EPM211-Properties

of Electrical
Materials
Fall 2023
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 semiconductor materials

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• Introduction
• Types of Semiconductors
• Intrinsic Semiconductors
• N-type Extrinsic Semiconductor:
• P-type Extrinsic Semiconductor:

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 Introduction

• A semiconductor material is one whose electrical properties lie in

between those of insulators and good conductors. Examples are:
germanium and silicon.
• Semiconductors are materials which have a conductivity between
conductors (generally metals) and nonconductors or insulators (such as
ceramics). They can be pure elements, such as silicon or germanium, or
compounds such as gallium arsenide or cadmium selenide
• In terms of energy bands, semiconductors can be defined as those
materials which have almost an empty conduction band and almost filled
valence band with a very narrow energy gap (of the order of 1 eV)
separating the two.

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Introduction
• The electron-volt (ev) is a unit of energy or work. It is the work required
to move an electron through a potential difference of one volt.
Alternatively, an electron-volt is equal to the kinetic energy acquired by
an electron when it is accelerated through a potential difference of one
volt. Ev = 1.602× 10−19 joule
• To better understand how semiconductors work, student must
understand atoms and how electrons organize themselves within the
atom. arrange themselves in layers called shells inside an atom. The
outer shell in the atom is known as a valence shell.
• The electrons in this valence shell are the ones that form bonds
with neighboring atoms. Such bonds are called covalent bonds.
Most conductors have just one electron in the valence shell.
Semiconductors have four electrons in their valence shell

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Introduction
• However, if atoms nearby are made of the same valence,
electrons may bind with the valence electrons of other
atoms. Whenever that happens, atoms organize themselves
into crystal structures. We make most semiconductors with
such crystals, mainly with silicon crystals.

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Introduction
Thermal Energy causes a bond to be
broken and a free

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 Types of Semiconductors:

• Semiconductor may be classified as under:

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Intrinsic Semiconductors
• An intrinsic semiconductor is one which is made of the
semiconductor material in its extremely pure form.
• Examples of such semiconductors are: pure germanium and
silicon which have forbidden energy gaps of 0.72 eV and 1.1 eV
respectively. The energy gap is so small that even at ordinary
room temperature; there are many electrons which possess
sufficient energy to jump across the small energy gap between
the valence and the conduction bands.
• An intrinsic semiconductor may be defined as one in which the
number of conduction electrons is equal to the number of holes.

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 • Schematic energy band diagram of an intrinsic semiconductor at room
temperature is shown in Fig. below.
• Fermi-level

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Doped Semiconductor
Material
• If we incorporate a small impurity of five or three valence
band materials into a 4-valence band lattice, we have
created an extrinsic semiconductor which is doped with an
impurity
n-type semiconductor
• Doping with five valence material (e.g. Arsenic) to create
additional free (donor) electrons and a static positive
charged ion in the core lattice
• Majority carriers are electrons; minority carriers are holes
• The concentration of electrons in a n-type semiconductor =
concentration of the donor electrons + the concentration of
free holes (which is the same as the number of electrons
which have randomly broken their valence bonds)

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Doped Semiconductor
Material
p-type semiconductor
• Doping with three valence material (e.g., Gallium) to create
additional free (donor)
• holes and a static negative charged ion in the core lattice
• Majority carriers are holes; minority carriers are electrons
• The concentration of holes in a p-type semiconductor =
concentration of the donor holes + the concentration of free
electrons (which is the same as the number of holes which
have randomly broken their valence bonds)

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Doped silicon material

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Carrier Concentrations and
Recombination
• There are two types of carrier concentrations
• Majority carriers due to the doping
• Electrons in n-type
• Holes in p-type
• Minor carriers due to thermal excitation
• Holes in n-type
• Electrons in p-type
• Recombination: when an electron meets a hole, they
combine
• to complete the bond
• Generation: thermal excitation creates new carriers
• Equilibrium exists when the rate of recombination equals
the
rate of generation
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N-type Extrinsic
Semiconductor:
• This type of semiconductor is obtained when a pentavalent
material like antimony (Sb) is added to pure germanium
crystal. As shown in Fig. below, each antimony atom forms
covalent bonds with the surrounding four germanium atoms
with the help of four of its five electrons. The fifth electron
is superfluous and is loosely bound to the antimony atom.
• Hence, it can be easily excited from the valence band to the
conduction band by the application of electric field or
increase in thermal energy. It is seen from the above
description that in N-type semiconductors, electrons are the
majority carriers while holes constitute the minority carriers.

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P-type Extrinsic
Semiconductor:
• This type of semiconductor is obtained when traces of a
trivalent like boron (B) are added to a pure germanium
crystal. In this case, the three valence electrons of boron
atom form covalent bonds with four surrounding germanium
atoms, but one bond is left incomplete and gives rise to a
hole as shown in Fig. below.
• Thus, boron which is called an acceptor impurity causes as
many positive holes in a germanium crystal as there are
boron atoms thereby producing a P-type (P for positive)
extrinsic semiconductor.
• In this type of semiconductor, conduction is by the
movement of holes in the valence band.
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Majority and Minority
Carriers:
• In a piece of pure germanium or silicon, no free
charge carriers are available at 0ºK. However, as its
temperature is raised to room temperature, some
of the covalent bonds are broken by heat energy
and as a result, electron-hole pairs are Produced.
These are called thermally-generated charge
carriers

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Majority and Minority
Carriers:
• An intrinsic of pure germanium can be converted into
a P-type semiconductor by the addition of an
acceptor impurity which adds many holes to it.
Hence, a P-type material contains following charge
carriers:
• (a) Large number of positive holes—most of them
being the added impurity holes with only a very
small number of thermally generated ones.
• (b) A very small number of thermally-generated
electrons (the companions of the thermally
generated holes mentioned above).
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Majority and Minority
Carriers:
• in a P-type material, the number of holes (both
added and thermally generated) is much more than
that of electrons. Hence, in such a material, holes
• constitute majority carriers and electrons form
minority carriers as shown in Fig. below (a)
• in an N-type material, the number of electrons (both
added and thermally-generated) is much larger than
the number of thermally-generated holes. Hence, in
such a material, electrons are majority carriers
whereas holes are minority carriers as shown in Fig.
below (b).
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