Lecture 1
Semiconductor Materials
Lecturer: Znar R. Saeed
[email protected]
Department of Communication Engineering
First stage
First Semester
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Semiconductor Materials Atomic structure
• All matters on earth made of atoms (made up of elements or combination of
elements); all atoms consist of electrons, protons, and neutrons except normal
hydrogen, which does not have a neutron. An atom is the smallest particle of
an element that retains the characteristics of that element.
• According to Bohr, atoms have a planetary orbits structure that consists of a
central nucleus, surround by orbiting electrons (Figure 1). Nucleus contains
protons and neutrons, similar to the way planets orbit the sun in our solar
system.
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Each type of atom has a certain number of electrons and protons that
distinguishes it from atoms of other elements. Each electron has its own
orbit that corresponds to different energy levels.
In an atom, orbits are grouped into energy bands known as shells. Each
shell has a fixed maximum number of electrons at allowed energy levels.
The maximum number of electrons (Ne) that can exist in each shell can
be calculated as,
Ne = 2n2
where n is the number of the shell.
Electrons that are in orbits farther from the nucleus have higher energy
and are less tightly bound to the atom than those closer to the nucleus.
Electrons with the highest energy exist in the outermost shell of an atom
and are relatively loosely bound to the atom.
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• This outermost shell is known as the valence shell and electrons in this shell
are called valence electrons. Valence electrons contribute to chemical reactions
and bonding within the structure of a material and determine its electrical
properties.
Figure 2: Illustration of the Bohr model of the silicon atom.
An atom is stable if it has 8 valence electrons. The number of valence electrons
determines the ability of material to conduct current.
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Materials Classification (Insulators, Conductors,
and Semiconductor)
The basic goal of electronic materials is to generate and control the flow of an
electric current. In terms of their electrical properties, materials can be classified
into three groups: conductors, semiconductors, and insulators.
• Conductors have low resistance allows electric current to flow.
• Insulators have high resistance suppresses electric current to flow.
• Semiconductors can flow or suppress electrical current flow.
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Insulators
• An insulator is a material that does not conduct electrical current under
normal conditions.
• Valence electrons are tightly bound to the atoms; therefore, there are very
few free electrons in an insulator. Have 8 valence electrons.
• Energy gap in an insulator is very wide (≥ 6eV).
• Valence electron requires a large electric field to gain enough energy to
jump into conduction band. Examples of insulators are rubber, plastics,
glass, mica, and quartz.
• The force on each electron is not enough to free it from its orbit and the
insulator doesn’t conduct.
• Insulators are said to have a high resistivity/ resistance.
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Conductors
• A conductor is a material that easily conducts electrical current. Most metals are
good conductors.
• The best conductors are (with one valence electron), which are characterized by
atoms with only one valence electron very loosely bound to the atom.
• In a conductor, the valence band and the conductor band overlaps (≤ 0.01 eV).
Only a little energy or voltage is needed for the electron to jump into conduction
band.
• Good conductors have low resistance so electrons flow through them with ease.
• Best element conductors include: Copper, silver, gold, aluminuim. And nickel
• Alloys are also good conductors: Brass and steel
• Good conductors can also be liquid: Salt water
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Conductor Atomic Structure
• The atomic structure of good
conductors usually includes only one
electron in their outer shell.
• It is called a valence electron.
• It is easily striped from the atom,
producing current flow.
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Semiconductors
• A material whose properties are such that it is not quite a conductor, not quite
an insulator.
• Semiconductors have a resistivity between that of conductors and insulators.
• Single-element semiconductors are silicon (Si), and germanium (Ge), antimony
(Sb), arsenic (As), astatine (At), boron (B), polonium (Po), and tellurium (Te),
these semiconductor characterized by atoms with four valence electrons.
• Compound semiconductors such as gallium arsenide, indium phosphide,
gallium nitride, silicon carbide, and silicon germanium are also commonly
used. Silicon is the most commonly used semiconductor.
• Their electrons are not free to move but a little energy will free them for
conduction as Silicon and Germanium.
• Resistance of a semiconductor decreases as the temperature increases -
Negative Temperature coefficient.
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• Silicon is a semiconductor and copper is a conductor. Bohr diagrams of the
silicon atom and the copper atom are shown in following Figure 3. A Silicon
atom has 4 electrons in its valence ring. This makes it a semiconductor. A
Copper atom has only 1 electron in its valence ring. This makes it good
conductor.
Figure 3: Diagrams of the silicon and copper atoms.
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Silicon and Germanium
• Both silicon and germanium have the characteristic four valence electrons, the atomic
structures of silicon and germanium are compared in Figure 4.
• The valence electrons in germanium are in the fourth shell while those in silicon are in the
third shell, closer to the nucleus.
• This means that the germanium valence electrons are at higher energy levels than those in
silicon and, therefore, require a smaller amount of additional energy to escape from the atom.
• This property makes germanium more unstable at high temperatures. This is why silicon is a
more widely used semiconductive material.
Figure 4
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Energy Gap
• Energy gap: the amount of energy that a valence electron must have to jump
into the conduction band.
• The energy difference between the valence band and conduction band is called
the energy gap.
• Energy in an electron is of two types – kinetic (energy of motion) and
potential (energy of position).
• Each material has its own set of permissible energy levels for the electrons in
its atomic structure.
• Energy level in an atom is measured in electron volt (eV) = 1.602× 10-19 J.
Electrons that orbits within an energy level will have similar amount of
energy.
• When an electron acquires sufficient additional energy, it can leave the
valence shell and become a free electron and exists in the condition band.
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• Figure 5 shows energy diagrams for insulators, semiconductors, and
conductors.
• The gap for insulators can be crossed only when breakdown conditions occur.
• In semiconductors, the band gap is smaller, allowing an electron in the valence
band to jump into the conduction band if it has enough energy. The band gap
depends on the semiconductor material.
• In conductors, the conduction band and valence band overlap, so there is no
gap. This means that electrons in the valence band move freely into the
conduction band, so there are always electrons available as free electrons.
Figure 5: Energy diagrams for insulators, semiconductors, and conductors.
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Covalent Bonds
• Figure 6 shows how each silicon atom positions itself with four adjacent
silicon atoms to form a silicon crystal.
• A silicon (Si) atom with its four valence electrons shares an electron with each
of its four neighbors.
• This creates eight shared valence electrons for each atom and produces a state
of chemical stability.
• Also, this sharing of valence electrons produces the covalent bonds that hold
the atoms together. Covalent bonding in an intrinsic silicon crystal is shown in
Figure 6c.
• An intrinsic crystal is one that has no impurities. Covalent bonding for
germanium is similar because it also has four valence electrons.
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(c)
Figure 6: Illustration of covalent bonds in silicon.
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Conduction Electrons and Holes
• When an intrinsic silicon crystal gains sufficient heat (thermal energy), some
valence electrons could break their covalent bonds to jump the gap into
conduction band, becoming free electrons.
• Free electrons are also called conduction electrons, (negative charge). This is
illustrated in Figure 7.
• The vacancy in the valence band is called a hole (positive charge).
• For every electron raised to the conduction band there is 1 hole in the valence
band creating electron-hole pair.
• There is an equal number of holes in the valence band created when these
electrons jump into the conduction band, this is illustrated in Figure 8. When a
conduction-band electron loses energy and falls back into a hole, this is called
recombination.
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Figure 7: Creation of electron-hole pairs in a silicon crystal.
Figure 8: Free electrons are being generated continuously while some recombine with holes.
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Electron and Hole Current
• When a voltage is applied across a piece of intrinsic silicon, as shown in
Figure 9.
• the thermally generated free electrons in the conduction band, are now easily
attracted toward the positive end.
• This movement of free electrons is one type of current in a semiconductive
material and is called electron current.
Figure 8
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• In valance band, holes generated due to free electrons. Electrons in the valance band
are although still attached with atom and not free to move, however they can move
into nearby hole with a little change in energy, thus leaving another hole where it
came from.
• Effectively the hole has moved from one place to another in the crystal structure, as
illustrated in Figure 9.
• Although current in the valence band is produced by valence electrons, it is called
hole current to distinguish it from electron current in the conduction band.
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Figure 9
Doping
• Since semiconductors are generally poor conductors, their conductivity can be
increased by the controlled addition of impurities to the intrinsic (pure)
semiconductive material. This process, called doping, increases the number of
current carriers (electrons or holes).
• Two types of semiconductor material that are subjected to doping process,
which are N-type and P-type.
• Two types of elements used doping: Trivalent element – with 3 valence
electrons and Pentavalent element – with 5 valence electrons.
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N-type semiconductors
• In order for our silicon crystal to conduct electricity, we need to introduce an impurity atom
such as Arsenic (As), phosphorus (P), bismuth (Bi), or Antimony (Sb) into the crystalline
structure making it extrinsic (impurities are added).
• These atoms have five outer electrons in their outermost covalent bond to share with other
atoms and are commonly called "Pentavalent" impurities.
• This allows four of the five electrons to bond with its neighboring silicon atoms leaving one
"free electron" to move about when an electrical voltage is applied (electron flow).
• As each impurity atom "donates" one electron, pentavalent atoms are generally known as
"donors". In n-type material electrons are majority carrier, and holes the minority carrier.
Figure 10: An antimony (Sb) impurity atom is shown in the center. The extra electron from the Sb atom becomes a free21electron.
P-type semiconductors
• Trivalent (with 3 valence electrons) impurity atoms are added – Aluminum (Al), boron
(B), indium (In), gallium (Ga), trivalent also known as a acceptor atom since they
accept electrons.
• When a trivalent atom is added to an intrinsic, it will readily accept free electron, as a
result –becomes p-type extrinsic semiconductor. Each trivalent atom forms covalent
bond with 4 adjacent Si atom.
• Since 4 electrons are needed to form a covalent bond causes an existence of hole in the
covalent bonding. It also causes a lack of valence electrons in the B atoms.
• In p-type material holes are majority carrier, and electron the minority carrier.
Figure 11: Trivalent impurity atom in a silicon crystal structure. A boron (B) impurity atom is shown in the center.22
The PN Junction
• The PN Junction is formed when p‐type region is joined with the n‐type region. This is a basic
structure forms a semiconductor diode.
• The n‐type region has many free electrons (majority carriers) and only a few thermally
generated holes.
• The p‐type region has many holes (majority carriers) and only a few thermally generated free
electrons (minority carriers).
• The free electrons in the n region are randomly drifting in all directions. The basic structure at
the instant of junction formation showing only the majority and minority carriers. Free
electrons in the n region near the pn junction begin to diffuse across the junction and fall into
holes near the junction in the p region, as shown in Figure 12(a).
Figure 12 23
• the n region loses free electrons as they diffuse across the junction. This creates
a layer of positive charges (pentavalent ions) near the junction.
• As the electrons move across the junction, the p region loses holes as the
electrons and holes combine. This creates a layer of negative charges (trivalent
ions) near the junction. These two layers of positive and negative charges form
the depletion region, as shown in Figure 12(b).
• The term depletion refers to the fact that the region near the pn junction is
depleted of charge carriers (electrons and holes) due to diffusion across the
junction.
• Keep in mind that the depletion region is very thin compared to the n region
and p region.
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• The potential difference of the electric field across the depletion region is the
amount of voltage required to move electrons through the electric field.
• This potential difference is called the barrier potential and is expressed in volts.
Stated another way, a certain amount of voltage equal to the barrier potential
and with the proper polarity must be applied across a pn junction before
electrons will begin to flow across the junction.
• The potential barrier is approximately 0.7V for a silicon PN junction and 0.3V
for germanium PN junction.
• The distance from one side of the barrier to the other side is called the width of
the barrier, which depends on the nature of the material.
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Energy Diagrams of the PN Junction
• An energy diagram for a PN junction at the instant of formation is shown in Figure
13(a).
• As you can see, the valence and conduction bands in the n region are at lower energy
levels than those in the p region.
• The trivalent impurities (in p-type) exert lower forces on the outer-shell electrons
than the pentavalent impurities (in n-type).
• The lower forces in p- type materials mean that the electron orbits are slightly larger
and hence have greater energy than the electron orbits in the n-type materials.
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Figure 13: Energy diagrams illustrating the formation of the pn junction and depletion region.
• As the diffusion continues, the depletion region begins to form and the energy
level of the n-region conduction band decreases.
• The decrease in the energy level of the conduction band in the n region is due
to the loss of the higher-energy electrons that have diffused across the junction
to the p region.
• Shortly, there are no electrons left in the n-region conduction band with
enough energy to get across the junction to the p-region conduction band, as in
Figure 13(b).
• At this point, the junction is at equilibrium; and the depletion region is
complete because diffusion has stopped.
• There is an energy gradient across the depletion region that acts as an “energy
hill” that an n-region electron must climb to get to the p region.
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