Semiconductor Basics

INTRODUCTION

It has been proved by scientists that the operation of electronic devices depends upon the motion of
charged particles within them. Therefore, one should have an understanding of the elements which
control the motion of these particles. But as a fact, it is the physical structure of a solid, which exerts this
control. Therefore; every electronic engineer should study the structure and arrangement of atoms in
solids.

STRUCTURE OF SOLIDS

A' detailed study of X-ray scattering has revealed the fact that most of the solids are crystalline in
structure. It means that a solid consists of atoms or molecules which are arranged in a periodic manner.
There is always some basic arrangement of atoms, which is repeated throughout the entire solid
material. Such an arrangement of atoms within a solid is called crystal lattice. Such solids are called
crystalline solids. But there are some other solid materials which do not have Crystalline structure, Such
solid materials are called non-crystalline or amorphous solids. AIl metals and semiconductors like silicon
and germanium are crystalline materials while wood, plastic, paper, glass are amorphous solid materials.

CLASSIFICATION OF SOLID MATERIALS

Basically, solid materials may be classified into three groups as under:

(a) Conductors

(b) Insulators

(c) Semiconductors

(a) Conductors: Conductors are those materials which are good conductors of electricity. This is due to
the fact that in conductors, there are a large number of mobile charge carriers or free electrons which
carry electric current, When the temperature of a conductor is increased, its resistivity also inereases. It
means that conductors have positive temperature coefficient of resistance. Bxamples of good
conductors are copper, silver, aluminium etc. When a constant electric field E is applied to a conductor,
the electrons would be accelerated and the velocity would increase indefinitely with time. But due to
collision of electrons, electrons loose energy and a steady-state condition is reached where a finite value
of drift velocity vd is attained.

The drift velocity vd is in a direction opposite to that of the electric field and its magnitude is
proportional to E.

Hence vd = µE
µ is mobility of the electron in mvolt-second. If the concentration of free electrons is n per cubic meter,
the current density J is

But vd= µE

Therefore, J= nq µE

(b) Insulators: Insulators are those materials which are bad conductors of electricity. In other words,
they have very high resistivity. This is due to the fact that they have no charge carriers or free electrons
to carry electric current. Examples ofinsulators are glass, quartz, rubber, bakelite etc.

(c) Semiconductors: Semiconductors are those materials whose conductivities lie between conductors
and insulators. They have poor conductivity than conductors and higher than insulators. Hence these are
neither good conductors nor good insulators, When the temperature of a semiconductor is increased, its
resistivity decreases or conductivity increases. It means that at higher temperature, a semiconductor
conducts better. Therefore, the semiconductors have negative temperature coefficient of resistance.

INSULATORS, CONDUCTORS AND SEMICONDUCTORS ON THE BASIS OF ENERGY BAND DIAGRAM (BAND
GAP)

For any given material, the forbidden energy-gap may be large, small or non-existent. Thus, the
difference between insulators, metals and semiconductors is largely concerned with the relative widths
of the forbidden energy gaps. In this article, we shall discuss the electrical properties of insulators,
metals and semiconductors on the basis of band gap or forbidden energy gap.

Insulators

In case of insulators, there is generally no electron in the conduction band and the valence band is filled
shows the energy band diagram of insulators. It may be observed from energy band diagram that there
is a wide gap between valence and conduction bands (forbidden energy gap). It is generally 5 eV or
more. Due to this wide gap, it is almost impossible for an electron to cross the gap to go from valence
band to conduction band. At room temperature, the valence electrons of an insulator can not have so
much energy that it is able to jump to the conduction band. Due to this fact, the insulators are not able
to conduct electric current. This means that the insulators have very high resistivity or extremely low
conductivity at room temperature. But an insulator may conduct if its temperature is very high or if a
very high voltage is applied across it. This is also known as the breakdown of the insulators.
Metals or Conductors

The energy band diagram of metals. It may be observed that forbidden energy gap or energy gap
between valence and conduction bands is zero. In fact, the valence and conduction bands overlap each
other. In a metal, the valence band energies and conduction band energies are same. The orbits in the
conduction band are very large. An electron in the conduction band experiences almost negligible
nuclear attraction. Hence it is very easy for a valence band electron to become a conduction band
electron. It means that a metal consists of a large number of free electrons without supplying any
external energy. Because of this fact, a metal works as a very good conductor.

Semiconductors

The energy band diagram of a semiconductor. It may be observed that forbidden energy gap Ee is not
very wide for semiconductors. It is 0.72 eV for germanium and 2. 12 eVfor silicon. At 0 K,** the
semiconductors behave as insulators because there is no free electron to conduct in the conduction
band. However, in semiconductor, an electron can be lifted from the valence band to the conduetion
band by imparting some amount of energy to it. This energy must be more than energy gap Bg If the
energy imparted to the electron is less than Eg, it cannot be lifted from valence band to conduction band
since no permissible energy levels exist between the two bands. Room temperature provides the
sufficient amount of energy to lift electrons from the valence band to the conduction band. Some
electrons jump to conduction band. Hence at room temperature, semiconductors are able to conduct
some electric current. If temperature is further raised above room temperature, more and more valence
electrons acquire energy and crOss the energy to go to conduction band. Hence semiconductors have
negative temperature coefficient of resistance.

Why Silicon is More Widely used Semiconductor Material?

As a matter of fact, the valence electrons in germanium are in the fourth shell while those in silicon are
in the third shell, ie. closer to nucleus. This means that the germanium valence electrons are at higher
energy levels than those in silicon. Hence, the germanium valence electrons will need smaller amount of
additional energy to escape from the atomn. Because of this reason, the germanium produces more
number of electron hole pairs than silicon. Hence, the leakage current (reverse saturation current) is
more in germanium than that in silicon. This property makes germanium more unstable at high
temperatures. Therefore, silicon is more widely used material than germanium. 1.10.3.2. Elemental and
Compound Semiconductors

COMPARISON OF CONDUCTORS, INSULATORS AND SEMICONDUCTORS

uc

S.No. Parameter of Comparison Conductors Insulators semiconductor

Conductivity Very high Very low Moderate
Resistivity Very low Very high Moderate
Forbidden gap No forbidden gap Large gap (Eg =5 eV) Medium(Eg =1 to
2 eV)
Temperature coefficient of resistance Positive Negative Negative
Effect of temperature on resistance R increases as T R decreases as T R decreases as T
increases increases increases
Number of electrons available for Very large Very small Moderate
conduction
Conductivity at room temperature Very good Poor Moderate
Examples Aluminium, copper Paper, Mica, Glass Silicon,
Germanium
Applications As conductors, wires, Capacitors, Semiconductor
bus bars. insulation for wires devices

SEMICONDUCTOR MATERIALS: INTRINSIC AND EXTRINSIC

A semiconductor material is one whose electrical properties lie in between those of insulators and good
conductors. At room temperature, such materials have conductivities considerably lower than those of
conductors and much higher than th0se of insulators. Infact, the conductivity of a semiconductor lies in
the range of 10 to 104 siemens per meter. An important property of a semiconductor is that its
resistance decreases with the increase in temperature. This means that a semiconductor has a negative
temperature coefficient of reistance, An even more important property of a semiconductor is that their
resistivity or conductivity changes considerably when even a very small amounts of certain other
substances called the impurities, are added to them.

Basically Semiconductors are of two Types: Elemental and compound. The examples of elemental
semiconductors are germanium (Ge) and silicon (Si). Germanium was the mainly used material for the
majority of the early solid state devices like transistors. Subsequently, germanium has been replaced by
silicon in several applications because of the fact that silicon has a better thermal stability, is readily
available and has an advanced technology. The example of compound semiconductor is GaAs.
Semiconductors may also be classified in following way:

1. Intrinsic semiconductor, 2. Extrinsic semiconductor

INTRINSIC SEMICONDUCTOR

A semiconductor in an extremely pure form is known asintrinsic semiconductor. A semiconductor is not

intrinsic unless its impurity content is less than one part impurity in 100 million parts of semiconductor.

The silicon and germanium are the two most widely used intrinsic semiconductors. Figure 1.7 shows the
two dimensional crystal structure of silicon. There are four electrons in the outermost orbit or valence
shell.

Each of the four valence electrons takes part in forming covalent bonds with the four neighboring
atoms. A covalent bond consists of two electrons, one from each adjacent atoms. Atoms bond together
to form molecules because each atom attempts to get eight electrons in the valence shell to become a
stable structure. At a low temperature such as absolute zero (0 K), all the valence electrons are tightly
held by parent atoms and by covalent bonds with other atoms. Hence electrons cannot move through
the crystal structure or in other words, no free electrons are available to conduct electricity, Thus, the
intrinsic semiconductors, at absolute zero (0 K) behave as an insulator.

CONVENTIONAL CURRENT AND ELECTRON FLOW

Conventional Current: The current flow from positive to negative is referred to as conventional current.
Every graphical symbol used to represent an electronic device has an arrowhead which indicates
conventional current direction. Therefore, the electronic circuits are most easily explained by using the
conventional current flow.
(ii) Electron Flow: Under the influence of the external dc source or battery, the free electrons in the
semiconductor slab, which are negatively charged, will get attracted towards the positive terminal and
holes being positively charged will be attracted towards the negative terminal of the external battery.
Thus, as shown in figure 1.12, the electrons flow exactly in the opposite direction to that of the
conventional current. The study of electron movement is essential in understanding the operation of
any electronic device.

EXTRINSIC SEMICONDUCTORS

Doping: As discussed earlier, intrinsic or pure semiconductors have small conductivity at room
temperature. Therefore, they are not of much use. By adding some amount of impurity atoms to a pure
or intrinsic semiconductor, we can change its conductivity or characteristics. This process of adding
impurity to a pure semiconductor is called doping. Hence, the conductivity is increased by means of the
doping process. Doping is done at a rate such that only one atom of impurity is added per 105 to 10O
semiconductor atoms.

DO YOU KNOWN?

The extrinsic semiconductors have a better conductivity than the intrinsic semiconductors. Therefore,
these are used in manufacturing of all the electronic components such as diodes, transistors ete.

We add impurities either to increase the number of electrons or holes in a semiconductor. The
impurities are the materials used to dope the intrinsic semiconductor materials. These impurity
materials can be of

two types:

(i) Donor impurity (Pentavalent impurity): Increasing the Free Electrons the dopant is a pentavalent
atom, i.e., the atom containing five valence electrons then it is s o called as The material which is being
used as imnpurity in the process of doping is called 1 as dopant.When the donor impurity and the
doping is called as donor doping. Donor doping is used to manufacture N. type extrinsic semiconductor.
The examples of pentavalent or donor impurities are Arsenic,

(i) Acceptor impurity (Trivalent impurity): Increasing the number of Holes When the dopant is a trivalent
atom, i.e., the atom consisting of only three valence electwe then it is called as the acceptor impurity
and the doping is called as acceptor doping. Acceptor donine is used to manufacture P-type extrinsic
semiconductors. The examples of trivalent or accont impurities are Boron, Gallium, Aluminium and
Indium.

A doped semiconductor is called extrinsic semiconductor. Depending upon the types of impurity added.
there are two types of extrinsic semiconductors :

(a) N-type Semiconductor;

(b) P-type Semiconductor.

N-TYPE SEMICONDUCTOR

If pentavalent impurity atoms are added to intrinsic semiconductor, N-type semiconductor is obtained.
The pentavalent impurity atoms have five electrons in the valence shell. The size of the pentavalent
atoms is roughly same as that of Si or Ge. Few pentavalent elements are phosphorus (P), antimony (Sb),
arsenic (As) etc. Since amount of impurity is very small, it is assumed that each impurity atom is
surrounded by silicon atoms. In figure 1.13 an impurity phosphorus atom is surrounded by silicon atoms.
The phosphorus atom has five valence electrons. Four, out of these five electrons form covalent bonds
with four silicon atoms. The fifth electron has no chance of forming a covalent bond. This electron is
loosely bound to the parent atomn. A very little amount of energy is required to de-attach this electron
from the nucleus of its parent atom. This energy is of the order of 0.05 eV for silicon and 0.01 eV for
germanium.. Practically, at room temperature, all such electrons become free.

In this way, each impurity atom donates one electron to the conduction band. Due to this reason,
pentavalent impurity is also called donor type impurity. Besides a large number of donated electrons,
there are also some thermally-generated, electron-hole pairs. A large number of electrons increases the
rate of recombination of electrons with holes. Because of this, the net concentration of holes is much
less than intrins1c value. Hence, in a N-type semniconductor, electrons maiority carriers and holes are
minority carriers.

P-TYPE SEMICONDUCTOR

The trivalent impurities are boron, aluminium, gallium The trivalent impurity atoms have three electrons
in the valence shell. The size of the trivalent If trivalent impurity atoms are added to intrinsic
semiconductor, P-type semiconductor is obtained.surrounded by silicon atoms, The Indium atom has
three valence electrons. These three electrons form covalent bonds with the three neighbouring silicon
atoms. T'he fourth silicon atom cannot make a covalent bond with the Indium atom because the Indium
atom does not have fourth valence electron. Hence, the fourth covalent bond is incomplete.

A vacancy that exists in the incomplete covalent bond constitutes a hole. This vacancy or hole have a
tendency to complete the covalent bond from the neighbouring atoms. An electron from neighbouring
atoms require some energy to jumpDSi into the vacancy.

At room temperature, this small amount of energy 1s provided by thermal energy. This energy is O.05
eV for silicon and 0.01 eV for germanium. When an electron from the neighbouring atoms jumnp into
the vacancy around the indium atom to complete the covalent bonds, the effect is two fold. Firstly
another vacancy or hole is created in the covalent bond of surrounding atom from where the electron
had jumped. Secondly, after acquiring an electron, the indium atom becomes a negative ion. Since
indium atom accepts one electron to become negative ion, it is also called acceptor ion or acceptor type
impurity. Negative ion is also immobile because it is held tightly in the crystal structure by covalent
bonds.

Therefore, in a P-type semiconductor, holes are the majority carriers and electrons are the minority
carriers.