12: CBSE- PHYSICS Chapter-14: Semiconductor Electronics: Materials, Devices And Simple Circuits

NCERT Notes By – Naushad Sir

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INTRODUCTION
 Devices in which a controlled flow of electrons can be obtained are the basic building blocks of all the electronic
circuits.
 The seed of the development of modern solid-state semiconductor electronics goes back to 1930’s when it was
realized that some solid state semiconductors and their junctions offer the possibility of controlling the number and
the direction of flow of charge carriers through them.
 Simple excitations like light, heat or small applied voltage can change the number of mobile charges in a
semiconductor.
CLASSIFICATION OF METALS, CONDUCTORS AND SEMICONDUCTORS
 On the basis of conductivity
 Metals: They possess very low resistivity (or high conductivity).
ρ ~ 10–2 – 10–8 Ωm ; σ ~ 102 – 108 Sm–1
 Semiconductors: They have resistivity or conductivity intermediate to metals and insulators.
ρ ~ 10–5 – 106 Ωm ; σ ~ 105 – 10–6 Sm–1
 Insulators: They have high resistivity (or low conductivity).
ρ ~ 1011 – 1019 Ωm ; σ ~ 10–11 – 10–19 Sm–1
Types of Semiconductors
 On the basis of Chemical compositions
 Elemental semiconductors: Si and Ge
 Compound semiconductors: Examples are:
• Inorganic: CdS, GaAs, CdSe, InP, etc.
• Organic:anthracene,doped pthalocyanines, etc.
• Organic polymers: polypyrrole, polyaniline, polythiophene, etc.
 On the basis 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.
 Inside the crystal each electron has a unique position and no two electrons see exactly the same pattern of
surrounding charges. Because of this, each electron will have a different energy level.
 These different energy levels with continuous energy variation form what 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.
 The gap between the top of the valence band and bottom of the conduction band is called the energy band gap
(Energy gap Eg)

 Difference between energy bands of (a) metals, (b) insulators and (c) semiconductors.
12: CBSE- PHYSICS Chapter-14: Semiconductor Electronics: Materials, Devices And Simple Circuits
NCERT Notes By – Naushad Sir
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Case I- Metal/Conductor: As Shown in Fig. (a), the conduction band is partially filled and the balanced band
is partially empty or when the conduction and valance bands overlap. When there is overlap electrons from
valence band can easily move into the conduction band. This situation makes a large number of electrons
available for electrical conduction. When the valence band is partially empty, electrons from its lower level can
move to higher level making conduction possible. Therefore, the resistance of such materials is low or the
conductivity is high.
Case II - Insulator: As shown in Fig. (b), a large band gap Eg exists (Eg > 3 eV). There are no electrons in the
conduction band, and therefore no electrical conduction is possible. The energy gap is so large that electrons
cannot be excited from the valence band to the conduction band by thermal excitation.
Case III- Semiconductor: As shown in Fig. (c), a finite but small band gap (E g < 3 eV) exists. Because of
the small band gap, at room temperature some electrons from valence band can acquire enough energy to cross
the energy gap and enter the conduction band. These electrons (though small in numbers) can move in the
conduction band. Hence, the resistance of semiconductors is not as high as that of the insulators
Electrons and Holes:
 Receiving an additional energy, one of the electrons from a covalent band breaks and is free to move in the crystal
lattice.
 While coming out of the covalent bond, it leaves behind a vacancy named ‘hole’.
 An electron from the neighboring atom can break away and can come to the place of the missing electron (or hole)
completing the covalent bond and creating a hole at another place.
 The holes move randomly in a crystal lattice.
 The completion of a bond may not be necessarily due to an electron from a bond of a neighboring atom.
 The bond may be completed by a conduction band electron. i.e., free electron and this is referred to as ‘electron –
hole recombination’.
INTRINSIC or PURE SEMICONDUCTOR
• Intrinsic Semiconductor is a pure semiconductor.
The energy gap in Si is 1.1 eV and in Ge is 0.74
eV.
• Si: 1s2, 2s2, 2p6,3s2, 3p2. (Atomic No. is 14)
• Ge: 1s2, 2s2, 2p6,3s2, 3p6, 3d10, 4s2, 4p2.
(Atomic No. is 32)
• In intrinsic semiconductors, the number of free
electrons, ne is equal to the number of holes, nh.
That is 𝒏𝒆 = 𝒏𝒉 = 𝒏𝒊 (ni is called intrinsic
carrier concentration.
EXTRINSIC OR IMPURE SEMICONDUCTOR
Doping a Semiconductor
• Doping is the process of deliberate addition of a very small amount of impurity into an intrinsic semiconductor.
12: CBSE- PHYSICS Chapter-14: Semiconductor Electronics: Materials, Devices And Simple Circuits
NCERT Notes By – Naushad Sir
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• The impurity atoms are called ‘dopants’.
• The semiconductor containing impurity is known as ‘impure or extrinsic semiconductor’.
• There are two types of dopants used in doping the tetravalent Si or Ge:
(i) Pentavalent (valency 5); like Arsenic (As), Antimony (Sb), Phosphorous (P), etc.
(ii) Trivalent (valency 3); like Indium (In), Boron (B), Aluminium (Al), etc.
Methods of doping:
• Heating the crystal in the presence of dopant atoms.
• Adding impurity atoms in the molten state of semiconductor.
• Bombarding semiconductor by ions of impurity atoms.
N - Type Semiconductors:
• When a semiconductor of Group IV (tetra valent)
such as Si or Ge is doped with a penta-valent
impurity (Group V elements such as P, As or Sb),
N – type semiconductor is formed.
• The energy state corresponding to the fifth
electron is in the forbidden gap and slightly below
the lower level of the conduction band.This energy
level is called ‘donor level’.
• The impurity atom is called ‘donor’.
• N – type semiconductor is called ‘donor – type
semiconductor’.
• In an extrinsic electrons become the majority
carriers and holes the minority carriers. These semiconductors are, therefore, known as n-type semiconductors. For
n-type semiconductors, ne >> nh

P - Type Semiconductors:
• When a semiconductor of Group IV (tetra valent)
such as Si or Ge is doped with a tri valent impurity
(Group III elements such as In, B or Ga), P – type
semiconductor is formed.
• When germanium (Ge) is doped with indium (In),
the three valence electrons of (In) form three
covalent bonds with three Ge- atoms. The vacancy
that exists with the fourth covalent bond with fourth
Ge -atom constitutes a hole.
• Therefore, the tri valent impurity atom is called
‘acceptor’.
• Since the hole is associated with a positive charge
moving from one position to another, therefore, this
type of semiconductor is called P – type
semiconductor.
• The acceptor impurity produces an energy level just
above the valence band.This energy level is called
‘acceptor level’.
• P – type semiconductor is called ‘acceptor – type semiconductor’.
• In a P – type semiconductor, holes are the majority charge carriers and the electrons are the minority charge
carriers: nh >> ne
• The electron and hole concentration in a semiconductor in thermal equilibrium is given by ne nh = ni2
12: CBSE- PHYSICS Chapter-14: Semiconductor Electronics: Materials, Devices And Simple Circuits
NCERT Notes By – Naushad Sir
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PN Junction Diode:
• When a P-type semiconductor is joined to a N-type
semiconductor such that the crystal structure
remains continuous at the boundary, the resulting
arrangement is called a PN junction diode or a
semiconductor diode or a crystal diode.
• When a PN junction is formed, the P region has
mobile holes (+) and immobile negatively charged
ions. N region has mobile electrons (-) and immobile positively
charged ions. The whole arrangement is electrically neutral.

Forward Bias:
 When the positive terminal of the battery is
connected to P-region and negative terminal is
connected to N-region, then the PN junction diode is
said to be forward-biased.
 The difference in potential between P and N regions
across the junction makes it difficult for the holes
and electrons to move across the junction. This acts
as a barrier and hence called ‘potential barrier’ or
‘height of the barrier’.
 Potential barrier for Si is nearly 0.7 V and for Ge is
0.3 V.
 The potential barrier opposes the motion of the
majority carriers.

Reverse Bias:
 When the negative terminal of the battery is
connected to P-region and positive terminal is
connected to N-region, then the PN junction
diode is said to be reverse-biased.
 Holes in P-region are attracted by (-) ve
terminal of the battery and the free electrons
are attracted by (+) ve terminal of the battery.
 Thus, the majority carriers are pulled away
from the junction.
 The potential barrier and the width of the
depletion region increase.
 Therefore, it becomes more difficult for
majority carriers diffuse across the junction.
 At a given temperature, the rate of generation of minority carriers is constant. So, the resulting current is constant
irrespective of the applied voltage. For this reason, this current is called ‘reverse saturation current’.
 The reverse – biased PN junction diode has an effective capacitance called ‘transition or depletion capacitance’. P
and N regions act as the plates of the capacitor and the depletion region acts as a dielectric medium.

PN Junction Semiconductor Diode: I-V Characteristics in forward bias & reverse bias
12: CBSE- PHYSICS Chapter-14: Semiconductor Electronics: Materials, Devices And Simple Circuits
NCERT Notes By – Naushad Sir
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APPLICATION OF JUNCTION DIODE AS A RECTIFIER

 The process of converting alternating current into direct current is called ‘rectification’.
 The device used for rectification is called ‘rectifier’.
 The PN junction diode offers low resistance in forward bias and high resistance in reverse bias.

Working of PN Junction Diode as a Half Wave Rectifier:

 As shown in Fig. (a), is called a half-wave rectifier.
 The secondary of a transformer supplies the desired ac
voltage across terminals A and B.
 When the voltage at A is positive, the diode is forward
biased and it conducts.
 When A is negative, the diode is reverse-biased and it
does not conduct. The reverse saturation current of a
diode is negligible and can be considered equal to zero
for practical purposes.
 The reverse breakdown voltage of the diode must be
sufficiently higher than the peak ac voltage at the
secondary of the transformer to protect the diode from
reverse breakdown.
 Therefore, in the positive half-cycle of ac there is a
current through the load resistor RL and we get an
output voltage, as shown in Fig.(b), whereas there is no
current in the negative half- cycle.
 In the next positive half-cycle, again we get the output voltage.
 Thus, the output voltage, though still varying, is restricted to only one direction and is said to be rectified.
12: CBSE- PHYSICS Chapter-14: Semiconductor Electronics: Materials, Devices And Simple Circuits
NCERT Notes By – Naushad Sir
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 Since the rectified output of this circuit is only for half of the input ac wave it is called as half-wave rectifier.

Working of PN Junction Diode as a Full Wave Rectifier:

 The circuit using two diodes, shown in Fig. (a), gives output rectified voltage corresponding to both the
positive as well as negative half of the ac cycle. Hence, it is known as full-wave rectifier.
 For a full-wave rectifier the secondary of the transformer is provided with a centre tapping and so it is called
centre-tap transformer.
 As shown in (c) the voltage rectified by each diode is only half the total secondary voltage.
 Each diode rectifies only for half the cycle, but the two do so for alternate cycles. Thus, the output between
their common terminals and the Centre tap of the
transformer becomes a full-wave rectifier output.
 Suppose the input voltage to A w.r.t. the centre tap at any
instant is positive. At that instant, voltage at B being out of
phase will be negative as shown in Fig. (b).So, diode D1 gets
forward biased and conducts. (While D2 being reverse biased
is not conducting).

 Hence, during this positive half cycle we get an output

current (and an output voltage across the load resistor RL) as
shown in Fig. (c).
 In the course of the ac cycle when the voltage at A becomes
negative with respect to centre tap, the voltage at B would be
positive. In this part of the cycle diode D1 would not conduct
but diode D2 would, giving an output current and output
voltage (across RL) during the negative half cycle of the
input ac.
 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. Though it is unidirectional it does
not have a steady value.

To get steady dc output from the pulsating voltage normally a capacitor is connected across the output
terminals (parallel to the load RL).
One can also use an inductor in series with RL for the same purpose. Since these additional circuits appear to
filter out the ac ripple and give a pure dc voltage, so they are called filters.
 When the voltage across the capacitor
is rising, it gets charged. If there is no
external load, it remains charged to the
peak voltage of the rectified output.
 When there is a load, it gets discharged
through the load and the voltage across
it begins to fall.
 In the next half-cycle of rectified
output it again gets charged to the peak
value (Fig).
 The rate of fall of the voltage across the capacitor depends inversely upon the product of capacitance C
and the effective resistance RL used in the circuit and is called the 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.