Scribd
Upload
99 views

Chapter 4 Semiconductor Assignment 1

Adding donor (n-type) or acceptor (p-type) impurity atoms can greatly alter the electrical characteristics of a semiconductor. Donor atoms like phosphorus donate an extra electron to the conduction band, leaving behind a fixed positive ion. Acceptor atoms like boron accept an electron from the valence band, leaving a fixed negative charge and a mobile hole. Doping a semiconductor with small amounts of impurities creates an extrinsic material with an excess of either electrons or holes, enabling the fabrication of semiconductor devices.

Uploaded by

llukemark858
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
99 views

Chapter 4 Semiconductor Assignment 1

Adding donor (n-type) or acceptor (p-type) impurity atoms can greatly alter the electrical characteristics of a semiconductor. Donor atoms like phosphorus donate an extra electron to the conduction band, leaving behind a fixed positive ion. Acceptor atoms like boron accept an electron from the valence band, leaving a fixed negative charge and a mobile hole. Doping a semiconductor with small amounts of impurities creates an extrinsic material with an excess of either electrons or holes, enabling the fabrication of semiconductor devices.

Uploaded by

llukemark858
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 3

Chapter 4 semiconductor assignment

The effect of adding donor and acceptor impurity atoms


to a semiconductor

The intrinsic semiconductor may be interesting, but the real power of


semiconductors is realized by adding small, controlled amounts of
specific dopant, or impurity, atoms. This doping process can greatly
alter the electrical characteristics of the semiconductor. The doped
semiconductor, called an extrinsic material, is the primary reason we
can fabricate the various semiconductor devices.
To get a doped semiconductor, called an extrinsic semiconductor, we
can use two doping process. The first process is adding phosphorous, a
donor atom, which is a group V element in the period table to a
semiconductor and, the second is adding boron, an acceptor atom,
which is a group III element in the period table to a semiconductor.

Adding donor atom to a semiconductor


Phosphorous has five valence electrons and four of these will
contribute to the covalent bonding with the silicon atoms, leaving the
fifth more loosely bound to the phosphorus atom. The fifth electron is
the donor electron. If a small amount of energy, such as thermal energy
is added to the donor electron, it can be elevated to the conduction
band, leaving behind a positively charged phosphorous ion. The
electron in the conduction band can now move through the crystal
generating a current, while the positively charged ion is fixed in the
crystal. This type of the impurity atom donates an electron to the
conduction band and so is called a donor atom. A donor atom can add
electrons to the conduction band without creating holes in the valence
band. The resulting material is referred to as an n-type semiconductor
(n for the negatively charged electron).

Adding acceptor atom to a semiconductor


The second process is adding a group III element, such as boron, as a
substitutional impurity to silicon. The group III element boron has three
valence electrons which are all taken up in the covalent bonding. One
covalent bonding position appears to be empty. If one electron were to
occupy this empty position, its energy would have to be greater than
that of the valence electrons, since the net charge state of the boron
would now be negative. However, the electron occupying this empty
position does not have sufficient energy to be in the conduction band,
so its energy is far smaller than the conduction-band energy. When
valence electrons gain a small amount of energy, they move above the
crystal and occupy the empty positions in the boron atoms. The valence
electron positions become vacated. These vacated electron positions
can be thought of as holes in the semiconductor material. The hole can
move through the crystal generating the current, while the negatively
charged boron atom is fixed in the crystal. The group III atom accepts
an electron from the valence band and so is referred to as an acceptor
atom. The acceptor atoms can generate holes in the valence band
without generating electrons in the conduction band. This type of
semiconductor material is referred to as a p type material (p for the
positively charged hole).
The pure single-crystal semiconductor material is an intrinsic material.
Adding controlled amount of dopant atoms, either donor of acceptor
atoms, can create a material, called an extrinsic semiconductor. An
extrinsic semiconductor will have either a preponderance of electrons
(n type) or a preponderance of holes (p type).

You might also like