UNIT I
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The fear of the LORDisthe beginning of knowledge:butfools despise wisdom
and instruction.
Proverbs
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UNIT I
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Syllabus
Review Semiconductor devices
Two terminal devices
BJT, JFET, MOSFET
Four terminal devices
SCR, DIAC, TRIAC
Photo devices: Photo diode
Photo transition
LED, LCD.
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MOSFET
BJT
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Three
terminal
Devices
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Classification of materials:
1. Conductors: have low resistance - which
allows electrical current flow
2. Insulators: have high resistance - which
suppresses electrical current flow
3. Semiconductors: can allow and/or
suppress electrical current flow
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Review of Semiconductor materials
History of Semiconductor
materials:
Semiconductor materials are of two types
1. Single crystal (Eg. Germanium-Ge, Silicon-
Si have a repetitive crystal structure)
2. Compound (Eg. Gallium Arsenide-GaAs,
Cadmium Sulfide-CdS , Gallium NitradeGaN )
. The three semiconductor most frequently
for the electronic devices are Ge,6/18/15
Si,
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GaAs.
Germanium(Ge):
1. Was discovered in the early years that
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
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diodes and transistor were constructed
using germanium as base material.
Was most exclusively used
Was relatively easy to find and was
available in fairly large quantities.
Is sensitive to the change in the
temperature.
Limited number of areas of
application.
First
Ge diode was discovered in the
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year 1939.
Silicon (Si):
1. Has improved temperature sensitivities.(Less
2.
3.
4.
5.
temperature sensitive than Ge)
Is one of the most abundant material on the earth.
Cheaper to manufacture.
Used for wide range of applications.
The first Si transistor introduced in the year 1954.
Gallium Arsenide (GaAs):
6. Meets the need of higher speed. The speed of
operation is five time greater than silicon.
7. Is more expensive.
8. Used as a base material for high speed ,very large
scale integrated circuit designs
9. The development of the first GaAs transistor was
inUNIT
the
early 1970s.
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Review of Semiconductor materials
Semiconductors are a special class of
elements having a conductivity between that
of a good conductor and that of an insulator.
Atom is composed of three basic particles
a) The Electrons b) The Protons c) The
Neutron
Atom is the smallest unit of the element that
contains all its chemical properties.
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The bonding of atoms, strengthened by the sharing
of electrons is called covalent bond.
The external natural causes like light energy in the
form of photons and the thermal energy (heat) from
the surrounding medium causes to break the
covalent bond leading to a free electron.
The term intrinsic is applied to any semiconductor
material that has been carefully refined to reduce
the number of impurities to a very low level.
Free electrons in a material due to only external
causes are referred to as intrinsic carriers.
Ge has the highest number of intrinsic carriers per
cubic centimeter, GaAs the lowest.
Relative mobility is also a factor to be concerned
while
choosing the semiconductor material.
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The free carriers in GaAs have more than five
times the mobility of free carriers in Si.
The addition of one part of impurity (of proper
type)per million in a wafer of silicon material can
change that material from a relatively poor
conductor to a good conductor of electricity.
Conductors have a positive temperature
coefficient- resistance increases with increase in
heat.
Semiconductors materials have negative
temperature coffecient-shows increased levels of
conductivity with application of heat.
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Electrons that are in orbit farther from the
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nucleus have higher energy and are less
tightly bound to the atom than those close
to the nucleus.
The valence electrons contribute to
chemical reactions and bonding within the
structure of a material.
The process of losing a valance electron is
known as ionization.
Atoms that have four valence electrons are
called tetravalent, and those with five are
called pentavalent.
The term valence is used to indicate that
the potential required to remove any one of
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these electrons from the atomic structure
Conductors
Good conductors have low resistance so
electrons flow through them with ease.
Best element conductors include:
Copper, silver, gold, aluminum, & nickel
Alloys are also good conductors:
Brass & steel
Good conductors can also be liquid:
Salt water
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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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Copper Atom
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Insulators
Insulators have a high resistance so current
does not flow in them.
Good insulators include:
Glass, ceramic, plastics, & wood
Most insulators are compounds of several
elements.
The atoms are tightly bound to one another
so electrons are difficult to strip away for
current flow
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Semiconductor
Semiconductors are materials that
essentially can be conditioned to act as
good conductors, or good insulators, or any
thing in between.
Common elements such as carbon, silicon,
and germanium are semiconductors.
Silicon is the best and most widely used
semiconductor
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The main characteristic of a semiconductor
element is that it has four electrons in its
outer or valence orbit.
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The unique capability of semiconductor
atoms is their ability to link together to
form a physical structure called a crystal
lattice.
The atoms link together with one another
sharing their outer electrons.
These links are called covalent bonds
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If the material is pure semiconductor
material like silicon, the crystal lattice
structure forms an excellent insulator since
all the atoms are bound to one another and
are not free for current flow.
Good insulating semiconductor material is
referred to as intrinsic.
Since the outer valence electrons of each
atom are tightly bound together with one
another, the electrons are difficult to
dislodge for current flow.
Silicon in this form is a great insulator.
Semiconductor material is often used as an
insulator.
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Doping
To make the semiconductor conduct
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electricity, other atoms called impurities
must be added.
Impurities are different elements.
This process is called doping.
Doping increases the number of current
carriers (electrons /holes).
To increase the number of conduction band
electrons in intrinsic silicon, pentavalent
impurity atoms are added.
A semiconductor material that has been
subjected to the doping process is called an
extrinsic
material.
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Semiconductors as Conductors
An impurity, or element like arsenic
(As),phosphorus (P), bismuth(Bi) has 5
valence electrons.
Adding arsenic (doping) will allow four of
the arsenic valence electrons to bond with
the neighboring silicon atoms.
The one electron left over for each arsenic
atom becomes available to conduct current
flow.
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If you use lots of arsenic atoms for doping,
there will be lots of extra electrons so the
resistance of the material will be low and
current will flow freely.
If pentavalent
impurities
are added
N-type
semiconductor
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You can also dope a semiconductor material with
an atom such as boron(B), indium(In),
gallium(Ga) that has only 3 valence electrons.
The 3 electrons in the outer orbit do form
covalent bonds with its neighboring
semiconductor atoms as before. But one
electron is missing from the bond.
This place where a fourth electron should be is
referred to as a hole.
The hole assumes a positive charge so it can
attract electrons from some other source.
Holes become a type of current carrier like the
electron to support current flow
In n-type material the electron is called the
majority carrier and the hole the minority carrier.
In p-type material the hole is called the majority
carrier and the electron the minority carrier.
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If trivalent impurity atoms are added then the
semiconductor is called P-type semiconductor
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Diode
If a block of silicon is doped with a trivalent
impurity and the other part with a pentavalent
impurity, a boundary called pn- junction is
formed between the resulting p-type and n-type
portion and a basic diode is formed.
The boundary is also called as depletion region,
potential barrier.
A diode is a device that conducts current in only
one direction.
Current under no bias condition is zero.
The bias refers to the application of an external
voltage across the two terminal s of the device to
extract a response.
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Free electrons on the n-side and free holes on
the p-side can initially diffuse across the
junction. Uncovered charges are left in the
neighborhood of the junction.
This region is depleted of mobile carriers and
is called the depletion region (thickness 0.5
1.0 m).
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The diffusion of electrons and holes stop
due to the barrier potential (potential
difference across the junction) reaching
some critical value.
The barrier potential (or the contact
potential) depends on the type of
semiconductor, temperature and doping
densities.
At room temperature, typical values of
barrier potential difference are:
Ge ~ 0.2 0.4 V
Si ~ 0.6 0.8 V
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FORWARD BIASED PN JUNCTION
When an external voltage is applied to
the P-N junction making the P side
positive with respect to the N side the
diode is said to be forward biased (F.B).
The barrier potential difference is
decreased by the external applied
voltage. The depletion band narrows
which urges majority carriers to flow
across the junction.
A F.B. diode has a very low resistance.
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The depletion region shrinks slightly in
width. With this shrinking the energy
required for charge carriers to cross the
depletion region decreases
exponentially.
Therefore, as the applied voltage
increases, current starts to flow across
the junction. The barrier potential of
the diode is the voltage at which
appreciable current starts to flow
through the diode. The barrier potential
varies for different materials.
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REVERSE BIAS PN JUNCTION
When an external voltage is applied to
the PN junction making the P side
negative with respect to the N side the
diode is said to be Reverse Biased
(R.B.).
The barrier Potential difference
increases. The depletion band widens
preventing the movement of majority
carriers across the junction.
A R.B. diode has a very high resistance.
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Only thermally generated minority
carriers are urged across the p-n junction.
Therefore the magnitude of the reverse
saturation current (or reverse leakage
current) depends on the temperature of
the semiconductor.
When the PN junction is reversed biased
the width of the depletion layer increases,
however if the reverse voltage gets too
large a phenomenon known as diode
breakdown occurs.
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The reverse current is so small that it can
be neglected. however , if the external
reverse bias voltage is increased to a
value called the breakdown voltage , the
reverse current will drastically increase.
The high reverse bias voltage imparts
energy to the free minority electrons so
that as they speed through the p region,
they collide with atoms with enough
energy to knock valence electrons out of
orbit into the conduction band.
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The multiplication of conduction electrons
is called avalanche and results in a very
high reverse current that can damage the
diode because of excessive heat
dissipation.
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VI CHARACTERISTICS
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