Module 5

Semiconductor Devices and

Circuits

Diodes
 Semiconductor
• Depending on their conductivity, materials can
be classified into three types as conductors,
semiconductors and insulators.
• Conductor is a good conductor of electricity.
Insulator is a poor conductor of electricity.
• Semiconductor has its conductivity lying
between these two extremes.
• A comparatively smaller electric field is
required to push the electrons to make it
conduct.
• At low temperature virtually semiconductor
behaves as an insulator. However at room
temperature some electrons move giving
conductivity to the semiconductor.
• AS temperature increases its conductivity
increases hence it has negative temperature
co-efficient.
 Classification
• Intrinsic semiconductor:
A pure semiconductor is called intrinsic semi
conductor where even at room temperature electron-
hole pairs are created. Under the influence of electric
field, total current through the semiconductor is the
sum of currents due to free electrons and holes.
• Extrinsic semiconductor: Current conduction is
increased by adding a small amount of impurity to
intrinsic semiconductors, so it becomes extrinsic
semiconductors
 Diode – some facts
• In electronics, a diode is a two-terminal
electronic component that conducts electric
current in only one direction.
• Diodes were the first semiconductor
electronic devices.
• Today most diodes are made of silicon, but
other semiconductors such as germanium are
sometimes used.
 PN Junction Diode
• In a piece of semiconductor material, if one
half is doped by P-type and the other half is
doped by Ntype impurity, a PN junction is
formed. The plane dividing the two halves or
zones is called PN junction.
• The N-type has high concentration of free
electrons while P-type has high concentration
of holes.
• Therefore at the junction there is a tendency
for the free electrons to diffuse over to the P-
side and holes to the N-side (process called
diffusion).
• The net opposite charge in each layer prevents
further diffusion into that layer. Thus a barrier
is set up near the junction which prevents
further movement of charge carriers. This is
called as potential barrier (0.3V or germanium
and 0.7 for silicon).
 Forward Bias
• When positive terminal of battery is connected to
the P-type and negative terminal to the N-type of
the PN junction diode, the bias applied is known as
forward bias.
• The applied positive potential repels the holes in
the P-type region so that the holes move towards
the junction and the applied negative potential
repels the electrons in the N-type region and the
electrons move towards the junction(When
applied voltage VF is less than V0) and hence the
forward current IF is almost zero.
• Eventually when the applied potential is more
than the internal barrier potential the barrier
will disappear and hence the holes cross the
junction from P-type to N-type and the
electrons cross the junction in the opposite
direction resulting in relatively large current
flow in the external circuit.
I-V characteristics of P Junction diode
 Reverse Bias
• When the negative terminal of the battery is
connected to the P-type and positive terminal
is connected to N-type of the PN junction, the
bias applied is known as reverse bias.
• Under this condition, holes form the majority
carriers of P-side move towards the negative
terminal of the battery and electrons which
form the majority carriers of the N-side are
attracted towards the positive terminal of the
battery.
• Hence the width of the depletion region which
is depleted of mobile carriers increases. Thus
the electric filed produced by applied reverse
bias is in the same direction of electric field
and hence the barrier is increased. Therefore,
theoretically no current should flow in the
external circuit. But in practice very small
reverse current in the order of microamperes
flows under bias. This current is called as
reverse saturation current.
• The magnitude of reverse saturation current
mainly depends upon junction temperature.
• For large reverse bias is applied, the free electrons
from the N-type moving towards the positive
terminal of the battery acquire sufficient energy to
move with high velocity to dislodge valence
electrons from semiconductor atom in the crystal.
Thus large number of free electrons are formed
which is commonly called as avalanche of free
electrons. This leads to the breakdown of junction
leading to very large reverse current. The reverse
voltage at which the junction breakdown is known
as breakdown voltage.
 Zener diode
• A Zener diode is a type of diode that permits
current not only in the forward direction like a
normal diode, but also in the reverse direction if
the voltage is larger than the breakdown voltage
known as "Zener knee voltage" or "Zener
voltage".
• The device was named after Clarence Zener, who
discovered this electrical property.
• Breakdown voltage for commonly available zener
diodes can vary widely from 1.2 volts to 200
volts.
• When reverse voltage reaches breakdown
voltage in a PN diode, the current through the
junction and power dissipated at the junction
will be high. Such an operation is destructive
and the diode gets damaged. However, diodes
can be designed with adequate power
dissipation capability to operate in the
breakdown region. One such diode is Zener
diode which is heavily doped than the
ordinary diode.
• The forward bias condition is same as the
ordinary PN diode, but under reverse bias
condition, breakdown of the junction occurs
and the breakdown voltage depends upon the
amount of doping.
• If the diode is heavily doped, depletion layer
will be thin and consequently breakdown
occurs at lower reverse voltage, besides the
breakdown voltage being sharp. Thus the
breakdown voltage can be selected with the
amount of doping.
• When the reverse bias field across the
junction is sufficiently high, it may exert a
strong force on bound electrons to tear them
out from a covalent bond. Thus a large
number of electron – hole pairs will be
generated through a direct rupture of the
covalent bond thereby resulting in large
reverse current at the breakdown voltage.
Though Zener breakdown occurs for lower
breakdown voltage and avalanche breakdown
occurs for higher breakdown voltage, such
diodes are normally called Zener diode
Zener diode as voltage regulator
 Application
• From the zener diode characteristics, under
the reverse bias condition, the voltage across
the diode remains almost constant although
the current through the diode increases. Thus
the voltage across the zener diode serves as a
reference voltage. Hence the diode can be
used as a voltage regulator.
• The arrangement shown is useful when it is
required to provide a constant voltage across a
load resistance RL where as the input voltage
may be varying over a range.
• As shown, the zener diode is reverse biased and
as long as the input voltage does not fall below
Vz, the voltage across the diode will be constant
and hence the load voltage will also be
constant.
 What is Transistor?

• A Transistor is an electronic device

composed of layers of a
semiconductor material which
regulates current or voltage flow and
acts as a switch or gate for electronic
circuit.

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Bipolar Junction Transistors (BJTs)

• The bipolar junction transistor is a semiconductor

device constructed with three doped regions.
• These regions essentially form two ‘back-to-back’
p-n junctions in the same block of semiconductor
material (silicon).
• The most common use of the BJT is in linear
amplifier circuits (linear means that the output is
proportional to input). It can also be used as a
switch (in, for example, logic circuits).
 Application
• Switching
• Amplification
• Oscillating Circuits
• Sensors

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 Types
• NPN

• PNP
 npn Structure
• The emitter (E) and is heavily doped (n-type).

• The collector (C) is also doped n-type.

• The base (B) is lightly doped with opposite

type to the emitter and collector (i.e. p-type
in the npn transistor).
Structure (Cross Section)
 BJT Circuits
• Most electronic devices take the signal between
two input terminals and deliver from it an output
signal between two output terminals.
• The BJT has only three terminals so one of these
is usually shared (i.e. made common) between
input and output circuits.
• We thus talk about common emitter (CE),
common base (CB) and common collector (CC)
configurations.
 Analogy

E
Common Base
Common Emitter
 BJT Circuits
• The CE configuration is the one most commonly
encountered since it provides both good current
and voltage gain for ac signals.
• In the CE configuration the input is between the
base and the emitter. The output is between the
collector and the emitter.
 Current Directions (Convention)
• We define currents directions such that the
collector current (IC) and base current (IB)
flow into the device whereas the emitter
current (IE) flows out of the device.

• THIS IS IMPORTANT; we shall shortly treat

the transistor as a current node and write
IC + IB = IE (Kirchhoff)
 Current Flow Convention

E
Emitter Base Collecto C
(n-type) (p-type) r (n-
IE type)
IC

IB B
 Basic Operation
• In normal operation for analogue (linear
amplifier) circuits the emitter-base junction is
forward biased and the collector-base junction is
reverse biased.
• These ‘bias’ or ‘quiescent’ conditions are set by
d.c. bias circuits.
• The forward bias between the base and emitter
injects electrons from the emitter into the base
and holes from the base into the emitter.
• As the emitter is heavily doped and the base
lightly doped most of the current transport across
this junction is due to the electrons flowing from
emitter to base.
• The base is lightly doped and physically very thin.
• Thus only a small percentage of electrons flowing
across the base-emitter (BE) junction combine
with the available holes in this region.
• Most of the electrons (a fraction α which is close
to 1, e.g. 0.98) flowing from the emitter into the
base reach the collector-base (CB) junction.
• Once they reach this junction they are ‘pulled’
across the reverse biased CB junction into the
collector region i.e. they are collected.
• Those electrons that do recombine in the base
give rise to the small base current IB.
• The electrons ‘collected’ by the collector at the C-
B junction essentially form the collector current in
the external circuit.
• There will also be a small contribution to collector
current, called ICO, from the reverse saturation
current across the CB junction.
• The base current supplies positive charge to
neutralise the (relatively few) electrons
recombining in the base. This prevents the build
up of charge which would hinder current flow.
 BJT Operation.
The Critical Knowledge!
• The (relatively large) collector current is
directly controlled by the (much smaller)
base current.
• This is further illustrated and clarified in
the following discussions of the BJT’s
current-voltage characteristics.
Output characteristic
Input characteristics
 Modes of Operation
• Active Mode
• Cut-off mode
• Saturation Mode
 Transistor Biasing

Region of Emitter-Base Collector-Emitter Operation of a

operation Junction Junction transistor

Acts as an
Active FB RB
amplifier

Cut-off RB RB Open switch

Saturation FB FB Closed switch

 Applications
• Bipolar junction transistors remain important devices
for ultra-high-speed discrete logic circuits such as
emitter coupled logic (ECL),
• power-switching applications and
• in microwave power amplifiers.
• BJTs are universally used in electrical circuits where
current needs to be controlled.
– Some of the areas are:
• switching elements to control DC power to a load,
• amplifiers for analog signals,
 Silicon Controlled Rectifier

• A Silicon Controlled Rectifier (or Semiconductor Controlled

Rectifier) is a four layer solid state device that controls current
flow
• The name “silicon controlled rectifier” is a trade name for the
type of thyristor commercialized at General Electric in 1957
 SCR

• A SCR is essentially a diode with an extra terminal added

• This extra terminal is called the gate, and it is used to trigger
the device into conduction by the application of a small
voltage
• An SCR can be seen as a conventional rectifier controlled by a
gate signal
• It is a 4-layered 3-terminal device
• When the gate to cathode voltage exceeds a certain threshold,
the device turns 'on' and conducts current
 Silicon Controlled Rectifier

• Industrially SCRs are applied to produce DC voltages for

motors from AC line voltage
• Rectifier
– Half-wave rectifier, full-wave rectifier
Half-wave rectifier
Half-wave rectifier
Half-wave rectifier
 Applications - SCR
• SCR as static contactor / switch / EM relay
• SCR for power control
• SCR for speed control of c.c. shunt motor
• Over light detector
• Used in power conversion and regulation circuits
• Used for surge protection
 MOSFET, a legend

• While Shockley’s JFET was greatest invention over BJT, for less
off current, high input impedance, voltage controlled and
temperature insensitive  Mead’s MOSFET won JFET by
exceedingly great reduce in off current and higher impedance…
• Over 50 years, the size was reduced about 1 lakh times, the latest
MOSFET has over all size of 40nm.
Device structure
 Operation

• While the Gate is positive higher voltage, which attracts the negative carriers
(electrons) and will form a region below gate.
• Since this region inverted from p-type, it called as “Inversion region”. This
region supports the flow of carriers from source to drain, so again called as
“Channel”
• The channel width is depending on gate bias/potential which decides the
drain current.
• The length of the gate metal is called “gate length” and length of the channel
is called “Effective gate length”.
• Depending on the Gate voltage (VGS> 0
and VGS<0), the operation completely
differs, they are respectively called
“Enhancement Mode” and “Depletion
Mode”
 Enhancement type

• The channel is formed normally without any added region.

• Normally OFF
Depletion type
• Channel is depleted by
forces Gate voltage
• Normally ON
• Most of the mobile
applications.
 Common Source Amplifier; Analytical Study
D ZL
• Here, the FET can be either JFET or
MOSFET, the difference between them is
on the value of parameters gm and rD G

• Simply the load is connected series to

S
drain, which will be parallel to rD.

• The Dynamic gain is simply calculated by

ration of input voltage and output voltage
at a particular frequency, or the range of
frequency G
CGD D
V0

rD
CGS gm ZL
Vi
CDS

S
 Common Source Characteristics
• Depending on the Gate voltage (VGS> 0 and VGS<0), the operation
completely differs, they are respectively called “Enhancement Mode” and
“Depletion Mode”
  g m  Ygd
AV 
YL  Yds  g d  Ygd

Each terms are strictly admittance, however, while low frequency is concern – the
series capacitance will be in-effective. So the gain will be expressed as

 gm
AV   gm Z L when rD  Z L
YL  g d

Input Admittance and Miller Effect:

While solve the above equation for Input admittance, the input capacitance
can be justified with miller effect which is most useful for two:
1. Cascading of amplifier
2. Amplifier Stabilization (by feedback mechanism)

Yi
 C i  C gs  1  g m rD C gd
jw
 Common Drain Amplifier; Source Follower
• Similar to CC configuration; a ‘source resistance’ be added in common source
configuration

g m  Ygd
AV 
1  (Yds  g d  Ygd ) RS

G
C i  C gs  1  g m rD C gs

Here the input capacitance reduced than

S Common Source, which will increase the
RS input impedance and by further decreases
the output impedance which is good for an
amplifier.
 Voltage variable resistor (VVR)
• The gate defines the channel, where
channel is like a semiconductor bar
with size control on VG
• It’s very direct that the resistance of
material is voltage controlled.
• The region before pinch of is
suitable for this application (after
pinch off, the device is independent
of voltage.)

ro
rD 
1  KVGS 
ro  drain resistance at zero bias (minimum)
K  a constant (varies with FET type)
 Application of VVR

• Automatic Gain Control: For the Feedback amplifiers, the gain is

solely depending on feedback amplifier

• Voltage controlled Tuning: For modern mobile systems and

automatic tuning applications