Semiconductor device & Digital Circuit

Electronic device has led to great technological advancement. Invention of these

devices made our life easy, communication all around the world can be done
within few seconds.
Any device whose action is based on the controlled flow of electrons
through it is called an electronic device
The branch of physics that deals with the study of these electronic devices is
called electronics.
Semiconductors are the basic material that is being used to control the flow of
electrons within it or we can say that the semiconductors are actually the basic
material of electronic devices.
Important features of semiconductors
 Within semi-conductors the electrons can flow with small application of
potential difference and the charge can flow easily within the material itself
 The conductivity of semi-conductors increases with increase in
temperature i.e. they have higher and negative temperature co-efficient
 Semi-conductors have relatively lower number of charge carrier compared
to metals
 Conductivity of semi-conductors range between a metals and insulator
 These materials are smaller in size and consume low power, yet it can
produce high reliability and long life
Electronics are mainly of two different type i.e. elemental semiconductors and
compound semi-conductors
Classification of semi-conductors based on the source and nature of charge
carriers
 Intrinsic Semi-conductors: The pure semi-conductors are called intrinsic
semi-conductor , i.e. the conductivity of the semi-conductors are due to the
intrinsic charge carrier( initial inherent charge carriers)
Let us consider a crystal of semi-conductor (silicon) 𝑆𝑖. Each Si atom has
four valence electrons which it shares with the four nearest neighbouring
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 Si atom. As the
temperature increases,
an electron from the
covalent bond may
break away which
become free to mov.
This electron leaves a
vacancy in the covalent
bond. This vacancy of
electrons with an
effective positive
electronic charge is called hole which behaves as a mobile positive charge.
The number of electrons set free at absolute temperature 𝑇 is given by
𝐸𝑔
−
𝑛𝑒 = 𝐶𝑒 2𝐾𝑇

where 𝐸𝑔 is ionization energy, i.e. the energy with which the number of
electrons or hole get created
𝐾 is the Boltzmann constant and 𝑇 is the temperature to which the semi-
conductor has risen

In case of intrinsic semi-conductors the number of electrons is equal to the

number of holes. (𝑛𝑒 = 𝑛ℎ )

 Extrinsic Semi-conductors: Semi-conductors that are obtained by adding

some impurities to the pure semi-conductors. It is created by adding small
amount of certain specific impurity atoms having valency different from
that of the original semi-conductor atom. Doping of semi-conductors
changes the number density of holes and electrons. Extrinsic semi-
conductors are of two types: 𝑛 − 𝑡𝑦𝑝𝑒 semiconductor and 𝑝 − 𝑡𝑦𝑝𝑒
semiconductors
Doping
The process of deliberate addition of a desirable impurity to a pure semi-
conductor as to increase its conductivity is called doping. The impurity atoms

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added are called dopants and the semi-conductors added are called doped semi-
conductors
 The semi-conductor which is to be doped should be very pure
 The size of dopant added should be nearly equal to the size of the semi-
conductor atom
 The dopant should not distort the crystal lattice of the semi-conductor
Pentavalent doping to create 𝒏 −type semi-conductor:
This kind of doping can be achieved by adding a pentavalent dopant such as
𝐴𝑠, 𝑃𝑏 or 𝑆𝑏 to a pure semic-conductor 𝑆𝑖 or 𝐺𝑒. As we can from the figure that a
pentavalent impurity atom substitute the tetravalent 𝑆𝑖 atom, 𝑆𝑖 atom uses four
of its electron to form covalent bond with a pentavalent bond dopant, as a result
fifth electron remain loosely
bound to the impurity atom.
This free electron provided
by the pentavalent atom is
used as charge carrier. As
each pentavalent impurity
atom donates one extra
electron for conduction, it is
called a donor.
Thus these semiconductors
have free electrons
contributed by donors and holes generated by thermal process, hence electrons
are the majority carriers and holes are the minority carriers
Thus for this kind of semi-conductors 𝑛𝑒 ≫ 𝑛ℎ

Trivalent Doping to create 𝒑 −type semi-conductor

This kind of doping can be achieved by adding a trivalent impurity atom
(𝑒. 𝑔. 𝐵, 𝐴𝑙, 𝑜𝑟 𝐺𝑎) to a tetravalent semi-conductor atom like 𝑆𝑖 𝑜𝑟 𝐺𝑒.

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 From the diagram we can see that the
impurity atom uses its three valence
electrons to form bond with the tetravalent
semi-conductor atom and one covalent
bond is left incomplete due to deficiency of
one electron. This deficiency of electron is
regarded as hole, when an electron from the
neighbouring atom slides down to the hole
created due to doping, another hole is
created in the lattice. In this way a hole
created by doping can help in conduction of
charge. The trivalent impurity atom is known as acceptor as it creates a hole
which accepts electron from the neighbouring bond. In this kind of extrinsic
semi-conductor electrons are thermally generated and holes are created by
doping
Hence we can say 𝑝 −type doping creates more number of holes as majority
charge carrier and electrons as minority charge carriers. 𝑛ℎ ≫ 𝑛𝑒
Energy Bands in solid
An isolated atom has well defined energy level, however when a large number of
such atoms get together to form a real solid the individual energy level overlap
and get completely modified. Instead of discrete values of energy of electrons, the
energy value lie in a certain range. The collection of these closely packed energy
levels are said to form an energy bands.
Two types of such bands formed in
solid are called Valence Band and
Conduction Band. The band formed
by filled energy level is known as
valence band whereas partially filled
or empty bands is known as
conduction band. The two bands are
generally created by a gap called
energy gap or forbidden gap.

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Distinction between Metals, Insulator and Semi-conductors on the basis of
energy bands
Metals: In metals the valence band and conduction band
overlaps, there is no gap in between the two band.
Valence band is completely filled whereas conduction
band is partially filled. Electrons from the valence band
can easily move to conduction band, Hence it may flow.
The highest energy level in the conduction band filled up
with electrons at absolute zero is called Fermi level and
the energy corresponding to Fermi level is called Fermi
Energy.

Semi-Conductor: In semi-conductors there is slight gap

between completely filled valence band and empty
conduction band.
At room temperature some valence band electron may
acquire some thermal energy and jump to the conduction
band where they are free to conduct electricity. Thus the
semi-conductors have small conductivity. Forbidden
energy of semi-conductor is less than 3𝑒𝑉. Thus the semi-
conductor attains small conductivity at room
temperature and its resistance is less than that of an
insulator.
Insulators: In insulator there is a large band gap
energy between the valence and conduction band. As
a result electric field cannot provide much energy to
an electron to jump to conduction band and conduct
electricity. Hence due to lack of electrons in
conduction band, the insulators are poor conductors
of electricity.

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Energy Band of 𝒏 −type semi-conductor
In 𝑛 −type semi-conductor an extra electron is
already present with the impurity that is weakly
bounded to the atom, a very small amount of
energy is sufficient to make free from the
impurity atom.(note that the electron is not free
to move out from the semi-conductor). These
donor electrons attains an energy level near the
conduction band. This energy level is also
known as the donor level.(𝐸𝐷 ). at room temperature these electrons has
sufficient energy to overcome the energy difference between the donor level and
conduction band as a result the electrons can easily jump to conduction band

Energy Band of 𝒑 −type semi-conductor

In 𝑝 −type semiconductor holes are created
inside the crystal lattice due to trivalent acceptor
impurity. Electrons from the crystal lattice can
move into these holes with very small amount of
energy, hence we can understand that the
acceptor energy level 𝐸𝐴 lies slightly above the
valence band. At room temperature electrons
from the valence band can easily jump to the
acceptor level leaving behind equal number of hole in the valence band. Thus in 𝑝
type semi-conductor there are more number of holes in the valence band
compare to electrons.

P-N Junction
A semi-conductor having 𝑝 type impurity on one end and 𝑛 type impurity at
other end is known as 𝑝 − 𝑛 junction, the junction at which the 𝑝 type and 𝑛
type are fused together is known as 𝑝 − 𝑛 junction

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 𝑝 side 𝑛 side
Majority carriers in 𝑝 side is holes Majority carriers in 𝑛 side is electrons

Minority carrier in 𝑝 side is electrons Minority carriers in 𝑛 side is holes

Depletion Region
 When the P and N side is fused together, due to concentration gradient
electrons from 𝑛 −side moves toward 𝑝 −side.
 Holes after accepting electrons from 𝑛 −side becomes negatively charged
ion near the junction
 Electrons after moving towards the 𝑝 −side leave positive ion in 𝑛 −side
near the junction
 This diffusion of electrons from 𝑛 −side to 𝑝 −side creates positive ions
near the junction of 𝑛 − 𝑠𝑖𝑑𝑒 and negative ion near the junction of 𝑝 −side
 This layer of ions near the junction sets up an electric field from 𝑛 −side to
𝑝 −side.
 This diffusion of electrons goes on until the electric field set up from
𝑛 −side to 𝑝 −side becomes strong enough to bar any more electron to
diffuse.
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  Thus near the junction the small region of charged ion that is free of any
charge carrier is known as depleted layer or we may say depletion region
 The potential difference between the positive charged region and negative
charged region within the depleted region is known as barrier potential

P-N junction in reality

P-N junction symbol

In depletion region electron hole pair produced by thermal agitation

continuously, the electrons are pulled toward 𝑛 −side and holes are pulled
towards 𝑝 −side due to the electric field set up by the depletion region. The
current set up by the barrier field is known as drift current
Before the formation of depletion region electrons continuously gets diffused
from 𝑛 −region to 𝑝 −region, current set up by the flow of electrons due to this
diffusion is known as diffusion current
Diffusion current and Drift current are always opposite in direction
Forward Bias Condition
In forward bias Condition the positive terminal of
the battery is connected to the 𝑝 −side and negative
terminal of the battery is connected to the 𝑛 −side,
as a result an external electric field is set up and the
junction is said to conduct electricity
 Holes from 𝑝 −side are pushed towards 𝑛 −side as electrons form 𝑛 −side
are pushed towards 𝑝 −side, as a result current flows
 The Depletion region becomes narrower
 The effective barrier potential decreases, hence the energy barrier across
junction also decreases
 Current flow takes place by the majority carriers
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Reverse Bias Condition
In this condition the 𝑝 −side is connected to the negative
terminal of the battery and 𝑛 −side is connected towards
the positive terminal of the battery. In this condition the
applied voltage and barrier potential are in the same
direction
 Very less current flows nearly zero as holes from 𝑝 −side and attracted
towards the negative terminal of the battery and electrons from 𝑛 −side are
attracted towards the positive terminal of the battery
 Minority carriers flow but current set up by minority carriers are negligible
often regarded as reverse or leakage current
 Barrier potential increases in width across the junction
 Depletion region widens
Forward Characteristic Graph
When the diode is in forward bias, the graph between voltage and current gives
us the forward characteristics of the p-n diode
Initially the current increases slowly with the increase of voltage, then the
current shoots up at a
particular voltage
known as cut-in or
threshold voltage.
When the voltage is
further increased
from the cut-in
voltage diode current
increases rapidly for a
small increase in
voltage.

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Reverse Bias Characteristic
When a diode is reverse biased very low current flows with the increase of
voltage very small current mainly due to the flow of minority carriers
The small current is known as the reverse saturation current, when the reverse
voltage across the p-n junction reach sufficiently high value, the reverse current
increases rapidly. The voltage is sufficiently large enough to breakdown the
depletion region and current starts flowing like a normal conductor. The voltage
at which the breakdown of junction occurs is known as the Break-down voltage.
Half Wave Rectifier
Rectifiers are the
circuit which are used
to convert A.C
(alternate current) to
D.C(direct current)

In the above diagram we can see that an input alternate current is being
converted into unidirectional flow of current.
Working:
 During the first cycle the current flows in clockwise direction, in that
direction the diode is in forward bias, so the current can easily flow
through the diode
 During the second cycle the current flows in anti-clockwise direction. In
that direction the diode is in reverse bias, so no current is allowed in that
direction
 Output current flowing through the resistance is pulsating &
unidirectional

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  The output pulsating current is combination of d.c. as well as
superimposed a.c. with different harmonic frequencies, we can obtain d.c.
component by eliminating the a.c. component using a filter circuit
Full Wave Rectifier
A full wave rectifiers can
convert a full wave a.c to a
uni-directional d.c.
It consists of two 𝑝 − 𝑛
diode and a transformer
which is used to step
down the voltage

Working
 During first cycle that is when current
flows in clockwise direction, only diode 𝐷1 allows the flow of current as for
𝐷1 is in forward bias in clockwise flow of current and 𝐷2 is in reverse bias
 During second cycle the current is in anti-clockwise direction for that only
diode 𝐷2 is in forward bias whereas diode 𝐷1 is in reverse bias.
 In both clockwise and anti-clockwise flow of current, we can see that
current flowing through 𝑅𝐿 is unidirectional
 The output voltage across 𝑅𝐿 is unidirectional for both half-cycle of input
a.c signal, thus this circuit acts as full wave rectifier.
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