Chapter-14
Semiconductor Electronics
Classification of Semiconductors
• On the basis of their chemical composition, the semiconductor can be divided into
elemental and compound semiconductor.
• (i) Elemental Semiconductor: These are semiconductors consisting of single
element. Example- Si and Ge
• (ii) Compound Semiconductor: These are semiconductors consisting of two or more
elements.
• (a) Inorganic: Cds,GaAs,CdSe etc
• (b)Organic : anthracene,doped pthalocyanines etc.
• (c) Organic Polymers: polypyrrole, polyaniline etc
Energy Bands in Solids:
In a crystal due to interatomic interaction valence electrons of one atom are shared
by more than one atom in the crystal. Now splitting of energy levels takes place. The
collection of these closely spaced energy levels is called an energy band.
(i)Valence Band: The range of energies possessed by valence electrons is known of
valence band.
(ii)Conduction Band: The range of energies possessed by conduction electrons is
known as conduction band.
(iii)Forbidden energy gap(Eg): The separation between conduction band and
valence band on the energy level diagram is known as forbidden energy gap.
Classification of solids on energy bands:
Metals: The first possible energy band diagram shows that the conduction band is
only partially filled with electrons. With a little extra energy, the electrons can easily
reach the empty energy levels above the filled ones and the conduction is possible.
The second possible energy band diagram shows that the conduction band is
overlapping with the valence band. This is because the lowest levels in the
conduction band needs less energy than the highest levels in the valence band.
The electrons in valence band overflow into conduction band and are free to move
about in the crystal for conduction.
Semiconductors
At absolute zero temperature, no electron has energy to jump from valence band
to conduction band and hence the crystal is an insulator. At room temperature,
some valence electrons gain energy more than the energy gap and move to
conduction band to conduct even under the influence of a weak electric field. Eg
for Si = 1.1 eV Eg for Ge= 0.74 eV
Insulators
Electrons, however heated, cannot practically jump to conduction band from
valence band due to a large energy gap. Therefore, conduction is not possible in
insulators Eg: for Diamond = 7 eV
Types of Semiconductor
(i) Intrinsic Semiconductor (ii) Extrinsic Semiconducto
Intrinsic Semiconductor
• A Semiconductor in its pure form without any impurity is called intrinsic
semiconductor.
• In an intrinsic semiconductor lattice is a Silicon lattice .Each Silicon atoms share
its first four valence electrons with four neighboring Silicon atom and form 4
covalent bond .So at low temperature ,there is no free electrons in the conduction
band .when temperature increases some of the electrons get enough energy to
break the bond and go to the conduction band .This will create a vacancy of
electron in the bond position which has an effective positive charge and is called
a hole .In an intrinsic semiconductor number of electrons and number of holes
are equal .
• ne = nh = ni
• Semiconductors posses the unique property in which, apart from electrons, the
holes also move. Thus, the motion of the hole may be regarded as the transfer of
ionization from one atom to another by the actual motion of the bound electron
from one covalent bond to another. Clearly, the originally thermally generated
free electron is not involved in the process of hole motion. Under the action of an
applied electric field, the holes moves in the direction of the electric field. So, they
act as positive charge carriers and give rise to hole current Ih. The thermally
generated free electrons give rise to an independent electron current Ie. The total
current is I=Ie +Ih
Extrinsic Semiconductor
•The conductivity of the intrinsic semiconductor can be increased by adding some
desired impurity to it. And it is called extrinsic semiconductor.
•The process of adding decide impurity to an intrinsic semiconductor so as to
increase its conductivity is called doping.
• The added impurities are called dopant.
•The doped semiconductors are called extrinsic or doped semiconductors.
Two types of dopants
(i) Pentavalent dopant:
They have 5 valence electrons.
Example- arsenic(As), antimony(Sb) and Phosphorus(P)
On doping with pentavalent impurity atom the semiconductor formed is n-type.
(ii) Trivalent dopant:
They have 3 valence electrons.
Example-Indium(In), boron(B) and aluminium(Al).
On doping with trivalent impurity atom the semiconductor formed is p-type.
n-type semiconductor
The semiconductor is obtained by doping the tetravalent semiconductor Si or Ge with
pentavalent impurity such as As , P or Sb of group V of the periodic table .When
pentavalent impurity atom substitutes the tetravalent Si atom , it uses four of its five
valence electrons in forming four covalent bonds with neighboring Si atoms with the
5th electron is loosely bound to the impurity atom . A very small amount of ionization
energy is required to detach the electron at room temperature, the thermal energy is
enough to set free this electron. The dopant atom gets converted into an ionized
positive core. As each pentavalent and impurity atom donates one extra electron for
conduction , it is called a donor . These semiconductors have free electrons
contributed by donors and generated by thermal process while the holes are only due
to thermal generation. Hence the electrons are the majority charge carriers and holes
are the minority charge carriers. As most of the current is carried by the negativity
charged electrons, so the semiconductors doped with donor type impurities are
known as n- type semiconductors.
The free electron after doping has an energy level in the band diagram that lies
within the forbidden gap just below the conduction band. This energy level created
by the impurity atom is called donor energy level. At room temperature these
electrons to get enough thermal energy to push the electrons from the donor energy
level to the conduction band.
• For such semiconductors ne>>nh
p-type semiconductor
A semiconductor obtained by doping that tetravalent semiconductor Si or Ge with
trivalent impurities such as In, B, Al or Ga. The impurity atom uses its three valence
electrons in forming covalent bonds with three neighboring Silicon atoms and one
covalent bond with the neighboring Silicon atom is left incomplete due to the
deficiency of 1 electron . An electron from the neighboring Silicon -Silicon covalent
bond can slide into this vacant bond , creating a vacancy or hole in that bond. This
hole is now available for conduction . The trivalent impurity atom becomes
negatively charged when all its valence bonds gets filled .The material can be
regarded as a fixed core of one negative charge along with associated hole .The
trivalent impurity atom is called an acceptor because it creates a hole which can
accept an electron from the neighboring bond .Obviously there are holes created by
the acceptor atoms in addition to the thermally generated holes while the free
electrons are only due to thermal generations .Hence ,holes are the majority charge
carriers and electrons are the minority charge carriers .the semiconductors doped
with acceptor type impurities are called P type semiconductors , because most the
current in these semiconductors is carried by holes which have effective positive
charge.
for such semiconductors ne<<nn
• In a doped semiconductor
• ne nh =ni2
• ne = number density of electron in the conduction band
• nh=number density of electron in the valence band
• ni=number density of intrinsic carriers( holes or free electrons)
• In n-type semiconductor, ne > > nh
• In p -type semiconductor, nh > > ne
Charge on n-type and p-type semiconductor
The n-type semiconductor has excess of electrons but these extra electrons were
supplied by the atoms of donor impurity and each atom of donor impurity is
electrically neutral. When the impurity atom is added, the term excess electrons
refers to an excess with regard to number of electrons needed to fill the covalent bond
in the semiconductor crystal. The extra electrons are free electros and increase the
conductivity of the semiconductor. The situation with regard to p-type semiconductor
is also similar. Therefore , n-type as well as p-type is electrically neutral.
Difference between n-type semiconductor and p-type semiconductor:
n-type semiconductor p-type semiconductor
It is produced by adding controlled It is produced by adding controlled
amount of pentavalent impurity to a amount of trivalent impurity to a
pure ( intrinsic ) semiconductor. pure ( intrinsic ) semiconductor.
The number of free electrons far The number of holes far exceeds the
exceeds the number of holes. number of free electrons.
The current conduction is The current conduction is
predominantly by free electrons. predominantly by holes.
The donor energy level is just below The acceptor energy level is just
the conduction band. above the valence band.
p-n Junction
It is a single crystal of Ge or Si doped in such a manner that one half portion of it
acts as p-type semiconductor and the other half as n type semiconductor .
Formation of a p-n Junction
•As soon as a p-n junction is formed, electrons from n-type material diffuse into p-
type material and fill some of the holes there. At the same time, holes from p-type
material diffuse into the n-type material and are filled by electrons. This diffusion
of charge carriers results in n-section acquiring a positive charge and a p–section a
negative charge as shown in figure. These two layers of positive and negative
charges form depletion region or depletion layer. The small region on both sides of
the p-n Junction which is depleted of charge carriers and has only immobile ions is
called depletion layer.
•Within a very short time, the steady state conditions are reached and further
movement of charge carriers across the junction stops. It is because electric field
setup by the depletion layer acts as a barrier to further diffusion of electrons into p-
region and holes to n- region.
•Due to this field, an electron on p-side of the junction moves to n-side and a hole
on n-side of the junction moves to p-side. The motion of charge carriers due to the
electric field is called drift. Thus, a drift current, which is opposite in direction to
the diffusion current starts.
•Initially, diffusion current is large and drift current is small. As the diffusion
process continues, the space-charge regions (depletion region) on either side of the
junction extend, thus increasing the electric field strength and hence drift current.
This process continues until the diffusion current equals the drift current. Thus, a
p-n junction is formed. In a p-n junction under equilibrium there is no net current
Barrier Potential
Once p-n Junction is formed depletion layer acts as a barrier to the movement of
charge carriers across the junction. There exist a potential difference across the
depletion layer and is called barrier potential.
Semiconductor diode
A semiconductor diode is basically a p-n junction with metallic contacts provided at
the ends for the application of an external voltage. It is a two- terminal device. A p-n
junction diode is symbolically represented as shown in figure.
Forward Biasing In this biasing, the p -side is connected to positive terminal and n-
side to negative terminal of a battery. In this biasing, forward current flows due to
majority charge carriers. The width of depletion layer decreases.
•In this biasing, forward current flows due to majority charge carriers. •Here the
applied voltage opposes the barrier voltage VB. As a result of this
(i)The effective barrier decreases to (VB –V) and hence the potential barrier across the
junction decreases.
(ii) The majority charge carriers i.e., holes from the p-side and electrons from the n-
side begin to flow towards the junction.
(iii)The diffusion of electrons and holes into the depletion layer decreases its width,
and
(iv) The effective resistance across the p-n junction decreases. When V exceeds VB,
the majority charge carriers starts easily flowing across the junction and set up a
large current called forward current.
Reverse Biasing In this biasing, the p-side is connected to negative terminal and n-
side to positive terminal of a battery. In this biasing, reverse current flows due to
minority charge carriers. The width of depletion layer increases.
The applied voltage V and the barrier potential are in the same direction.
(i)The barrier potential increases to (VB +V) and hence the potential barrier across
the junction increases.
(ii)The majority charge carriers move away from the junction, increasing the width
of the depletion layer,
(iii) The resistance of the p-n junction becomes very large, and
(iv) no current flows across the junction due to majority charge carriers.
At room temperature there are always some minority charge carriers like holes in
the n-region and electrons in the p-region. The reverse biasing pushes them
towards junction, setting a current called reverse or leakage current.
V-I characteristics of a p-n junction diode
A graph showing the variation of current flowing through p-n junction with the
voltage applied across it is called the voltage –current or V-I characteristics of a p-n
junction.
1. Forward bias characteristic:
• The forward voltage across the junction is increased from zero and the
corresponding value of forward current is noted.
• The forward voltage at which the current through the diode starts to increase
rapidly with the increase in forward voltage is called knee voltage( threshold
voltage/cut in voltage).
2. Reverse bias characteristic:
• Since the diode is reverse biased, its resistance is very high a very small reverse
current flows .
• This is called reverse saturation current because its value remains constant
until reverse breakdown voltage is reached.
• When the reverse voltage becomes equal to reverse breakdown voltage, the
reverse current increases very rapidly . Now the reverse voltage remains constant
but reverse current increases very sharply resulting in overheating and possible
damage. The large value of current is due to the fact that the kinetic energy of the
electrons becomes high enough to knock out electrons from the semiconductor
atoms.
• The voltage at which breakdown of the junction diode occurs is called Zener
breakdown voltage or peak-inverse voltage of the diode.
Dynamic resistance/ AC forward resistance of junction diode:
• The ratio of change in voltage across diode to the resulting change in current
through it is called dynamic resistance.
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Junction diode rectifiers
•A rectifier is a device that is used to convert alternating voltage into direct voltage.
The process of converting AC into DC IS called rectification.
Two types of rectifier
1. Half-wave rectifier
2. Full-wave rectifier
Half –wave use only one half cycle of input a.c. voltage to produce d.c. output. Full-
wave rectifier uses both half cycles of input a.c. voltage to produce d.c. voltage.
Half wave rectifier
The circuit diagram and the output and input waveform of a half wave rectifier is
shown below.
Working:
During the first half cycle of input ac A is positive with respect B. This makes the
diode forward biased and hence conduct current. During the negative half cycle of
ac ,A is now negative with respect to B. Under this condition the diode is reverse
biased, and it conducts no current. Therefore, current flows through the diode
during positive half cycle of input ac voltage only. In this way current flows through
R always in the same direction. That is the direction of current is always from A to
B which is direct current.
Full Wave rectifier
A full-wave rectifier converts the whole cycle of applied AC signal into DC signal.
Centre tap transformer is used here.
Working:
During first half cycle of input ac the terminal A
is positive relative to B. So, the diode D1 is
forward biased and diode D2 is reverse biased.
Therefore, the current flows through D1 only.
Hence the direction of current is AD1XY During
the negative half cycle the terminal A is negative
with respect to B. Then the diode D1 is reverse
biased and D2 is forward biased. Therefore,
current flows through D2 only. Hence the
direction of current is through BD2XY. Thus, for
input ac signal the output current is flowing
through RL is in the same direction. That is from
A to B. The input and output voltage are shown
below.
Filter Circuit
A filter circuit is a device which removes the ac component of rectifier output but
allows the dc components to reach the load.
To get steady dc output from the pulsating voltage normally a capacitor is
connected across the output terminals (parallel to the load RL). Also, we can use an
inductor in series with RL for the same purpose. Since these additional circuits
appear to filter out the ac ripple and give a pure dc voltage, so they are called filters.
A capacitor normally blocks dc and allows ac. When the voltage across the capacitor
is rising, it gets charged. If there is no external load, it remains charged to the peak
voltage of the rectified output. When there is a load, it gets discharged through the
load and the voltage across it begins to fall. In the next half-cycle of rectified output,
it again gets charged to the peak value. The rate of fall of the voltage across the
capacitor depends upon the inverse product of capacitor C and the effective
resistance RL used in the circuit and is called the time constant. To make the time
constant large value of C should be large. So, capacitor input filters use large
capacitors. The output voltage obtained by using capacitor input filter is nearer to
the peak voltage of the rectified voltage. This type of filter is most widely used in
power supplies.
Optoelectronic junction devices
Photo diode
A photo diode is a junction diode fabricated by using a photo sensitive
semiconductor material. When light of suitable frequency is made to fall on the
junction it starts conducting. A photodiode is used in reverse bias, although in
forward bias current is more than current in reverse bias because in reverse bias it
is easier to observe change in current with change in light intensity.
Symbolic representation
Working
• When the photodiode is illuminated with light (photons) with energy (h𝜈) greater
than the energy gap (Eg) of the semiconductor, then electron-hole pairs are
generated due to the absorption of photons. The diode is fabricated such that the
generation of e-h pairs takes place in or near the depletion region of the diode.
Due to electric field of the junction, electrons and holes are separated before they
recombine. The direction of the electric field is such that electrons reach n-side
and holes reach p-side. Electrons are collected on n-side and holes are collected
on p-side giving rise to an emf.
• When an external load is connected, current flows.
• The magnitude of the photo current depends on the intensity of incident light.
That is greater the intensity of light falling on the p-n junction of photodiode, the
greater will be the reverse current.
Light Emitting Diode (LED)
• A LED is heavily doped p-n junction diode that gives off visible light when forward
biased.
• Symbolic representation
• When the diode is forward biased, electrons are sent from n → p (where they are
minority carriers) and holes are sent from p → n (where they are minority carriers).
At the junction boundary the concentration of minority carriers increases compared
to the equilibrium concentration (i.e., when there is no bias). Thus at the junction
boundary on either side of the junction, excess minority carriers are there which
recombine with majority carriers near the junction. On recombination, the energy is
released in the form of photons. Photons with energy equal to or slightly less than
the band gap are emitted. When the forward current of the diode is small, the
intensity of light emitted is small. As the forward current increases, intensity of
light increases and reaches a maximum. Further increase in the forward current
results in decrease of light intensity. LEDs are biased such that the light emitting
efficiency is maximum.
The semiconductor used for the fabrication of visible light LED should be made of
semiconductor having band gap of (1.8eV - 3eV).
The compound semiconductor Gallium Arsenide – Phosphide is used for making
LEDs of different colours.
• Advantages
LEDs have replaced incandescent lamps in many applications because they have the
following advantages.
1) Low voltage
2) Longer life
3) Fast on-off switching
4) Fast action and no warm-up time required.
Solar cell
• A solar cell is basically a p-n junction which generates e.m.f when solar radiation
falls on the p-n junction. A solar cell works on the same principle as photodiode
except that no external bias is applied. The junction area of these cells is kept large
so that large amount of solar radiation is incident on the junction.
Working:
• The generation of emf by a solar cell, when light falls on, it is due to the following
three basic processes: generation, separation and collection—
(i) generation of e-h pairs due to light (with hν > Eg ) close to the junction;
(ii) separation of electrons and holes due to electric field of the depletion region.
Electrons are swept to n-side and holes to p-side;
(iii) the electrons reaching the n-side are collected by the front contact and holes
reaching p-side are collected by the back contact. Thus p-side becomes positive and
n-side becomes negative giving rise to photovoltage. When an external load is
connected a photocurrent IL flows through the load.
• Note that the I – V characteristics of solar cell is drawn in the fourth quadrant of the
coordinate axes. This is because a solar cell does not draw current but supplies the
same to the load.
• Note: - solar cell does not need any biasing
Uses
1. Used for charging batteries.
2. used to supply power to various electronic equipment in satellites.
3. Used in some wrist watches and hand calculators.
4. used to supply power to traffic signs.
5. used in remote areas where electric power supply is not