Why semiconductors?
SEMICONDUCTORS: They are here, there, and everywhere
Computers, palm pilots, Silicon (Si) MOSFETs, ICs, CMOS
laptops, anything “intelligent”
Cell phones, pagers Si ICs, GaAs FETs, BJTs
CD players AlGaAs and InGaP laser diodes, Si photodiodes
TV remotes, mobile terminals Light emitting diodes (LEDs)
Satellite dishes InGaAs MMICs (Monolithic Microwave ICs)
Fiber networks InGaAsP laser diodes, pin photodiodes
Traffic signals, car GaN LEDs (green, blue)
taillights InGaAsP LEDs (red, amber)
Air bags Si MEMs, Si ICs
and, they are important, especially to Elec.Eng.& Computer
Sciences
Introduction
Semiconductors are materials whose electrical properties lie between
Conductors and Insulators.
Ex : Silicon and Germanium
Give the examples of Conductors and Insulators!
Difference in conductivity
Semiconductor Materials
Elemental semiconductors – Si and Ge (column IV of periodic table) –
compose of single species of atoms
Compound semiconductors – combinations of atoms of column III and
column V and some atoms from column II and VI. (combination of two
atoms results in binary compounds)
There are also three-element (ternary) compounds (GaAsP) and four-
elements (quaternary) compounds such as InGaAsP.
Semiconductor
materials
Semiconductor Materials
The wide variety of electronic and optical properties of these semiconductors provides the device
engineer with great flexibility in the design of electronic and opto-electronic functions.
Ge was widely used in the early days of semiconductor development for transistors and diodes.
Si is now used for the majority of rectifiers, transistors and integrated circuits.
Compounds are widely used in high-speed devices and devices requiring the emission or absorption
of light.
The electronic and optical properties of semiconductors are strongly affected by impurities, which may
be added in precisely controlled amounts (e.g. an impurity concentration of one part per million can
change a sample of Si from a poor conductor to a good conductor of electric current). This process
called doping.
Solid state structures
A crystalline solid is distinguished by the fact that atoms making the crystal are
arranged in a periodic fashion. That is, there is some basic arrangement of atoms
that is repeated throughout the entire solid. Thus the crystal appears exactly the
same at one point as it does at a series of other equivalent points, once the basic
periodicity is discovered. However, not all solids are crystals (Fig. 2); some have
no periodic structure at all (amorphous solids), and other are composed of many
small regions of single-crystal material (polycrystalline solids).
The periodic arrangement of atoms in crystal is called the lattice; the
lattice contains a volume, called a unit cell, which is representative of the
entire lattice and is regularly repeated throughout the crystal.
Solid state structures
Unit cells for types of cubic lattice structure.
Cubic lattices:
Simple cubic (sc) Body-centered cubic (bcc) Face-centered cubic (fcc)
Diamond lattice unit cell, showing the four nearest neighbour structure
The basic lattice structure for many important
semiconductors is the diamond lattice, which is
characteristic of Si and Ge. In many compound
semiconductors, atoms are arranged in a basic diamond
structure but are different on alternating sites. This is
called a zincblende lattice and is typical of the III-V
compounds. The diamond lattice can be thought of as an
fcc structure with an extra atom placed at a/4+b/4+c/4
from each of the fcc atoms.
Crystallographic Planes
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Miller Indices
Crystallographic Notation
h: inverse x-intercept
k: inverse y-intercept
l: inverse z-intercept
(Intercept values are in multiples of the lattice constant;
h, k and l are reduced to 3 integers having the same
ratio.)
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Crystallographic Planes and Si Wafers
Silicon wafers are usually cut along the (100)
plane with a flat or notch to orient the wafer
during IC fabrication
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Diamond lattice structure
The diamond lattice can be thought of as an fcc structure
with an extra atom placed at a/4+b/4+c/4 from each of the
fcc atoms.
Diamond lattice - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Diamond_cubic_animation.gif
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Compound Semiconductors
•“Zincblende Structure”
•III-V compound semiconductors : GaAs, GaP, GaN, etc.
“important for optoelectronics and high speed ICs”
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Solid state structures
Each atom in the diamond
lattice has a covalent bond
with four adjacent atoms,
which together form a
tetrahedron. This lattice can
also be formed from two fcc-
cubic lattices, which are
The diamond lattice of silicon and germanium. displaced along the body
diagonal of the larger cube in
Figure by one quarter of that
body diagonal. The diamond
lattice therefore is a fcc-cubic
lattice with a basis containing
two identical atoms.
The zinc-blende crystal structure of GaAs and InP
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CZ Crystal Growth
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Si Bulk Wafer Specifications Bulk Wafer Specifications
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Purity of Device Grade Si
99.999999999 % (so-called “eleven nines” )
Maximum impurity allowed is equivalent to 1
mg of sugar dissolved in an Olympic-size
swimming pool.
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Flatness deviation and particle sizes
Dimensions are equivalent to 1/1000 of a baseball
placed inside a sports dome.
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Bulk Si Wafer to IC Chip
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Atoms and electrons
1. The electronic structure of atoms
2. The interaction of atoms and
electrons with excitation
The analysis of absorption and emission
of light by atoms
Niels Bohr atomic model
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The Bohr model
To develop the model, Bohr made several
postulates:
1. Electrons exist in certain stable, circular
orbits about the nucleus.
2. The electron may shift to an orbit of
higher or lower energy, thereby gaining or
losing energy equal to the difference in
the energy levels (by absorption or
emission of a photon of energy hν).
However, the simple Bohr model, which accurately
described the gross features of the hydrogen
spectrum, did not include many fine features. These
features were described later by principles of quantum
mechanics.
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Bohr Model
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The Silicon Atom
Finally, the work of Bohr, Boltzmann, Plank, Einstein and
others has developed an understanding of the atomic
structure which shows that electrons circle the nucleus in
orbits having different associated energies. The electrons
also spin on their own axes. The energy of electrons is
quantised in that only certain discrete levels of energy can
be possessed by electrons and no values in between these
discrete levels are allowed. The levels exist in groups
which are referred to as shells and there are sub-shells (l)
within main shells (n).
Silicon, Si, is a group IV material having an atomic number of 14. Consequently it has 14
positively charged protons and 14 neutrons in its nucleus. It has 14 orbiting negatively
charged electrons: 2 in a full K shell; 8 in a full L shell and 4 in a half-full M sub-shell.
With a half full outer sub-shell the atom has an affinity for 4 additional electrons to try to
complete the outer sub-shell.
The Pauli’s Exclusion Principle
states that no two electrons in an atom or molecule can share the exact same quantum
specification. In practice, this means that no more than two electrons can share
precisely the same orbit or energy level and the two must have opposite spins.
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The Silicon Atom
A covalent bond can be formed between two atoms
which have only one electron in an outer orbit or
energy level. In this case the individual electrons
from the separate atoms at the same energy level
orbit both atoms jointly as shown in figures.
Both atoms essentially share the pair of electrons at the given energy level in the outer
sub-shell, with the two electrons having opposite spins. This forms a bonding
attraction between the two atoms which is not extremely strong but is nonetheless
powerful and maintains a high degree of stability in the material.
In the case of Silicon, each of the 4 outer electrons enters into a covalent bond
with a neighbouring atom.
A Covalent Bond Formed by the
Sharing of Electrons in an Outer
Energy Level
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The Silicon Atomic Structure
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14 -
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Silicon: our primary example and
focus
-
Atomic no. 14 - However, like all
14 electrons in three shells: 2 ) 8 ) 4 other elements it
i.e., 4 electrons in the outer "bonding"
would prefer to have
shell
Silicon forms strong covalent bonds with 8 electrons in its
4 neighbors outer shell
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Band theory of a solid
A solid is formed by bringing together isolated single
atoms.
Consider the combination of two atoms. If the atoms are
far apart there is no interaction between them and the
energy levels are the same for each atom. The numbers
of levels at a particular energy is simply doubled
n=3 n=3
n=3 n=2 n=3 n=2 n=3
n=2 n=1 n=2 n=1 n=2
n=1 Atom
n=1 1 Atom 2 n=1
Atom 1 Atom 2 Atom 1 + 2
• If the atoms are close together the electron wave functions will
overlap and the energy levels are shifted with respect to each
other.
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n=3
n=2
A solid will have millions of atoms close
together in a lattice so these energy levels
will creates bands each separated by a n=1
gap.
Conductors: Conduction band,
If we have used up all the electrons half filled with
available and a band is still only half electrons
filled, the solid is said to be a good
conductor. The half filled band is Valence band,
known as the conduction band. filled with
electrons
Insulators:
If, when we have used up all the
electrons the highest band is full and Empty
the next one is empty with a large gap conduction band
between the two bands, the material is
said to be a good insulator. The Large energy gap
highest filled band is known as the
valence band while the empty next Valence band,
band is known as the conduction band. filled with
electrons
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Semiconductors: Empty
Some materials have a filled valence band just like conduction band
insulators but a small gap to the conduction band.
Small energy gap
At zero Kelvin the material behave just like an
insulator but at room temperature, it is possible
for some electrons to acquire the energy to jump Valence bands,
up to the conduction band. The electrons move filled with
electrons
easily through this conduction band under the
application of an electric field. This is an intrinsic
semiconductor.
Conduction At zero Kelvin – no conduction
band, with some
electrons
Top valence So where are all these materials
to be found in the periodic table ?
band now
missing some
electrons
At room temperature – some conduction
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Semiconductor
materials
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Possible Semiconductor Materials
1. Very Expensive
Carbon C 6 2. Band Gap Large: 6eV
3. Difficult to produce without high contamination
1. Cheap
Silicon Si 14 2. Ultra High Purity
3. Oxide is amazingly perfect for IC applications
1. High Mobility
Germanium Ge 32 2. High Purity Material
3. Oxide is porous to water/hydrogen (problematic)
1. Only “White Tin” is semiconductor
Tin Sn 50
2. Converts to metallic form under moderate heat
1. Only “White Lead” is semiconductor
Lead Pb 82
2. Converts to metallic form under moderate heat
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The Silicon Atomic Structure
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- Si -
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14 -
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Silicon : It’s a Group 4 element which means it has 4 electrons
in outer shell
However, like all other elements it would prefer to have 8
electrons in its outer shell
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The Germanium Atomic Structure
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Bonding of Si atoms
This results in the covalent bonding of Si
atoms in the crystal matrix
A Covalent Bond Formed by the Sharing of
Electrons in an Outer Energy Level
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Band Gap Energy
n=3 n=3
n=2 n=2
n=1 n=1
Atom 1 Atom 2
Discrete energy levels for 2 atoms separated by a
large distance.
Note that the band gap energy,
Eg for insulators is ~ 10 eV,
Typical continuous band pictures at while for metals it is close to 0
0 K for different solid materials. eV (1eV=1.6x10-19 J).
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Electrons and Holes
Si and Ge are tetravalent elements – each atom of Si (Ge) has 4 valence
electrons in crystal matrix
T=0 all electrons are bound in For T> 0 thermal fluctuations can
break electrons free creating
covalent bonds
electron-hole pairs
no carriers available for Both can move throughout the lattice
conduction. and therefore conduct current.
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Bond Model of Electrons and Holes
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Electrons and Holes
For T>0
some electrons in the valence band receive
enough thermal energy to be excited across
the band gap to the conduction band.
The result is a material with some electrons in
an otherwise empty conduction band and
some unoccupied states in an otherwise filled
valence band.
An empty state in the valence band is
referred to as a hole.
Electron-hole pairs in a semiconductor. If the conduction band electron and the hole
The bottom of the conduction band are created by the excitation of a valence
denotes as Ec and the top of the valence band electron to the conduction band, they
band denotes as Ev. are called an electron-hole pair (EHP).
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Intrinsic Material
A perfect semiconductor crystal with no impurities or lattice defects is called an
intrinsic semiconductor. At T>0
At T=0 K – Electron-hole pairs are generated
No charge carriers
EHPs are the only charge carriers in
Valence band is filled with electrons
intrinsic material
Conduction band is empty
Since electron and holes are created in
pairs – the electron concentration in
conduction band, n (electron/cm3) is
equal to the concentration of holes in the
valence band, p (holes/cm3).
Each of these intrinsic carrier
concentrations is denoted ni.
Thus for intrinsic materials n=p=ni
Electron-hole pairs in the covalent bonding
model in the Si crystal.
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Electrons and Holes
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Intrinsic Material
At a given temperature there is a certain concentration of electron-hole pairs ni. If a steady
state carrier concentration is maintained, there must be recombination of EHPs at the same
rate at which they are generated. Recombination occurs when an electron in the conduction
band makes a transition to an empty state (hole) in the valence band, thus annihilating the
pair. If we denote the generation rate of EHPs as gi (EHP/cm3·s) and the recombination rate
as ri, equilibrium requires that
ri = g i
Each of these rates is temperature dependent. For example, gi(T) increases when the
temperature is raised, and a new carrier concentration ni is established such that the higher
recombination rate ri (T) just balances generation. At any temperature, we can predict that
the rate of recombination of electrons and holes ri, is proportional to the equilibrium
concentration of electrons n0 and the concentration of holes p0:
ri = r n0 p0 = r ni2 = gi
The factor r is a constant of proportionality which depends on the particular mechanism by
which recombination takes place.
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Silicon Atom
1s, 2s, 2p orbitals filled by 10
4 nearest neighbors
electrons
unit cell length = 5.43Å
3s, 3p orbitals filled by 4 5 × 1022 atoms/cm3
electrons
The Si Atom The Si Crystal
“diamond cubic ” structure
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Conduction Band and Valence Band
Electron
Potential
Energy
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The Simplified Energy Band
Diagram
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Semiconductors, Insulators, and
Conductors
• Totally filled band and totally empty bands do not allow
current flow. (just as there is no motion of liquid in a
totally filled or totally empty bottle
• Metal conduction band is half-filled
• Semiconductors have lower Eg’s than insulators and
can be doped
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Concept of a “hole”
An unoccupied electronic state in
the valence band is called a “hole”
Treat as positively charge mobile particle in the semiconductors
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Density of States
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Density of States at Conduction Band:
The Greek Theater Analogy
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