FOUNDATIONS OF ELECTRICAL AND ELECTRONICS
ENGINEERING (24EECE2231)
MODULE 3
SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICES
CONTENTS
• p-n Junction diode - Basic operating principle
• current-voltage characteristics
• rectifier circuits (half-wave, full-wave, rectifier
with filter capacitor)
• Zener diode as Voltage Regulator
• Metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistor
• (MOSFET): Operation of NMOS and PMOS FETs
• MOSFET as an amplifier and switch.
P-N Junction Diode
Germanium
Silicone
Nitrogen
Phosphorus
Arsenic
Antimony
Bismuth
Forward Biased PN Junction
Depletion
Region
• Due to the higher concentration of holes adjacent to negative impurity
ions layer the electrons of negative ions come out and recombine with
those holes and create new holes in the layer. Consequently, the width of
this negative ions layer is reduced and finally this layer vanishes.
• Similarly due to the negative terminal of source the free electrons in the n-
type region will repeal towards junction where they will find the layer of
positive impurity ions and start recombine with these ions and generate
free electrons inside the layer. Consequently, the width of positive
impurity ions is reduced, and finally, it vanishes.
• In these ways, both layers of ions disappear, and there will be no more
depletion layer. After the depletion layer disappeared, free electrons from
the n-type region can easily drift to p-type region and holes from p-type
region to n-type region in the crystal. Hence, ideally there will be no
obstruction of flowing current and the pn junction behaves as the short
circuit.
Reverse Biased PN Junction
Reverse Biased PN Junction
When positive terminal of the source is connected to the n-type region,
the free electrons of that region are attracted towards positive terminal
of the source because of that more positive impurity ions are created in
the depletion layer which makes the layer of positive impurity ions
thicker.
At the same time since negative terminal of the source is connected to
the p-type region of the junction, electrons are injected in this region.
Due to the positive potential of the n-type region the electrons are
drifted towards the junction and combine with holes adjacent to the
layer of positive impurity ions and create more positive impurity ions in
the layer. Hence, the thickness of the layer increases.
V-I Characteristics of A PN Junction
CHARACTERISTICS OF ZENER DIODE
The Zener diode operates just like the normal diode when in the forward-bias mode,
and has a turn-on voltage of between 0.3 and 0.7 V.
However, when connected in the reverse mode, which is usual in most of its
applications, a small leakage current may flow. As the reverse voltage increases to the
predetermined breakdown voltage (Vz), a current starts flowing through the diode.
The current increases to a maximum, which is determined by the series resistor, after
which it stabilizes and remains constant over a wide range of applied voltage.
The breakdown is either due to the Zener breakdown effect that occurs below 5.5 V,
or impact ionization that occurs above 5.5 V. Both mechanisms result in the same
behavior and do not require different circuitry; however, each mechanism has a
different temperature coefficient.
The Zener effect has a negative temperature coefficient while the impact effect
experiences a positive coefficient. The two temperature effects are almost equal at
5.5 V and cancel out each other to make the Zener diodes rated at around 5.5 V the
most stable over a wide range of temperature conditions.
The load is connected in parallel with the
zener diode, so the voltage across RL is
always the same as the zener voltage,
( VR = VZ ).
There is a minimum zener current for
which the stabilization of the voltage is
effective and the zener current must stay
above this value always operating under
load within its breakdown region.
The upper limit of current is of course
dependant upon the power rating of the
device. The supply voltage VS must be
greater than VZ.
One small problem with zener diode
stabilizer circuits is that the diode can
sometimes generate electrical noise on
top of the DC supply as it tries to stabilize
the voltage.
Types of rectifier circuits
[Link] wave rectifier
[Link] wave rectifier
[Link] rectifier
Metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistor
(MOSFET)
An oxide layer is deposited on the substrate
to which the gate terminal is connected. This
oxide layer acts as an insulator (sio2 insulates
from the substrate), and hence the MOSFET
has another name as IGFET. In the
construction of MOSFET, a lightly doped
substrate, is diffused with a heavily doped
region. Depending upon the substrate used,
they are called as P-type and N-
type MOSFETs. The voltage at gate controls
the operation of the MOSFET. In this case,
both positive and negative voltages can be
applied on the gate as it is insulated from the
channel. With negative gate bias voltage, it
acts as depletion MOSFET while with positive
gate bias voltage it acts as an Enhancement
MOSFET.
When no voltage is applied between
gate and source, some current flows
due to the voltage between drain and
source. Let some negative voltage is
applied at VGG. Then the minority
carriers i.e. holes, get attracted and
settle near SiO2 layer. But the majority
carriers, i.e., electrons get repelled.
With some amount of negative
potential at VGG a certain amount of
drain current ID flows through source to
drain. When this negative potential is
further increased, the electrons get
depleted and the current ID decreases.
Hence the more negative the
applied VGG, the lesser the value of
drain current ID will be.
The channel nearer to drain gets more
depleted than at source like in FET and
the current flow decreases due to this
effect. Hence it is called as depletion
mode MOSFET.
When no voltage is applied between gate and
source, some current flows due to the voltage
between drain and source. Let some positive
voltage is applied at VGG. Then the minority
carriers i.e., holes, get repelled and the
majority carriers i.e., electrons gets attracted
towards the SiO2 layer.
With some amount of positive potential
at VGG a certain amount of drain
current ID flows through source to drain. When
this positive potential is further increased, the
current ID increases due to the flow of
electrons from source, and these are pushed
further due to the voltage applied at VGG.
Hence the more positive the applied VGG, the
more the value of drain current ID will be. The
current flow gets enhanced due to the
increase in electron flow better than in
depletion mode. Hence this mode is termed
as Enhanced Mode MOSFET.
Actually when VDS is increased, the drain current ID should increase, but due to
the applied VGS, the drain current is controlled at certain level. Hence the gate
current controls the output drain current.
Transfer characteristics define the change in the value of VDS with the change
in ID and VGS in both depletion and enhancement modes. The below transfer
characteristic curve is drawn for drain current versus gate to source voltage.