1

SEMICONDUCTOR ELECTRONICS:
MATERIALS, DEVICES AND SIMPLE CIRCUITS
Devices in which a controlled flow of electrons can be obtained are the basic building blocks
of all the electronic circuits.
CLASSIFICATION OF METALS, CONDUCTORS AND SEMICONDUCTORS
On the basis of conductivity
(i)Metals: They possess very low resistivity (or high conductivity).
ρ ~ 10–2 – 10–8 Ω m ; σ ~ 102 – 108 S m–1
(ii) Semiconductors: They have resistivity or conductivity intermediate
to metals and insulators.
ρ ~ 10–5 – 106 Ω m; σ ~ 105 – 10–6 S m–1
(iii)Insulators: They have high resistivity (or low conductivity).
ρ ~ 1011 – 1019 Ω m; σ ~ 10–11 – 10–19 S m–1

Formation of energy bands :

• According to the Bohr atomic model, in an isolated atom the energy of any of its
electrons is decided by the orbit in which it revolves.
• When the atoms come together to form a solid the outer orbits of electrons from
neighboring atoms would come very close or could even overlap.
• Inside the crystal each electron has a unique position and each electron will have a
different energy level.
• The different energy levels which are very close together form continuous energy
variation and are called energy bands.
• The energy band which includes the energy levels of the valence electrons is called
the valence band. The energy band above the valence band is called the conduction
band. With no external energy, all the valence electrons will reside in the valence
band.
• In the case of Si, containing N atoms the outermost orbit is the third orbit (n = 3). The
number of electrons in the outermost orbit is 4 (2s and 2p electrons). Hence, the total
number of outer electrons in the crystal is 4N. The maximum possible number of
electrons in the outer orbit is 8. So, for the 4N valence electrons there are 8N
available energy states. These 8N discrete energy levels can either form a continuous
band or they may be grouped in different bands depending upon the distance
between the atoms in the crystal.

At the distance between the atoms in the crystal lattices of Si and Ge, the energy band of
these 8N states is split apart into two which are separated by an energy gap Eg .( The
difference between the lowest energy level in the conduction band , EC and highest energy
level in the valence band , EV.)

(i)Valence band: The range of energies (i.e. band) possessed by valence electrons is known
as valence band.
(ii) Conduction band: The range of energies (i.e. band) possessed by conduction band
electrons is known as conduction band
(iii) Forbidden energy gap: The separation between conduction band and valence band on
the energy level diagram is known as forbidden energy gap

1
 2
Difference between energy bands of (a) metals, (b) insulators and (c) semiconductors

Metals Semiconductors Insulators

Conduction band overlaps Small gap between the Large gap between the
on the valence band. conduction band and the conduction band and the
Electrons can valence band, Eg < 3eV . valence band, electrons
move freely into C B (Insulators at 0 K). Electrons in the valence band all
from the valence band may remain bound and no free
gain external energy to electrons are available in the
cross the gap between the conduction band Eg >3
conduction band and the eV
valence band and will move
into the conduction band.
They will create vacant
energy levels in the valence
band where other valence
electrons can move

Insulators for a wide range of

temperatures

INTRINSIC SEMICONDUCTORA semiconductor in an extremely pure form is known as an

intrinsic semiconductor.
Pure Ge and Si are tetravalent. Their atoms have four valence electrons and are held
together through covalent bonds. The forbidden energy gap is very small; being 1.1eV for
silicon and 0.7eV for germanium. Small energy is needed by their valence electrons to cross
over to the conduction band. Even at room temperature, some of the valence electrons may
acquire sufficient energy to enter into the conduction band and thus become free electrons.
The resistance of a semiconductor decreases with the rise in temperature i.e. it has negative
temperature coefficient of resistance. Each time a valence electron enters into the
conduction band, a hole is created in the valence band. Holes also contribute to current.
(i) In an intrinsic semiconductor, the number of free electrons (in conduction band) is
exactly equal to the number of holes (in valence band) :ne = nh = ni where ne = number
density of free electrons in conduction band nh = number density of holes in valence band.ni
= number density of intrinsic carriers (free electrons or holes) Under the action of an
electric field, these holes move towards negative potential giving the hole current, Ih. The
total current, I is thus the sum of the electron current Ie and the hole current Ih :I = Ie + Ih
EXTRINSIC SEMICONDUCTOR. No important electronic devices can be developed using
an intrinsic semiconductor. When a small amount, say, a few parts per million (ppm), of a
suitable impurity is added to the pure semiconductor, the conductivity of the
semiconductor is increased manifold. Such materials are known as extrinsic semiconductors
or impurity semiconductors.
The deliberate addition of a desirable impurity(trivalent or pentavalent) is called
doping and the impurity atoms are called dopants.
There are two types of dopants used in doping the tetravalent Si or Ge:

2
 3
Pentavalent (valency 5); like Arsenic (As), Antimony (Sb), Phosphorous(P), etc. Trivalent
(valency 3); like Indium (In),Boron (B), Aluminium (Al), etc.
n-type semiconductor: When an atom of +5 valency element occupies the position of an
atom in the crystal lattice of Si, four of its electrons bond with the four silicon neighbors
while the fifth remains very weakly bound to its parent atom. The energy required to
separate this electron from its atom is ~ 0.01 eV for germanium, and 0.05 eV for silicon.
The pentavalent dopant is donating one extra electron for conduction and is known as
donor impurity. The number of conduction electrons is made much larger than the number
of holes. Electrons become the majority carriers and holes the minority carriers. These
semiconductors are, known as n-type semiconductors. (ne >> nh)

p-type semiconductor. when Si

or Ge is doped with a trivalent
impurity like Al, B, In, etc. the
dopant has one valence electron
less than Si or Ge and,
therefore, this atom can form
covalent bonds with
neighbouring three Si atoms but
does not have any electron to
offer to the fourth Si atom. So the bond between the fourth
neighbour and the trivalent atom has a
vacancy or hole. This hole is available for
conduction. The dopant atom of p-type
material is called acceptor atom. The holes are
the majority carriers and electrons are minority
carriers. Therefore, extrinsic semiconductors
doped with trivalent impurity are called p-type
semiconductors.( nh >> ne ) The crystal
maintains an overall charge neutrality . The
electron and hole concentration in a
semiconductor in thermal equilibrium is given by
nenh = ni2 .

p-n JUNCTION

3
 4
When a semiconductor crystal (germanium or silicon) is so prepared that one half is p-type
and the other n-type, the contact surface dividing the two halves is called a pn junction.
1. During the formation of p-n junction, due to the concentration gradient across p-, and
n- sides, holes diffuse from p-side to n-side (p →n) and electrons diffuse from n-side to
p-side (n →p). This motion of charge carries gives rise to diffusion current across the
junction.
2. This migration results in the n-section acquiring a positive charge and p-section a
negative charge .It establishes a potential difference across the junction and within a
very short time this becomes large enough to prevent any further movement of charge
carriers. This is called potential barrier or junction barrier.
3. This space-charge region on either side of the junction together is known as
depletion region (no charge carriers).
4. Due to this field, electron on p-side of the junction moves to n-side and a hole on n side
of the junction moves to p-side. The motion of the minority charge carriers due to
the electric field is called drift. Thus a drift current, which is opposite in direction to
the diffusion current starts.
5. Initially, diffusion current is large and drift current is small. As the diffusion processes
continues the space-charge regions on either side of the junction extend, increasing the
electric field strength and hence drift current. This process continues until the diffusion
current equals the drift current. Thus a p-n junction is formed.
6. In a p-n junction under equilibrium there is no net current.
SEMICONDUCTOR DIODE:
p-n junction diode under forward bias:
1. When an external voltage V is applied across a
semiconductor diode such that p-side is connected
to the positive terminal of the battery and n-side to
the negative terminal, it is said to be forward
biased.
2. The direction of the applied voltage (V) is opposite
to the built-in potential V0.
3. The depletion layer width decreases and the barrier
height is reduced .The effective barrier height
under forward bias is (V0 – V).
4. If the applied voltage is small, the barrier potential
will be reduced only slightly below the equilibrium
value, the current will be small.
5. If we increase the applied voltage, the barrier height will be reduced and the current
increases.
6. Electrons from n-side cross the depletion region and reach p-side and holes from p-side
cross the junction and reach the n-side. (Minority carrier injection)
7. At the junction boundary, on each side, the minority carrier concentration increases
significantly compared to the locations far from the junction.
8. The charge carriers diffuse from the junction edge
to the other end giving rise to current.
p-n junction diode under reverse bias.
1. When an external voltage (V) is applied across the
diode such that n-side is positive and p-side is
negative, it is said to be reverse biased.

4
 5
2. The barrier height increases and the depletion region widens due to the change in the
electric field.
3. The effective barrier height under reverse bias is (V0 + V).
4. This suppresses the flow of electrons from n → p and holes from p → n, diffusion
current, decreases enormously.
5. The drift of the minority carriers gives rise to current.
V-I characteristics
The circuit arrangement for studying the V-I characteristics
of a diode is shown.

• For different values of voltages, the value of the current is noted. A graph between V
and I is obtained.
• In forward bias measurement, a milliammeter is used since the current is large while
a micrometer is used in reverse bias to measure the current.
• In forward bias, the current first increases very slowly, almost negligibly, till the
voltage across the diode crosses a certain value called the threshold voltage or cut-
in voltage (~0.2V for germanium diode and ~0.7 V for silicon diode).
• In reverse bias, the current is very small (~μA) and almost remains constant with
change in bias. It is called reverse saturation current. At very high reverse bias
(break down voltage), the current suddenly increases.
• Dynamic resistance is the ratio of small change
in voltage ΔV to a small change in current ΔI:

JUNCTION DIODE AS A RECTIFIER

Principle:A junction diode allows current to pass only when it is forward biased. So if an
alternating voltage is applied across a diode the current flows only in that part of the cycle
when the diode is forward biased. This property is used to rectify alternating voltages and
the circuit used for this purpose is called a rectifier.
HALF WAVE RECTIFIER
1. The secondary of a transformer supplies ac voltage across terminals A and B.
2. When the voltage at A is positive, the diode is forward biased and it conducts.
3. When A is negative, the diode is reverse-biased and it does not conduct. The reverse
saturation current of a diode is negligible.

5
 6

4. In the positive half-cycle of ac there is a current through the load resistor RL and we
get an output voltage, , whereas there is no current in the negative half-cycle.
5. Since the rectified output of this circuit is only for half of the input ac wave it is
called as half-wave rectifier.

FULL WAVE RECTIFIER

1. Here the p-side of the two diodes
are connected to the ends of the
secondary of the transformer.
2. The n-side of the diodes are
connected together and the output
is taken between this common
point of diodes and the midpoint of
the secondary of the transformer.
3. So for a full-wave rectifier the secondary of the
transformer is provided with a centre tapping
and so it is called centre-tap transformer.
4. When A at any instant is positive with respect
to the centre tap, at that instant, voltage at B
being out of phase will be negative . So, diode
D1 gets forward biased and conducts (while D2
being reverse biased is not conducting).
5. Hence, during this positive half cycle we get an
output current (and an output voltage across
the load resistor RL).
6. When the voltage at A becomes negative with
respect to centre tap, the voltage at B would
be positive ,diode D1 would not conduct but
diode D2 would, giving an output current and
output voltage (across RL)
7. Thus, we get output voltage during both the
positive as well as the negative half of the cycle. This is a more efficient circuit for
getting rectified voltage or current than the half wave rectifier. The rectified voltage is
in the form of pulses of the shape of half sinusoids.
FILTERS :To get steady dc output from the pulsating voltage normally a capacitor is
connected across the output terminals (parallel to the load RL). [Inductor in series with RL is
also used]. This filters out the ac ripple and gives a pure dc voltage, and are called
filters.

6
 7
The capacitor gets charged to the peak voltage of the rectified output, and, it gets
discharged through the load and the voltage across it begins to fall. The rate of fall of the
voltage across the capacitor depends upon the inverse product of capacitor C and the
effective resistance RL used in the circuit (RC=time constant). To make the time constant
large value of C should be large. So capacitor input filters use large capacitors. The output
voltage obtained by using capacitor input filter is nearer to the peak voltage of the rectified
voltage. This type of filter is most widely used in power supplies.

SPECIAL PURPOSE p-n JUNCTION DIODES

Optoelectronic junction devices
Semiconductor diodes in which carriers are generated by photons (photo-excitation
(i) Photodiodes used for detecting optical signal (photo detectors).
(ii) Light emitting diodes (LED) which convert electrical energy into light.
(iii) Photovoltaic devices which convert optical radiation into electricity (solar cells).
(i) Photodiode
▪ A Photodiode is a special purpose p-n junction diode fabricated with a transparent
window to allow light to fall on the diode.
▪ It is operated under reverse bias. When the photodiode is illuminated with light
(photons) with energy greater than the energy gap (hυ >Eg) of the semiconductor, then
electron-hole pairs are generated due to the absorption of photons.
▪ The generation of e-h pairs takes place in or near the depletion region.
▪ Due to electric field of the junction, electrons and holes are separated before they
recombine. The direction of the electric field is such that electrons reach n-side and
holes reach p-side where they are collected giving rise to an e.m.f.
▪ When an external load is connected, current flows. The magnitude of photocurrent is
proportional to incident light intensity.
▪ [It is easier to observe the change in the current with change in the light intensity, if a
reverse bias is applied]. Thus photodiode can be used as a photo detector to detect
optical signals

(ii) Light emitting diode:

7
 8
1. It is a heavily doped p-n junction which under forward
bias emits spontaneous radiation. The diode is
encapsulated with a transparent cover so that emitted
light can come out.
2. When the diode is forward biased, electrons are sent
from n →p (where they are minority carriers) and
holes are sent from p →n (where they are minority
carriers).
3. At the junction boundary the concentration of
minority carriers increases compared to the equilibrium concentration (i.e., when there
is no bias).
4. These recombine with majority carriers near the junction. On recombination, the energy
is released in the form of photons. Photons with energy equal to or slightly less than the
band gap are emitted.
5. As the forward current increases, intensity of light emitted increases and reaches a
maximum. Further increase in the forward current only results in decrease of light
intensity.
6. The V-I characteristics of a LED is similar to that of a Si junction diode. But the
threshold voltages are much higher and slightly
different for each colour. The reverse breakdown
voltages of LEDs are very low.

7. LEDs can emit red, yellow, orange, green and blue

light. The color of the light emitted by LED depends on
its Band Gap energy.The energy of the photons
emitted, is equal to or slightly less than its Band Gap
energy.
8. The semiconductor used for fabrication of visible LEDs
must have a band gap of 3 eV to 1.8 eV (spectral
range of visible light is from about 0.4 nm to 0.7 nm).
9. The compound semiconductor Gallium Arsenide –
Phosphide (GaAs1–xPx) is used for making LEDs of
different colours. GaAs0.6 P0.4 (Eg ~ 1.9 eV) is used
for red LED. GaAs (Eg ~ 1.4 eV) is used for making
infrared LED.
10. The intensity of light emitted is determined by the forward current conducted by the
junction.
11. LEDs use a low voltage DC supply for their operation. A given LED has a safe value of
current [ 5 mA for simple LED,It can go upto 30 mA for high brightness output]
12. To limit the forward current to within the safe value a suitable series resister is added
USES:These LEDs find extensive use in remote controls, burglar alarm systems,
optical communication, etc. Research is being done for developing white LEDs which can
replace incandescent lamps.
LEDs have the following advantages over conventional incandescent low power lamps: (i)
Low operational voltage and less power.
(ii) Fast action and no warm-up time required.
(iii) The bandwidth of emitted light is 100 Å to 500 Å or in other words it
is nearly (but not exactly) monochromatic.
(iv) Long life and ruggedness.
8
 9
(v) Fast on-off switching capability.
(iii) Solar cell
A solar cell is basically a p-n junction which generates emf when solar radiation falls on the
p-n junction. It works on the same principle (photovoltaic effect) as the photodiode, except
that no external bias is applied and the junction area is kept much larger for solar
radiation to be incident because we are interested in more power.

▪ A p-Si wafer of about 300 nm is taken over which a thin layer (~0.3 nm) of n-Si is grown
on one-side by diffusion process.
▪ The other side of p-Si is coated with a metal (back contact).
▪ On the top of n-Si layer, metal finger electrode (or metallic grid) is deposited. This acts
as a front contact. [The metallic grid occupies only a very small fraction
of the cell area (<15%) so that light can be incident on the cell from the top.]
▪ The generation of emf by a solar cell, when light falls on, it is due to the following:
(i) generation of e-h pairs due to light (with hυ> Eg) close to the junction;
(ii) Separation of electrons and holes due to electric field of the depletion region.
Electrons are swept to n-side and holes to p-side;
(iii) the electrons reaching the n-side are collected by the front contact and holes
reaching p-side are collected by the back contact. Thus p-side becomes positive
and n-side becomes negative giving rise to photo voltage.
• When an external load is connected a photocurrent IL flows through the load.
• The I – V characteristics of solar cell is drawn in the fourth quadrant of the coordinate
axes because a solar cell does not draw current but supplies the same to the load.
• Semiconductors with band gap close to 1.5 eV are ideal materials for solar cell
fabrication. Solar cells are made with semiconductors like Si (Eg = 1.1 eV), GaAs
• (Eg = 1.43 eV), CdTe (Eg = 1.45 eV), CuInSe2 (Eg = 1.04eV), etc.
The important criteria for the selection of a material for solar cell fabrication are
(i) band gap (~1.0to 1.8 eV),
(ii) high optical absorption (~104 cm–1),
(iii) electrical conductivity
(iv) availability of the raw material, and
(v) Cost.
Sunlight is not always required for a solar cell. Any light with photon energies
greater than the band gap will do.
USES: Solar cells are used to power electronic devices in satellites and space
vehicles and also as power supply to some calculators.