SEMICONDUCTORS

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Semiconductor Chapter Objectives:
Of particular importance are the concepts of:

• energy band,
• the two kinds of electrical charge carriers
called electrons and holes, and
• how the carrier concentrations can be
controlled with the addition of dopants.

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Shockley, Bardeen, and Brattain were jointly awarded the 1956 Nobel
Prize in Physics "for their researches on semiconductors and their
discovery of the transistor effect."

A transistor is a semiconductor
device used to amplify and switch
electronic signals and electrical
power. It is composed of
semiconductor material with at least
three terminals for connection to an
external circuit.

Assorted discrete
transistors.
Packages in order
from top to
bottom: TO-3,
TO-126, TO-92,
SOT-23 3
 Elements
• Basic categories
– Conductors
• Examples: Copper, silver
• The valence electron can easily be freed
– Insulators
• Valence electrons are tightly bounded to the atom
– Semiconductors
• Silicon, germanium (single element)
• Gallium arsenide, indium phosphide (compounds)
• They can act as conductors or insulators
 CRYSTAL STRUCTURES

• Solid materials may be classified according to the regularity

with which atoms or ions are arranged

with respect to one another.

• A crystalline material is one in which

the atoms are arranged in a repeating

or periodic array over large atomic distances;

that is, long-range order exists.

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 CRYSTAL STRUCTURES
Upon solidification, the atoms will position

themselves in a repetitive

three-dimensional pattern, in which

each atom is bonded to its

nearest-neighbor atoms.
• All metals, many ceramic materials,

and certain polymers form crystalline structures under normal

solidification conditions.
• For those that do not crystallize, this long-range atomic order
is absent.
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 An example of the hard sphere

model for the atomic arrangement

found in some of the common
elements .

• In this particular case all the atoms

are identical.

• Sometimes the term lattice is used in

the context of crystal structures;

• ‘‘Lattice’’ means a three-dimensional

array of points coinciding with atom
positions (or sphere centers).
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 The atomic order in crystalline solids
indicates that small groups of atoms form
a repetitive pattern.
• Thus, in describing crystal structures, it is
often convenient to subdivide the
structure into small repeat entities called
unit cells.
• In the figure, one unit cell is drawn within
the aggregate of spheres which in this
case happens to be a cube.
• All the atom positions in the crystal may
be generated by foldings of the unit cell
integral distances along each of its edges. 8
 DIAMOND
Each carbon, bonds to four other carbons, and these bonds are totally
covalent.
This is appropriately called the diamond cubic crystal structure, (face
centered cubic) which is also found for other Group IVA elements in
the periodic table [e.g., germanium, silicon, and gray tin].

..
.. 5 atoms marked by pink dots

. show the tetrahedral structure

C or Si atoms

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 Scanning tunneling microscope view of
the individual atoms of silicon plane.

-each and every silicon atom has four other silicon atoms as its nearest neighbor
atoms. ( illustrated in Fig. 1–2 with the darkened cluster of a center atom having four
neighboring atoms.) This cluster is called the primitive cell.

-Silicon is a group IV element in the periodic table and has four valence electrons.
These four electrons are shared with the nearest neighbors so that eight covalent
electrons are associated with each atom.
-Germanium, the semiconductor with which the first transistor was made, also has
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the diamond crystal structure.
Figure 1–4 suggests that there are no free electrons to conduct
electric current. This is strictly true only at the absolute zero
temperature. At any other temperature, thermal energy will cause a
small fraction of the covalent electrons to break loose and become
conduction electrons as illustrated in Fig. 1–5a.

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An interesting thing happens when an electron breaks loose and becomes free.
It leaves behind a void, or a hole indicated by the open circle in Fig. 1–5a.
The hole can readily accept a new electron as shown in Fig. 1–5b. This provides
another means for electrons to move about and conduct currents. An
alternative way to think of this process is that the hole moves to a new
location.

It is important to become familiar with thinking of the holes as mobile particles carrying
positive charge, just as real as conduction electrons are mobile particles carrying
negative charge.

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It takes about 1.1 eV of energy to free a covalent electron to create a
conduction electron and a hole.

This energy can be determined, for example, from a photoconductivity

experiment. When light shines on a Si sample, its conductivity increases
because of the generation of mobile electrons and holes. The minimum
photon energy required to induce photoconductivity is 1.1 eV.
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Atomic orbitals and molecular orbitals
 Atomic Orbitals

• The electrons of a single

isolated atom occupy

atomic orbitals, which form a
• discrete set of energy levels.
• If several atoms are brought

together into a molecule,

their atomic orbitals split.

Molecular Orbitals
• This produces a number of molecular orbitals proportional to
the number of atoms.
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The highest energy band that contains electrons is called the valence band,
whereas the lowest energy empty band is called the conduction band.
The band gap is the difference in energy between the valence and conduction
bands. The laws of quantum mechanics forbid electrons from being in the band
gap; thus, an electron must always be in one of the bands.

Conduction band is where the electron leaves the valence shell and becomes free

Valence band is where the outmost shell is

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Insulators, Semiconductors, and Metals
• This separation of the valence and conduction bands
determines the electrical properties of the material
• Insulators have a large energy gap
– electrons can’t jump from valence to conduction bands
– no current flows
• Conductors (metals) have a very small (or nonexistent) energy
gap
– electrons easily jump to conduction bands due to thermal
excitation
– current flows easily
• Semiconductors have a moderate energy gap
– only a few electrons can jump to the conduction band
• leaving “holes”
– only a little current can flow
 Semiconductors
• A semiconductor is a material with electrical conductivity due to

electron flow intermediate in magnitude between that of a

conductor and an insulator.

Semiconductor materials are the foundation of modern electronics,

including radio, computers, telephones, and many other devices.

• Such devices include transistors, solar cells, many kinds of

diodes including the light-emitting diode, the silicon controlled

rectifier, and digital and analog integrated circuits.

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 Semiconductors
Similarly, semiconductor solar photovoltaic panels directly

convert light energy into electrical energy.

In a metallic conductor, current is carried by the flow of

electrons.

In semiconductors, current is often schematized as being

carried either by the flow of electrons or by the flow of positively

charged "holes" in the electron structure of the material.

Actually, in both cases only electron movements are involved.

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20
• Silicon is used to create most semiconductors commercially.
• Dozens of other materials are also used, including germanium, and
compound material such as gallium arsenide, and silicon carbide.

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When a large number of atoms (of order ×1020 or more) are brought

together to form a solid, the number of orbitals becomes exceedingly

large. Consequently, the difference in energy between them becomes

very small.

Semiconductor band structure 22

Thus, in solids the energy levels form continuous bands of energy

rather than the discrete energy levels of the atoms in isolation.

However, some intervals of energy contain no orbitals, no matter how

many atoms are aggregated, forming band gaps.

Semiconductor band structure 23

 Conduction Electrons and Holes
• Electrons exist only within
prescribed energy bands
• These bands are separated by
energy gaps
• When an electron jumps to the
conduction band it causes a hole
• When electron falls back to its initial
valence recombination occurs
• Consequently there are two
different types of currents
– Hole current (electrons are the
minority carriers)
– Electron current (holes are the
minority carriers)

Remember: We are interested in electrical current!

Holes: electron absence as a charge carrier

• The conce

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 Holes: electron absence as a charge carrier
• The dependence of the electron energy distribution on

temperature also explains why the conductivity of a

semiconductor has a strong temperature dependency, as a

semiconductor operating at lower temperatures will have fewer

available free electrons and holes able to do the work.

• When ionizing radiation strikes a semiconductor, it may excite an

electron out of its energy level and consequently leave a hole.

• This process is known as electron–hole pair generation.

• Electron-hole pairs are constantly generated from thermal energy

as well, in the absence of any external energy source.

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• Electrons excited to the conduction band also leave behind
electron holes, or unoccupied states in the valence band.
• Both the conduction band electrons and the valence band holes
contribute to electrical conductivity.
• The holes themselves don't actually move, but a neighboring
electron can move to fill the hole, leaving a hole at the place it has
just come from, and in this way the holes appear to move, and the
holes behave as if they were actual positively charged particles.
• One covalent bond between neighboring atoms in the solid is ten
times stronger than the binding of the single electron to the atom,
so freeing the electron does not imply destruction of the crystal
structure.
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 Basic Concepts

• Any solid has a large number of bands.

• In theory, a solid can have infinitely many bands (just as an

atom has infinitely many energy levels).

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 Basic Concepts

• Bands have different widths, based upon the properties of the

atomic orbitals from which they arise.

• Also, allowed bands may overlap, producing (for practical

purposes) a single large band.

• Figure in next slide shows a simplified picture of the bands in a

solid that allows the three major types of materials to be

identified: metals, semiconductors and insulators.

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 Electronic Band Structure

Simplified diagram of the electronic band

structure of metals, semiconductors, and
insulators.
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 Bands in Metals
• Metals contain a band that is partly empty and partly filled

regardless of temperature.

• Therefore they have very high conductivity.

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 Bands in Insulators & Semiconductors
• The lowermost, almost fully occupied band (with the
valence electrons of individual atoms) in an insulator or
semiconductor, is called the valence band.
• The uppermost, almost unoccupied band is called the
conduction band because only when electrons are excited
to the conduction band can current flow in these materials.

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 Bands in Insulators & Semiconductors
• The difference between insulators and semiconductors is only

that the forbidden band gap between the valence band and

conduction band is larger in an insulator, so that fewer electrons

are found there and the electrical conductivity is lower.

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 Bands in Insulators & Semiconductors
• This band gap is one of the most useful aspects of the band

structure, as it strongly influences the electrical and optical

properties of the material.

• The band gap and defect states, created in the band gap by doping

can be used to create semiconductor devices such as solar cells,

diodes, transistors, laser diodes, and others.

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• Because one of the main mechanisms for electrons to be

excited to the conduction band is due to thermal energy, the

conductivity of semiconductors is strongly dependent on the

temperature of the material.

• The ease with which electrons in a semiconductor can be

excited from the valence band to the conduction band depends

on the band gap between the bands.

• The size of this

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• A pure semiconductor is often called an
“intrinsic” semiconductor.

• Doped semiconductors are often referred to

as “extrinsic” semiconductors.

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 Doping
• The electronic properties and the

conductivity of a semiconductor

can be changed in a controlled

manner by adding very small

quantities of other elements to the

intrinsic material, called “dopants”. .

• In crystalline silicon, typically this is

achieved by adding impurities of boron or phosphorus to

the melt and then allowing the melt to solidify into the crystal.
• This process is called "doping".

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 Doping
• The property of semiconductors that makes them most useful for
constructing electronic devices is that their conductivity may easily
be modified by introducing impurities into their crystal lattice.
• The process of adding controlled impurities to a semiconductor is
known as doping.
• The amount of impurity, or dopant, added to an intrinsic (pure)
semiconductor varies its level of conductivity.
• Doped semiconductors are often referred to as extrinsic.
• By adding impurity to pure semiconductors, the electrical
conductivity may be varied not only by the number of impurity
atoms but also, by the type of impurity atom and the changes may
be thousand folds and million folds.
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 Doping
• At the temperature close to 20 °C , 1 cm3 of pure germanium
contains about 4.2×1022 atoms and 2.5×1013 free electrons and
2.5×1013 holes (empty spaces in crystal lattice having positive
charge).
• The addition of 0.001% of arsenic (an impurity) donates an extra
104 free electrons and increases the number of free electrons to
1017 in the same volume and the electrical conductivity increases
about 10,000 times."

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• The materials chosen as suitable dopants depend on the

atomic properties of both the dopant and the material to be

doped.

• In general, dopants that produce the desired controlled

changes are classified as either electron acceptors or donors.

• A donor atom that activates (that is, becomes incorporated

into the crystal lattice) donates weakly bound valence

electrons to the material, creating excess negative charge

carriers.
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• These weakly bound electrons can move about in the

crystal lattice relatively freely and can facilitate conduction

in the presence of an electric field.

• The donor atoms introduce some states which are under,

but very close to the conduction band edge.

• Electrons at these states can be easily excited to the

conduction band, becoming free electrons, at room

temperature.
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• Semiconductors doped with donor impurities are called n-type,
while those doped with acceptor impurities are known as p-type.
• The n and p type designations indicate which charge carrier acts
as the material's majority carrier.

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 Improving Conduction by Doping (cont.)
• Phosphorus and arsenic
are donor dopants
-if phosphorus is introduced into the
silicon lattice, there is an extra
electron “free” to move around and
contribute to electric current
• very loosely bound to atom and
can easily jump to conduction
band
– produces n type silicon
• sometimes use + symbol
to indicate heavier
doping, so n+ silicon
– phosphorus becomes
positive ion after giving
up electron
• For example, group V elements such as As shown in Fig. 1–6a
• bring five valence electrons with each atom. While four electrons are shared with
the neighboring Si atoms, the fifth electron may escape to become a mobile
electron, leaving behind a positive As ion. Such impurities are called donors for
they donate electrons.
• Notice that in this case, no hole is created in conjunction with the creation of a
conduction electron. Semiconductors containing many mobile electrons and few
holes are called N-type semiconductors because electrons carry negative (N)
charge.
• As and P are the most commonly used donors in Si. 44
Similarly, when boron, a group III impurity, is introduced into Si as shown
in Fig. 1–6b, each B atom can accept an extra electron to satisfy the
covalent bonds, thus creating a hole.
Such dopants are called acceptors, for they accept electrons.
Semiconductors doped with acceptors have many holes and few mobile
electrons, and are called P type because holes carry positive (P) charge.
Boron is the most commonly used acceptor in Si.
In and Al are occasionally used. 45
• For example, the pure
semiconductor silicon has
four valence electrons.
• In silicon, the most common
dopants are group III and
group V elements.
• Group III elements all
contain three valence
electrons, causing them to
function as acceptors when
used to dope silicon.

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• Group V elements have five

valence electrons, which

allows them to act as a donor.

• Therefore, a silicon crystal

doped with boron creates a

p-type semiconductor whereas

one doped with phosphorus

results in an n-type material.

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