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Chapter 2
Semiconductor Diode

Basic Electronics 2023

 Semiconductor Materials
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▪ Semiconductors conduct less than metal conductors but

more than insulators.
▪ Some common semiconductor materials are silicon (Si),
germanium (Ge), and carbon (C).
▪ Silicon is the most widely used semiconductor material in
the electronics industry.
▪ Almost all diodes, transistors, and ICs manufactured today
are made from silicon. III IV V
B C N
Al Si P
Ga Ge As
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In Sn Sb
 Solid-State Electronic Materials
3

• Electronic materials fall into three categories:

– Insulators Resistivity () > 105 -cm
– Semiconductors 10-3 <  < 105 -cm
– Conductors  < 10-3 -cm
• Elemental semiconductors are formed from a single type of
atom, typically Silicon.
• Compound semiconductors are formed from combinations
of column III and V elements or columns II and VI.
• Germanium was used in many early devices.
• Silicon quickly replaced Germanium due to its higher
bandgap energy, lower cost, and is easily oxidized to form
silicon-dioxide insulating layers.
Basic Electronics 2023
 Semiconductor Materials (cont.)

Bandgap
Semiconductor Energy EG (eV)
Carbon (diamond) 5.47
Silicon 1.12
Germanium 0.66
Tin 0.082
Gallium arsenide 1.42
Gallium nitride 3.49
Indium phosphide 1.35
Boron nitride 7.50
Silicon carbide 3.26
Cadmium selenide 1.70

4 Basic Electronics 2023

 Semiconductor Materials
5

▪ Intrinsic semiconductors are semiconductors in their purest

form.
▪ Extrinsic semiconductors are semiconductors with other
atoms mixed in.
▪ These other atoms are called impurity atoms.
▪ The process of adding impurity atoms is called doping.

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 Semiconductors
6

Semiconductors are crystalline materials that are

characterized by specific energy bands for electrons.
Between the bands are gaps; Energy

these gaps represent energies

Conduction band
that electrons cannot posses.
Energy gap
The last energy band is the
Valence band
conduction band, where electrons
Energy gap
are mobile.
Second band
The next to the last band is the
Energy gap
valence band, which is the energy
level associated with electrons First band
involved in bonding.
Nucleus

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 Valence band, conduction band
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The valence band is the band of electron orbitals that electrons can jump out of,
moving into the conduction band when excited. The valence band is simply the
outermost electron orbital of an atom of any specific material that electrons actually
occupy. This is closely related to the idea of the valence electron.
The energy difference between the highest occupied energy state of the valence band
and the lowest unoccupied state of the conduction band is called the band gap and is
indicative of the electrical conductivity of a material. A large band gap means that a lot of
energy is required to excite valence electrons to the conduction band. Conversely, when
the valence band and conduction band overlap as they do in metals, electrons can
readily jump between the two bands meaning the material is highly conductive.

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A bonding diagram of a silicon crystal
8

A bonding diagram of a silicon crystal

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 Electron and hole current
9

At room temperature, some electrons have enough

energy to jump into the conduction band.
After jumping the gap, these electrons are free to drift throughout
the material and form electron current when a voltage is applied.
Energy Electron-
hole pair
For every electron
in the conduction Conduction band
band, a hole is left Energy gap
Heat
behind in the energy

valence band. Valence band

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 Electron and hole current
10

The electrons in the conduction band and the holes in

the valence band are the charge carriers. In other words,
current in the conduction band is by electrons; current
in the valence band is by holes.
When an electron jumps to the conduction band, valence
Free
electrons move from hole-to-hole in the valence band, electron
effectively creating “hole current” shown by gray arrows.

Si Si Si

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 Electron-hole pair
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▪ Thermal energy is the main cause

for the creation of an electron-hole
pair.
▪ As temperature increases, more
thermally generated electron-hole
pairs are created.
▪The hole acts like a positive
charge because it attracts a free
electron passing through the
crystal.
▪Intrinsic semiconductor materials
are doped with impurity atoms to
increase their conductivity
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12 Basic Electronics 2023
 Energy diagrams for the three types of materials.

13 Basic Electronics 2023

 Impurities, doping
14

By adding certain impurities to pure (intrinsic) silicon,

more holes or more electrons can be produced within
the crystal.
To increase the number of conduction III IV V
band electrons, pentavalent impurities
are added, forming an n-type B C N
semiconductor. These are elements to
the right of Si on the Periodic Table. Al Si P
To increase the number of holes, trivalent Ga Ge As
impurities are added, forming a p-type
semiconductor. These are elements to the In Sn Sb
left of Si on the Periodic Table.

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 N-type semiconductor
15

▪Figure shows the doping of a silicon

crystal with a pentavalent impurity.
▪ Arsenic (As) is shown in this figure,
but other pentavalent impurities such
as antimony (Sb) or phosphorous (P)
could also be used.
▪Electrons are basic particles of
negative charge, so we call this an n-
type semiconductor
▪Electrons are called majority current
carriers
▪n-type semiconductors have many
positive ions Basic Electronics 2023
 P-type semiconductor
16

▪ Figure shows the doping of a silicon

crystal with a trivalent impurity.
▪ Aluminum (Al) is shown in this
figure, but other trivalent impurities
such as boron (B) or gallium (Ga)
could also be used.
▪A Hole exhibits a positive charge, so
we call this a p-type semiconductor
▪Holes are called majority current
carriers
▪p-type semiconductors have many
negative ions
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 Doping: Summary
17

The electrical characteristics of silicon and germanium are improved by adding

materials in a process called doping.
There are just two types of doped semiconductor materials:

n-type p-type
n-type materials contain an excess p-type materials contain an excess of
of conduction band electrons. valence band holes.
The dominant charge carriers in a doped semiconductor (e.g. electrons in n-type
material) are called majority charge carriers. Other type are minority charge
carriers
The overall doped material is electrically neutral

Basic Electronics 2023

 The PN Junction Diode
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▪ A popular semiconductor device called a diode is made by joining

p- and n-type semiconductor materials, as shown in Fig. (a).
▪ The doped regions meet to form a p-n junction.
▪Diodes are unidirectional devices that allow current to flow in one
direction.
▪ The schematic symbol for a diode is shown in Fig. (b).

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19

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 PN Junctions
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 Majority charge carriers on each side

diffuse across the junction where they
combine with (and remove) charge
carriers of the opposite polarity
 Hence around the junction there are
few free charge carriers and we have a
depletion layer (also called a space-
charge layer)

 The diffusion of positive charge in one direction and negative charge in the
other produces a charge imbalance
 This results in a potential barrier across the junction
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21

 Potential barrier
 the barrier opposes the flow of majority charge
carriers and only a small number have enough
energy to surmount it
◼ This generates a small diffusion current
 the barrier encourages the flow of minority
carriers and any that come close to it will be
swept over
◼ This generates a small drift current
 foran isolated junction these two currents must
balance each other and the net current is zero
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 Diode Operating Conditions
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A diode has three operating conditions:

No bias
Reverse bias
Forward bias

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 Forward bias
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 The barrier is reduced

 More majority charge carriers have sufficient energy to surmount it
 The diffusion current therefore increases while the drift current
remains the same
 There is thus a net current flow across the junction which increases
with the applied voltage

p-region n-region

p n

+ -
VBIAS
The forward-bias
causes the depletion Basic Electronics 2023
region to be narrow.
 Reverse bias
24

 The height of the barrier is increased

 The number of majority charge carriers that have sufficient energy to surmount it
rapidly decreases
 The diffusion current therefore vanishes while the drift current remains the same
 Thus the only current is a small leakage current caused by the (approximately
constant) drift current
 The leakage current is usually negligible (a few nA)
p-region n-region

p n

- +
VBIAS
The reverse-bias causes the Basic Electronics 2023
depletion region to widen.
 Forward and reverse currents
25

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 Majority and Minority Carriers
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Two currents through a diode:

Majority Carriers
The majority carriers in n-type materials are electrons.

The majority carriers in p-type materials are holes.

Minority Carriers
The minority carriers in n-type materials are holes.
The minority carriers in p-type materials are electrons.

Basic Electronics 2023

 Zener Region
27

The Zener region is in the diode’s reverse-bias region.

At some point the reverse bias voltage
is so large the diode breaks down and
the reverse current increases
dramatically.

The maximum reverse voltage that

won’t take a diode into the zener
region is called the peak inverse
voltage or peak reverse voltage.

The voltage that causes a diode to

enter the zener region of operation is
called the zener voltage (VZ).
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 DC (Static) Resistance
28

For a specific applied DC

voltage (VD) the diode has
a specific current (ID) and
a specific resistance (RD).

VD
RD =
ID

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 Average AC Resistance
29

ΔVd
rav = pt. to pt.
ΔI d

AC resistance can be
calculated using the
current and voltage values
for two points on the diode
characteristic curve.

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 Diode Equivalent Circuit
30

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 Diode characteristics
31

The forward and reverse characteristics are shown on

a V-I characteristic curve.
IF
In the forward bias region, current
increases dramatically after the
barrier potential (0.7 V for Si) is Forward
bias
reached. The voltage across the VBR (breakdown)

diode remains approximately VR VF

0.7 V
equal to the barrier potential.
Reverse Barrier
bias potential
The reverse-biased diode
effectively acts as an insulator
until breakdown is reached.
IR

Basic Electronics 2023

 Diode models
32

The characteristic curve for a diode can be approximated

by various models of diode behavior. The model you will
use depends on your requirements.
The ideal model assumes the diode is
either an open or closed switch.
The practical model includes the VR
barrier voltage in the approximation.

The complete (actual) model includes

the forward resistance of the diode.

Basic Electronics 2023