CH-1

Introduction to Electronics
BY:
Outline

Introduction
Review on atomic structure
Material properties
Semiconductor material
PN-Junction
What is Electronics ?
•Electronics is a subject deals about electrical circuits that involve active electrical
components such as diodes, transistors, integrated circuits, optoelectronics, and sensors
associated with passive electrical components, and interconnection technologies
• Electronics classified as Analog and Digital Electronics or small signal and power Electronics
•Analog Electronics: Most of the fundamental electronic components resistors, capacitors,
inductors, diodes, transistors, and operational amplifiers are all inherently analog.
• Electronic circuits built with a combination of only these components are usually analog.
•Analog circuits are much more difficult to design than those which accomplish the same
task digitally.
• It takes a special kind of analog circuit wizard to design an analog radio receiver, or an analog
battery charger; digital components exist to make those designs much simpler

•Digital Electronics: It operate using digital, discrete signals. These circuits are usually
made of a combination of transistors and logic gates and, at higher levels,
microcontrollers or other computing chips.
•Most processors, in computer, or tiny little microcontrollers, operate in the digital.
Digital circuits usually use a binary scheme for digital signaling
Review on atomic structure
•The ultimate concern of the field Electronics is predicting and controlling the movement of atomic
charges.
• An atom consists of a nucleus made up of a core of protons (positively charged particles) and neutrons
(particles having no charge) surrounded by electrons(Negatively charged particles)

• All works 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 quantized
• Only discrete levels of energy can be possessed by electrons.
• The levels exist in groups which are referred to as shells
•Valence energy levels correspond to the principal quantum numbers
• (n = 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 ...) or in the X-ray notation (K, L, M, …)
Atomic Structure
Silicon
-  The outermost occupied shell is called the valence shell and
electrons that occupy this shell are called valence electrons.
- -  Valence electron: is an electron that participates in the
- formation of chemical bonds.
- - • Atoms with one or two valence electrons more than a
- Si - closed shell are highly reactive because the extra
electrons are easily removed to form positive ions.
-
14 -  Covalent bond: is a form of chemical bond in which two
atoms share a pair of atoms.
- - • It is a stable balance of attractive and repulsive forces
- between atoms when they share electrons.
-
Silicon: our primary example and focus
• Atomic no. 14
• 14 electrons in three shells: 2 ) 8 ) 4
• Requires four more to complete outermost shell
• 4 electrons in the outer "bonding" shell forms strong
covalent bonds with 4 neighbors that creats lattice
structure
Material Properties
•The ability of material to conduct or insulate is determined by the atomic structure of the material.
•Mainly the movement of valance electron from /gap between/ valance band to conduction band
determines the conductivity and resistivity of a material.
•Valance band: highest band completely occupied by electron at 0K
•Conduction band: next higher energy band separated by a forbidden gap
 Conduction band,
1. Conductors: half filled with
• If we have used up all the electrons available and a band is still only electrons
half filled, the material is said to be a good conductor.
• The half filled band is known as the conduction band. Valence band,
filled with
• Free electrons are exist in conduction band electrons
• As a result, they have low resistance which allows electrical current
flow

2. Insulators: Empty
• If when we have used up all the electrons the conduction band

highest band is full and the next one is empty with Large energy gap
a large gap between the two bands, the material is
said to be a good insulator. Valence band,
• The highest filled band is known as the valence filled with
electrons
band while the empty next band is known as the
conduction band.
• No free electron in conduction band
• So that, they have high resistance which
suppresses electrical current flow
•Semiconductor Materials
•A material whose conductivity lies between that of Empty conduction
band
conductors (copper) and insulators (glass).
• single-element: such as germanium and silicon. Small energy gap

• compound: such as gallium-arsenide

Valence bands,
•Some materials have a filled valence band just like filled with
electrons
insulators but a small gap to the conduction band.
•At zero Kelvin the material behave just like an insulator
but at room temperature, it is possible for some electrons At zero Kelvin – no conduction
to acquire the energy to jump up to the conduction band.
•The electrons move easily through this conduction band So where are all these materials
under the application of an electric field. This is an to be found in the periodic table ?
intrinsic semiconductor.
Semiconductor
materials
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
Conductivity of semiconductor
Conductivity of semiconductor material can improved in two ways
 Increasing temperature or
 Adding impurity (Doping)
Accordingly, semiconductor materials can be classified as
 Intrinsic semiconductor
 Extrinsic Semiconductor
 Classification of semiconductor
1. Intrinsic semiconductor
• The conductivity of the semiconductor material increases when the temperature
increases.
• This is because the application of heat makes it possible for some electrons in
the valence band to move to the conduction band.
• Obviously the more heat applied the higher the number of electrons that can gain
the required energy to make the conduction band transition and become
available as charge carriers.
• This is how temperature affects the carrier concentration.

2. Extrinsic semiconductor
• Doping or implant is the term given to a process whereby one element is injected with
atoms of another element in order to change its properties.
• Semiconductors (Si or Ge) are typically doped with elements such as Boron, Arsenic
and Phosphorous to change and enhance their electrical properties.
Intrinsic Material Properties
• A perfect semiconductor crystal with no impurities or lattice defects is called an
intrinsic semiconductor.
At T=0 K At T>0

• No charge carriers • Electron-hole pairs (EHP) are

generated
• Valence band is filled with Since electron and holes are created in pairs –
electrons the electron concentration in conduction band,
n (electron/cm3) is equal to the concentration
• Conduction band is empty
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
• Generation: is the process of free electrons
and holes being created.

Electron-hole pairs in the covalent bonding model in • Recombination: is the process of free
the Si crystal. electrons and holes disappearing.
 Increasing conductivity by temperature
As temperature increases, the number of free electrons and
holes created increases.
17
Carrier Concentration vs T emp (in Si)
1 10

For T>0 1 10
16
15
1 10

• some electrons in the valence band receive enough

14
1 10
13
1 10

Intrinsic Concentration (cm^-3)

thermal energy to be excited across the band gap to 1 10
12
11
1 10
the conduction band free electron generation. ni 1 1010
T
9
1 10

• An empty state in the valence band is referred to as a 1 10

8
7
1 10
hole. 1 10
6

5
1 10

• In thermal equilibrium, the number of free electron 1 10

4
3
1 10
/hole per unit volume(ni) is 100
150 200 250 300 350 400 450 500
T
Temperature (K)
ni2 = n*p

k = Boltzman constant (8.62 x 10-5 ev/k), T= temperature in

kelvin, Eg= energy gap (1.12ev) for silicon, B= a parameter
7.3 x10-15 cm-3k-3/2 ,
Extrinsic Material Properties
By doping, a crystal can be altered so that it has a predominance of either electrons or holes.
When impurities are introduced, additional levels are created in the energy bands structure,
usually within the band gap.
When a crystal is doped such that the equilibrium carrier concentrations nn and pp are
different from the intrinsic carrier concentration ni, the material is said to be extrinsic.

Two types of extrinsic semiconductor

N-type
P-type
Extrinsic – N-type material
 An impurity from group V/5/ introduces an energy level very near
the conduction band in Ge or Si filled with electron.
 Thus, all of the electrons in the impurity level are
"donated" to the conduction band.
 Such an impurity level is called a donor level
 The material doped with donor impurities can have a considerable
concentration of electrons in the conduction band.
 Thus semiconductors doped with a significant number of donor
atoms will have n0>>(ni,p0) at room temperature.
 This is n-type material.
 Majority carrier are free electrons whereas minority carrier are
holes
Donation of electrons from a
donor level to the conduction Donor impurities (elements of group V): P, Sb, As
band
Extrinsic Material – P-type material
 Atoms from Group III (B, Al, Ga) introduce impurity levels in
Ge or Si
 Excitation of electrons from the valence band into the impurity
level, leaving behind holes in the valence band
 Since this type of impurity level "accepts" electrons from the
valence band, it is called an acceptor level, and the group
III/trivalent/ impurities are acceptor impurities in Ge and Si.
 Doping with acceptor impurities can create a semiconductor
with a hole concentration p0 much greater than the conduction
band electron concentration n0 (this is p-type material)
Majority carrier are holes whereas minority carrier are free
electrons.
acceptance of electrons
Acceptor elements (group III): B, Al, Ga, In
 PN-Junction
• Consider the silicon crystal represented below.

• Half is n-type while the other half is p-type.

Depletion region
p region n region
–
–
+
+
 The electrical imbalance created inside the crystal is
– +
– + known as a barrier potential.
– +

 This barrier potential is about 0.3 volt in a

– +
– +
– +

germanium crystal, and 0.7 volt in a silicon crystal.

• When the junction is formed, conduction electrons move to the p- region, and fall into holes. Filling a
hole makes a negative ion and leaves behind a positive ion in the n-region.

• This leaves an empty zone, or depletion region, around the junction boundary, and a small electrical
imbalance created inside the crystal.
Current Flow in Semiconductors
Drift Current
 When an electrical field E is established in a semiconductor crystal, holes are
accelerated in the direction of E, and free electrons are accelerated in the
direction opposite to that of E.
Hole drift Electron drift

The negative sign is because of electrons drifting from right to

left which result in a current component from left to right.
Total drift current density can now be found by summing
End of chapter
Thanks!