Semiconductor_note

Semiconductor Materials
When you have studied this chapter, you should
• be aware of the structure of atoms
– understand the model of atom
• be able to describe what is happening with electrons in an electric current
• have an understanding of what a semiconductor is, in particular silicon
and germanium semiconductors
• be aware of n-type and p-type materials
• have a basic knowledge of junctions and the processes at these junctions

Background

A semiconductor material has an electrical conductivity value falling between

that of a conductor, such as metallic copper, and an insulator, such as glass.
A semiconductor is a substance, usually a solid chemical element or compound,
that can conduct electricity under some conditions but not others, making it a
good medium for the control of electrical current.
Although some pure elements and many compounds display semiconductor
properties, silicon, germanium, and compounds of gallium are the most widely
used in electronic devices. Elements near the so-called “metalloid staircase”,
where the metalloids are located on the periodic table, are usually used as
semiconductors.
The semiconductors can be elemental, such as Si, Ge, and other chemical elements
from group IV. They can be also compound, a combination between elements from
group III and group V, or respectively, from group II and group VI. Examples
for such combinations are the binary compounds Ga III AsV and ZnII SVI . There
are also several combinations of practical importance, which involve two or more
elements from the same chemical group. Such alloy semiconductors can be

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binary (e.g. SiIV GeIV ), ternary (e.g. Al III Ga III AsV ), quaternary (e.g. In III
Ga
III
AsV PV ), and even pentanary (Ga III In III PV SbV AsV ) materials.
Semiconductor devices are prevalent in the world we now live in. They are
virtually in every device you can think of.

Figure 1:

Fig. Part of the Periodic Table showing the elements involved in the formation
of semiconductors

ATOM

An atom the smallest piece of a matter. Everything in the universe is made of

atoms since everything in the universe (except energy) is made of matter.
Matter ------> Elements ------> atoms
Water -------> H2 O ------> H atoms and O atoms
Atoms on the same elements are the same
Atoms of different elements differ in structure and this results in different elements
possessing different characteristics.

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The Model of an Atom

Neil Bohr proposed the model of the atom in 1913, although more accurate
models have replaced it, it now being used today for pedagogical purpose (due
to its simplicity).
Using Planck’s Quantum Theory, Bohr made the following postulates :
1. The atom has a massive positively-charged nucleus;
2. The electrons revolve round their nucleus in circular orbits, the centrifugal
force being balanced by the electrostatic pull between the nucleus and
electrons;
3. An electron cannot revolve round the nucleus in any arbitrary orbit but
in just certain definite discrete orbits. Only those orbits are possible
(or permitted) for which the orbital angular momentum (i.e. moment of
h
momentum) of the electron is equal to an integral multiple of 2π i.e. orbital
angular momentum (mvr) = nh/2π. h is Planck’s constant and n = 1,
2, 3 etc. for the first, second and third orbits respectively. It is called
the principal quantum number and because it can take whole number
values only, it fixes the size of the allowed orbits (also called Bohr’s circular
orbits).
4. While revolving in these permitted stationary (or stable) orbits, the electron
does not radiate out any electromagnetic energy. In other words, the
permissible orbits are non-radiating paths of the electron;
5. The atom radiates out energy only when an electron jumps from one orbit
to another. If E2 and E1 are the energies corresponding to two orbits
before and after the jump, the frequency of the emitted photon is given by
the relation:

E2 − E1 = hf
where f is the frequency of the emitted radiation.
Atom composition:
Nucleus: relatively massive, postioned at the core, it is +ve charged, consist
of proton and neutron (except hydrogen atom which is considered the simplest
atom with only one electron and proton)
Electron: moves around the nucleus core in an orbit at a great distance compare
to the size of the nucleus, 9.11 × 10−31 kg mass, -ve charge -e = 1.602 × 10−19 C.
Proton: it is +ve charge with +e = -e of electron, 1.673 × 10−27 kg mass which
is 1836 more than electron
Neutron: has no resultant charge, mass is approximately equal to proton
P P
Under normal condition, the atom is neutral i.e. +ve = −ve charges.

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 Figure 2:

The further away an electron is from the nucleus, the smaller is the force of
attraction between the electron and the proton, hence the easier it is to detach
the electron from an atom.
When atoms are packed tightly together, as in a metal, each outer electron
experiences a small force of attraction towards neighboring nuclei, with the result
that such an electron is no longer bound to any individual atom, but can move
at random within the metal. There, electrons are termed free or conduction
electrons and only a slight external influence is required to cause them to drift
in a desired direction.
An atom that has gained or lost one or more electrons are referred to as an ion.
So an atom becomes a +ve ion if it has lost one or more electrons to become
resultantly +ve charged.
There exists another state called the excited state where the electrons only move
to higher orbits where they stay for a little while before falling back to their
default states thereby emitting energy.

Valence and Conduction Bands

For semiconductor works, silicon and germanium are of principal interests because
their atoms are arranged in an orderly manner i.e. crystalline structured.
In both materials, 4 electrons orbit in the outermost shell i.e. a valency of 4
(tetravalent). Silicon has 14P, 14N and 14E.
Valency: the combining power of an element, especially as measured by the
number of hydrogen atoms it can displace or combine with. The outermost
electrons of an atom i.e. those in the shell furthermost from the nucleus are
called valence electrons and have the highest energy or least binding energy.

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Valence electrons occupy the valence energy band and is, obviously, the highest
occupied band. It may be completely filled or partially filled with electrons but
never empty.
The conduction band is the next higher permitted energy band and may either
be empty or partially filled with electrons. It is the lowest unfilled energy band
and the electrons can move freely and hence are known as conduction electrons.
The gap between these two bands is known as the forbidden energy gap which is
about 1eV in semiconductors.
It may be noted that the covalent force of the crystal lattice have their source in
the valence band.
When an electron is ejected from the valence band, a covalent bond is broken
and a positively- charged hole is left behind. This hole can travel to an adjacent
atom by acquiring an electron from it involving breaking the a covalent bond
and re-establishing another bond.

Figure 3:

Covalent bonds

Covalency is the sharing of valent electrons between tightly packed atoms of

crystals such as germanium and silicon. In this case, the four valence electrons
of each atom are now shared with the adjacent four atoms.
The covalent bond exist to keep atoms stable in crystal formation. The bond
ensures that there are no free electrons at absolute zero temperatures i.e. −273 ◦ C.
It then means that these materials are insulators at this temparatures. But at
normal atmospheric temperatures, some of the covalent bonds are broken.

Pure (Intrinsic) Semiconductor

An impurity of 1 part in 1010 does not make these materials impure and are
referred to as intrinsic semiconductors.

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Figure 4:

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Semiconductors are sensitive to external energy such as temperature which
narrows the forbidden region so that electrons can migrate to the conduction
band leaving behind hole.
Therefore, total current in a semiconductor material is due to both electrons
and holes movements

Figure 5:

Hole current

Figure 6:

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An n-type semiconductor

Certain elements such as phosphorus, arsenic and antimony are pentavalent,

when a minute trace of the order of 1 part in 108 of such an element is added to
pure silicon or germanium, the conductivity is considerably increased. Why?
The atom of antimony (impurity) enters the lattic structure (dope) by replacing
the atom of silicon to form a covalent bond with 4 out of it’s five valent electrons,
making 1 electron free per atom. Therefore, such elements as antimony are called
donors, creating --type (negative-type)semiconductors. Note that the doped
semiconductor is neutral because the number of introduced e and -e are equal
even though free electrons are free to move about in the crystal.
The greater the impurity, the greater the number of free electrons per unit
volume, the greater the conductivity of the semiconductor.
Without pd at the terminals of a semiconductor, there is no resultant drift of
electrons towards the terminals to maintain the density constant. With pd
applied, there is a drift and the number of electrons entering from one terminal
is the same as that leaving from another terminal.

p-type semiconductor

Similarly, materials such as indium, gallium, boron and aluminium are trivalent
bond into the crystal structure, but each indium atom can provide only three
valence electrons to join with the four valence electrons of adjacent silicon atoms,
giving rise to incomplete valence bonding leaving a hole. This creates a certain
instability making electron from other bonds of nearby atom gravitate towards
the hole leaving hole where it left from, thereby causing a random movement of
the hole (without pd applied) with about half the speed of that experienced in
n-type.
The doping action here causes p-type semicondcutor creation and the impurity
in this case is called an acceptor (because the covalent bond it forms with the
parent material introduces extra electron for forming the incomplete bond)

Junction diode

Let us now consider a crystal, one half of which is doped with p-type impurity
and the other half with n-type impurity with each region initially neutral.
Owing to their random movements, some of the holes will diffuse across the
boundary into the n-type semiconductor. And some of the free electrons will
similarly diffuse into the p-type semiconductor. These actions lead to a boundary
(-ve to +ve -- potential barrier) being setup at the junction stopping further
diffusion

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 Figure 7:

It will be noted that diffusion takes place when there is a difference in the
concentration of carriers in adjacent regions of a crystal; but drift of carriers
takes place only when there is a difference of potential between two regions.
Forward bias
Apply pd across the p&n-type assembly such that terminal at p is more +ve
than n. This effect causes additional free electrons from the negative terminal to
be pushed into the n-material and electrons in the p-material to be drawn out
by the positive terminal, so that the holes travel to the positive terminal. The
depletion layer narrows and it disappears completely as the field increases. The
current in the diode is therefore due to hole flow in the p-region, electron flow in
the n-region and a combination of the two in the vicinity of the junction. The
level of voltage at which current starts to flow is called the forward voltage; this
is about 0.3 in germanium and 0.7 in silicon.

Figure 8:

Reversed bias
Here, the n of the p&n-type assembly is more +ve than p. Now, the holes are
attracted towards the p terminal and electron towards the n terminal. This
actions leave a region called the depletion layer of a certain width around

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the junction. In this layer, there are no holes or free electrons, i.e. there
are no charge carriers in this region apart from the relatively few that are
produced spontaneously by thermal agitation or vibration (such as under room
temperature).
In the ensuing bond breaking and release of valence electron, an electron-hole
pair with active life (before recombination) of about 50µs (in silicon) is created
as a function of temperature. Therefore, the greater the temperature the lower
the intrinsic resistance of the crystal of pure silicon or germanium.
These thermally liberated holes and free electrons are referred to as minority
carriers because, at normal temperature, their number is very small compared
with the number of majority carriers due to the doping. In p-type, holes are the
majority while the electrons are the minority and vice versa for n-type.
When a silicon junction diode is biased in the reverse direction, the current
remains nearly constant for a bias varying between about 0.1 V and the breakdown
voltage. This constant value is referred to as the saturation current
But in practice, the reverse current increases with increase of bias, this increase
being due mainly to surface leakage. In the case of a silicon junction diode in
which the surface leakage is negligible, the current is given by the expression:

ev
i = Is (e kT − 1)

Is = saturation current
e = charge on electron = 1.6 × 10−19 C
v = volt across junction
k = Boltzmann’s constant = 1.38 × 10−23 J/K
T = thermodynamic temperature = (273.15 + θ) ◦ C
Static characteristic for a silicon junction diode having negligible surface leakage

Construction and static characteristics of a junction diode

Typical voltage/current characteristics of a germanium and silicon junction diode

are given in Fig. 2, the full lines being for a temperature of the surrounding air
(i.e. ambient temperature) of 20 °C and the dotted lines for 55 °C. For a given
reverse bias, the reverse current roughly doubles for every 10 °C rise
of temperature. This rectifier can withstand a peak inverse voltage of about
100 V at an ambient temperature of 20 °C. The silicon junction diode is similar
in appearance to the germanium diode but differ in the following respects:
1. The forward voltage drop is roughly double that of the corresponding
germanium diode.

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Figure 9:

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 2. The reverse current at a given temperature and voltage is approximately
a hundredth of that of the corresponding germanium diode, but there is
little sign of current saturation as is the case with germanium – in fact,
the reverse current of a silicon diode is roughly proportional to the square
root of the voltage until breakdown is approached.
3. The silicon diode can withstand a much higher reverse voltage and can
operate at temperatures up to about 150–200 °C, compared with about
75–90 °C for germanium.
4. The reverse current of a silicon diode, for a given voltage, practically
doubles for every 8 °C rise of temperature, compared with 10 °C for
germanium
Strictly speaking, which part of an atom is responsible for a current flow? Cr:
electrons Cw: electrons and holes Cw:
These elements in a particular valence group are referred to as an acceptor
Which of these best describe an instrinsic semiconductor Cr: A silicon waifer
with less than or equal to 1 part in 101 0 impurity Cw: A silicon waifer with
more than or equal to 1 part in 101 0 impurity
Phosphorus, arsenic and antimony belong to the same valency group. If an
intrinsic semiconductor is doped with any of these elements, what type of
semiconductor results? Cr: n-type semiconductor Cw: p-type semiconductor
Cw: p&n-type semiconductor Cw: n&p-type semiconductor

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Figure 10:

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