Semiconductor

Semiconductors are materials that can when properly made function as a conductor or
insulator depending on the current flow. They are of any class of crystalline solids intermediate
in electrical conductivity between a conductor and insulator. Such a material can be treated
chemically to transmit and control an electric current. Their elements have atoms with an
electron valence of ±4. Semiconductors are employed in the manufacture of various kinds of
electronic devices/components,

Semiconductor Devices
Semiconductor devices are electronic components that exploit the electronic properties of
semiconductor materials, principally silicon, germanium, and gallium arsenide, as well as
organic semiconductors. It replaces thermionic devices (vacuum tubes) in most applications.
They use electronic conduction in the solid state as opposed to the gaseous state or thermionic
emission in a high vacuum.
Semiconductor devices are oftentimes referred as semiconductors. It includes diode,
transistors, and integrated circuits. They are the basic components of electronics equipment. The
most commonly used semiconductors are the diodes (used to rectify), the transistor (used to
amplify), and the Integrated circuit used to switch or amplify. The primary function of
semiconductor devices is to control the voltage or current for some desired result.
Semiconductor devices are manufactured both as single discrete devices and as integrated
circuits (ICs), which consist of a number—from a few (as low as two) to billions—of devices
manufactured and interconnected on a single semiconductor substrate.

Advantages of semiconductors
Small size and weight
Low power consumption at low voltages
High efficiency
Ability to operate in hazardous environments
Instant operation when power is applied
Economic mass production

Disadvantages of semiconductors
Great susceptibility to changes in temperature
Extra components required for stabilization
Easily damaged (by exceeding power limits, by reversing polarity of operation)

Three pure semiconductor elements are carbon (C), germanium (Ge), and silicon (Si).
Those suitable for electronic applications are germanium and silicon.

Germanium is a brittle, grayish-white element discovered in 1886. A powder,

germanium dioxide, is recovered from the ashes of certain types of coal. The powder is then
reduced to the solid form of pure germanium.
 Germanium was widely used early semiconductor material but its thermal sensitivity
makes it less useful than silicon.
Today, germanium is often alloyed with silicon for use in very-high-speed SiGe devices;
IBM is a major producer of such devices.
Intrinsic Ge has only about 1/1000 the resistance of Si, but silicon is generally used for
semiconductor devices.
Silicon was discovered in 1823. An element most common in rocks. It is found
extensively in the earth's crust as a white or sometimes colorless compound such as sand (silicon
dioxide).
Silicon dioxide (silica) can be found abundantly in sand, quartz, agate, and flint. It is then
chemically reduced to pure silicon in a solid form. Silicon is the most commonly used material in
semiconductor devices. Its combination of low raw material cost, relatively simple processing,
and a useful temperature range make it currently the best compromise among the various
competing materials in the manufacture of electronic devices.

Conduction in Pure Germanium and Silicon

The electrical activity in semiconductor material is highly dependent on temperature. At
extremely low temperatures, valence electrons are held tightly to the parent atom through the co-
valent bond. Because these valence electrons cannot drift, the material cannot support current
flow. Germanium and silicon crystals function as insulators at low temperatures.
As the temperature increases, the valence electrons become agitated. Some of the
electrons break the covalent bonds and drift randomly from one atom to the next. These free
electrons are able to carry a small amount of electrical current if an electrical voltage is applied.
At room temperature, enough heat energy is available to produce a small number of free
electrons and to support a small amount of current. As the temperature increases, the material
begins to acquire the characteristics of a conductor. Only at extremely high temperatures does
silicon conduct current as ordinary conductors do. Typically, such high temperatures are not
encountered under normal usage.
When an electron breaks away from its covalent bond, the space previously occupied by
the electron is referred to as a hole.

Intrinsic Semiconductors
A pure semiconductor without any doping. An intrinsic semiconductor exhibits a high
degree of chemical purity (i.e., it has a ratio of impurities of only about one part in 1012). Its
conductivity is poor and largely temperature-dependent.
They are poor conductors of electricity, but when light energy is absorbed by some of
their electrons, the electrons are able to pass from one atom to another, thus allowing a current to
flow when a voltage is applied.
They make use of the principle of photoconductivity, that is, that certain substances resist
passage of an electric current except when struck by light (photoelectric effect). When the light is
removed, their conductivity again becomes low.
Some common intrinsic semiconductors are single crystals of silicon, germanium, and
gallium arsenide.

Extrinsic Semiconductors
Is an intrinsic semiconductor with an addition of small amounts of impurities (dopants),
usually to a concentration of one part in 106. This process, known as doping, alters the electrical
properties to produce much greater conductivity.
Doping increases the conductivity of a semiconductor so that it is more comparable to a
metal than an insulator. A semiconductor with excess electron is an N-type, while a P-type has a
shortage of electrons. It is possible to increase the number of negative charge carriers within the
semiconductor by doping with an electron donor like Phosphorus. Electron donors, also known
as N-type dopants include elements such as nitrogen, phosphorus, arsenic, and antimony.
The doping results an extrinsic semiconductor, meaning it is not in the natural form. The
difference is that an intrinsic semiconductor has only covalent bonds for all the atoms, but
extrinsic semiconductors also has free charges as a result of the doping.
Once the pure or intrinsic material is available, it must be modified to produce the
qualities necessary for semiconductor devices.
For example, the atom of silicon having four electrons in its outermost shell. These
electrons attach the silicon atom to its neighboring atoms and are not free to move through the
solid. If phosphorus atoms with five outer electrons are substituted as an impurity for some of the
silicon atoms, the fifth electron is not needed for binding to adjacent atoms and is free to move
through the solid.
Other types of impurity atoms, such as boron, have one less outer electron than does
silicon. When they are substituted for some of the silicon atoms, each captures one electron from
a neighboring silicon atom, leaving an empty space. Such a hole behaves like a freely moving
particle with a positive charge.
The presence of these holes increases the ability of the silicon to conduct electric current.
The substitution of as few as 10 atoms of boron per 1,000,000 atoms of silicon yields the
resulting extrinsic silicon semiconductor. An extrinsic semiconductor is commonly classified as
n- or p-type.
An N-type semiconductor has an impurity with an excess of negative charge. Its doping
element is chosen to provide free electron charges. Doping element can be arsenic, antimony, or
phosphorus (each has an electron valence of 5).
 A P-type semiconductor has an impurity with a deficiency of negative charge. The
doping element is chosen to provide free positive charges (hole). Doping element can be
aluminum, boron, gallium, or indium (electron valence of 3).

Valence
Valence is an indication of the atom's ability to gain or lose electrons and determines the
electrical and chemical properties of the atom.
Materials that need electrons to complete their valence shell are not stable and are
referred to as active materials. To gain stability, an active material must acquire electrons in its
valence shell. Silicon atoms are able to share their valence electrons with other silicon atoms in a
process called covalent bonding. Covalent bonding is the process of sharing valence electrons,
resulting in the formation of crystals.

Each atom in such a crystalline structure has four of its own electrons and four shared
electrons from four other atoms—a total of eight valence electrons. This covalent bond cannot
support electrical activity because of its stability.
Photoelectric Effect, formation and liberation of electrically charged particles in matter
when it is irradiated by light or other electromagnetic radiation. The term photoelectric effect
designates several types of related interactions. In the external photoelectric effect, electrons are
liberated from the surface of a metallic conductor by absorbing energy from light shining on the
metal's surface. The effect is applied in the photoelectric cell, in which the electrons liberated
from one pole of the cell, the photocathode, migrate to the other pole, the anode, under the
influence of an electric field.
The term photoelectric effect can also refer to three other processes: photoionization,
photoconduction, and the photovoltaic effect. Photoionization is the ionization of a gas by light
or other electromagnetic radiation; the photons must possess enough energy to detach one or
more outer electrons from the gas atoms. In photoconduction, electrons in crystalline matter, by
absorbing energy from photons (packages of light), are brought to the range of energy levels at
which they can move freely to conduct electricity. In the photovoltaic effect, photons create
electron-hole pairs in semiconducting materials. In a transistor, this effect causes the formation
of an electric potential across the junction between two different semiconductors in the transistor.
The thermoelectric effect makes use of the thermocouple phenomenon, producing a
voltage at the heated junction of two dissimilar metals. Recent advances in the understanding and
construction of semiconductors have led to heightened voltage differences and improved
efficiencies of such devices.
Hall Effect, electrical effect that occurs under certain conditions when an electrical
conductor is subject to a magnetic field or a region of space influenced by a magnet or other
magnetizing object. Studies of the Hall effect have led to a better understanding of the electronic
properties of solids, such as conduction in metals and semiconductors, which are materials that
conduct electricity better than electrical insulators but not as well as electrical conductors.
The Hall effect occurs when a conductor or semiconductor carrying an electric current is
placed in a magnetic field. A voltage, called the Hall voltage, is created across the conductor or
semiconductor perpendicular to both the current and the magnetic field. This voltage arises
because the magnetic field distorts the flow of electrons or other charge carriers that constitute
the current, pushing the charged particles to one side of the conductor.
The Hall voltage is proportional to the current and magnetic field and inversely
proportional to the number of electrons or other charged particles.
The function of a variety of electric meters and measuring instruments, such as ammeters,
wattmeters, magnetic compasses, and position sensing devices, as well as power-transforming
solid-state devices known as transducers, are based on the Hall effect.

P-N junction
The term junction refers to the region where the two regions of the semiconductor meet.
It can be thought of as the border region between the p-type and n-type as shown in the diagram.

A p-n junction (also known as a diode) will only allow current to flow in one direction.
The electrons from the n-type material can pass to the right through the p-type material, but the
lack of excess electrons in the p-type material will prevent any flow of electrons to the left. Note
that the current is defined to flow in a direction that is opposite to the direction of the flow of the
electrons. This characteristic was employed in a diode.
Diode is a device made from a single p-n junction. At the junction of a p-type and an n-
type semiconductor there forms a region called the depletion zone which blocks current
conduction from the n-type region to the p-type region, but allows current to conduct from the p-
type region to the n-type region. Thus when an external voltage is applied, the n-p junction acts
as a rectifier, permitting current to flow in only one direction. If the p-type region is connected to
the positive terminal of a battery and the n-type to the negative terminal, a large current flows
through the material across the junction. If the battery is connected in the opposite manner,
current does not flow. When the diode allows the flow of current, then they are in its forward
bias state but when they do not allow the flow of current then they are in its reverse bias state.
 For silicon diodes, the typical forward voltage is 0.7 volts, nominal. For germanium
diodes, the forward voltage is only 0.3 volts.

Rectifier Diodes
Rectifier diodes are used in power supplies to convert alternating current (AC) to direct
current (DC), a process called rectification. They are also used elsewhere in circuits where a
large current must pass through the diode.
Semiconductor diode rectifier is an electronic device that allows the passage of current in
only one direction. The first such devices were vacuum-tube diodes, consisting of an evacuated
glass or steel envelope containing two electrodes—a cathode and an anode. Because electrons
can flow in only one direction, from cathode to anode, the vacuum-tube diode could be used as a
rectifier. The diodes most commonly used in electronic circuits today are semiconductor diodes.
The simplest of these, the germanium point-contact diode, dates from the early days of radio,
when the received radio signal was detected by means of a germanium crystal and a fine, pointed
wire that rested on it. In modern germanium (or silicon) point-contact diodes, the wire and a tiny
crystal plate are mounted inside a small glass tube and connected to two wires that are fused into
the ends of the tube.

Transistor
Transistors are made from semiconductors. In electronics, a transistor is a semiconductor
device commonly used to amplify or switch electronic signals. It is an electronic device with
three electrodes (emitter -supplies free charges, base – controls the flow of charges, and collector
– collects the charges from the emitter).
Derived from “trans resistor” meaning it can transfer its internal resistance from low R in
the emitter-base circuit to a much higher R in the collector-base circuit. A voltage or current
applied to one pair of the transistor's terminals changes the current flowing through another pair
of terminals. Voltage drop is a little higher for the base to emitter than for the base to collector.
Because the controlled (output) power can be much larger than the controlling (input) power, the
transistor provides amplification of a signal.
The bipolar transistor was invented in 1948 as a replacement for the triode vacuum tube.
It consists of three layers of doped material, forming two p-n (bipolar) junctions with
configurations of p-n-p or n-p-n. One junction is connected to a battery so as to allow current
flow (forward bias), and the other junction has a battery connected in the opposite direction
(reverse bias). If the current in the forward-biased junction is varied by the addition of a signal,
the current in the reverse-biased junction of the transistor will vary accordingly. The principle
can be used to construct amplifiers in which a small signal applied to the forward-biased junction
causes a large change in current in the reverse-biased junction.

A diode is a rectifier and a transistor is an amplifier. A transistor may be used in a variety

of ways, but its basic functions are to provide current amplification of a signal or to switch the
signal.
Another type of transistor is the field-effect transistor (FET). Such a transistor operates
on the principle of repulsion or attraction of charges due to a superimposed electric field.
Amplification of current is accomplished in a manner similar to the grid control of a vacuum
tube. Field-effect transistors operate more efficiently than bipolar types, because a large signal
can be controlled by a very small amount of energy.
As a result of the investigations of three members of the Bell Telephone Laboratories
technical staff, Dr. John Bardeen, Dr. Walter H. Brattain, and Dr. William Shockley, a new type
of amplifying element known as the transistor was produced in 1948. It promises to have far-
reaching significance in electronics and electrical communication. Like the vacuum tube, the
transistor can serve as an amplifier or as an oscillator; yet it contains no vacuum, no glass
envelope, no grid, no plate, and no cathode. It consists merely of two points of contact of a 'cat's
whisker,' or detector, made to a semiconductor 0.002 in. apart. Germanium is commonly used.
The transistor has been shown to produce amplifications as high as 100 to 1 (20 decibels), and
some test models have operated as amplifiers up to frequencies as high as 10 megacycles.
Such characteristics as durability, ruggedness, and stability are expected to be much the
same as those of point-contact rectifiers.

Video
Youtube.com. What is a semiconductor?
p-n junction, and diodes

References

Hall, D.T., Practical Marine Electrical Knowledge. London, Witherby& Co. Ltd, 1984
Kraal, E.G.R., Basic Electrotechnology for Engineers. 3rd ed. London, Thomas Reed Publications Ltd, 1985
Leslie Jackson, Reed’s Instrumentation and Control System, Adlard Coles Nautical, London. 1992
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