Complementary Metal Oxide
Semiconductor”
 In CMOS technology, both N-type and P-type
transistors are used to design logic functions. The
same signal which turns ON a transistor of one type
is used to turn OFF a transistor of the other type
 This is the dominant semiconductor technology for
microprocessors, microcontroller chips, memories
like RAM, ROM, EEPROM and application-
specific integrated circuits (ASICs)
 Why CMOS?
 In a 1963 conference paper C.
T. Sah and Frank Wanlass of
the Fairchild R & D Laboratory
showed that logic circuits
combining p-channel and n-
channel MOS transistors in a
complementary symmetry
circuit configuration drew
close to zero power in standby
mode. Wanlass patented the
idea that today is called
CMOS.
CMOS Technology

 It possible to grow an n-well inside a p-substrate to

create a technology where both NMOS and PMOS
can coexist.
 It is known as CMOS, or “Complementary MOS”.
Comparison of Bipolar and MOS Transistors
 Bipolar devices have a higher gm than MOSFETs for
a given bias current due to its exponential IV
characteristics
 CMOS devices have low static power utilization, huge
noise immunity- allow for integrating logic functions
with high density on an integrated circuit
Why are smaller transistors better?
Moore’s Law
 Moore's law is a term used to refer to the observation
made by Gordon Moore in 1965 that the number of
transistors in a dense integrated circuit (IC) doubles
about every two years
The Future of Moore's Law
 "It can't continue forever“
 Eventually miniaturization will lead to
atomic level
 At that point the law cannot be sustained
Optoelectronics
Revisiting the bandgap
Optical absorption
 The excitation of an electron from the
valence band to the conduction band
requires a minimum energy of Eg
 When an incident photon of energy
>Eg interacts with an electron in the
valence band, the electron absorbs
the incident photon and gains
sufficient energy to surmount the
energy bandgap to reach the
conduction band
 Consequently a free electron in the conduction
band and a hole, corresponding to a missing
electron in the valence band, are created
Photodetector: application of absorption
 Photodetectors and arrays
Recombination and luminescence

 When an electron and hole

recombine, the electron
drops from an energy level
in the conduction band to an
energy level in the valence
band, resulting in the
generation of photons (light)
or phonons (lattice
vibrations)
LEDs: Application of (electro)luminescence
 Light-emitting diodes (LEDs) are p-n junction devices
 The junction in a LED is forward biased and when
electrons cross the junction from the n- to the p-type
material, the electron-hole recombination process
produces some photons in the IR or visible in a
process called electroluminescence. An exposed
semiconductor surface can then emit light.
How do we change the colour of emission?
 White light + colour filters
LCD displays- colour filtering
How do we change the colour of emission?
White LEDs
 White is a mixture of colours
Applications of LEDs