EE-231 Electronics I: Engr. Dr. Hadeed Ahmed Sher

EE-231 Electronics I
Engr. Dr. Hadeed Ahmed Sher
Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute of Engineering Sciences and Technology, TOPI 23460
hadeed@giki.edu.pk
January 22, 2018
Engr. Dr. Hadeed Ahmed Sher (FEE, GIKI) Week 1 Resources January 22, 2018 1 / 32
Overview
1 What is a semiconductor ?
Classification of a semiconductor ?
Covalent bonding and intrinsic materials
Energy Levels
Extrinsic materials
Electron vs hole flow
Majority vs minority carriers
2 Semiconductor Diode
No bias
Reverse bias
Forward bias
Example 1.1
Electronics
Semiconductor has revolutionized the world.

Incredibly smaller systems with high speed and efficiency are remarkable
achievement of humans.
This course deals with the basic electronics devices likes diodes and
transistors. Their applications will also be discussed in detail.
The use of circuit analysis techniques will sharpen the basic design skills.
PSPICE may be used to simulate the circuits.
Focus will be on Si and Ge based electronic devices.
All the figures used are from Electronic Devices and Circuit Theory by R
Boylestad, L Nashelsky - 2008 otherwise else stated.
What is a semiconductor ?
Figure: Source: http://bit.ly/2zNfY6m
Semiconductors are a elements having a conductivity between that of a

conductor and an insulator.
Classification of a semiconductor ?
Semiconductor material can be classified on the basis of crystal structure.

Single crystal — Repetitive crystal structure. Examples are silicon
(Si) and Germanium (Ge)
Compound — Made up of two or more semiconductor materials of
different atomic structures. Examples are gallium arsenide (GaAs),
gallium nitride (GaN) etc.
Most commonly used semiconductor materials are Si,Ge and GaAs. Si is
the most widely used semiconductor material till date but WHY ?
GaAs semiconductors are faster than the conventional Si and Ge based
semiconductors.
What is a semiconductor ? Covalent bonding and intrinsic materials
Bohr’s atomic model reveals the basics of Si and Ge atom.
Si has 14 electrons out of which 4 are valence shell electrons. Ge has 32

electrons out of which 4 are in the valence shell. Therefore, both of them
are called tetravalent atoms.
The electrons in the valence shell are the most losly bounded and less
energy is required to remove any one of these electrons.

The valence electrons are coupled or joined with the neighboring four
atoms and make a covalent bond.
Figure: Source: Electronic Devices and Circuit Theory by R Boylestad, L

Nashelsky - 2008

Valence electrons can absorb sufficient kinetic energy from external causes
like heat, light etc to break the covalent bond and assume the “free”
state. The “free” state electrons are very sensitive to any applied electric
fields e.g voltage sources and or potential differences. At room
temperature there are approximately 15 billion free carriers in 1 cm3 of
intrinsic silicon material a space smaller than a small sugar cube.
Intrinsic refers to a pure semiconductor material.

Nashelsky - 2008

Although Ge has the highest number of free carriers but does this make it
a better semiconductor ?.
How about the ability of free carriers to move freely, also called relative
mobility?

Nashelsky - 2008
Notice why GaAs are used in super fast applications.

Reason to use Ge is also expressed !!
Semiconductors are intentionally made impure for specific reasons. The

ratio of impurity is 1 part per 10 billion parts.
Even such low level of doping is significant to alter the characteristics.
Semiconductors have a negative temperature coefficient. This means with
the increase in temperature their resistance decreases. This is because
heat provides energy to the valence electrons to break the covalent bond
and become a free carrier.
What is a semiconductor ? Energy Levels
Energy Levels
Electrons revolve in orbits that have specific energy levels measured with
respect to the nucleus. The farther the orbit is from the nucleus the higher
is the energy level. In an isolated atom there exists allowed energy gaps
however, in a crystal lattice structure the interaction of atoms allows the
electrons of a particular shell to have slightly different energy levels of the
adjoining atoms.

Nashelsky - 2008
Energy Levels
This interaction results in increased number of discrete energy levels as
shown below.

Nashelsky - 2008
Energy Levels
This reveals another important aspect which is the effect of temperature.

As temperature increases large number of electrons pick up energy and
enter the conduction band. The number of electrons that enters the
conduction band for same temperature change in Si and GaAs is much
smaller.
This property make Ge better choice for light and thermal sensitive
applications. However, in transistors they are seldom used due to stability
issues. The energy level is expressed in EV this is because W=QV. Using
the charge on one electron at a voltage of 1V results in an energy level
referred as one electron volt.
1eV = 1.6 × 10−19 J (1)
What is a semiconductor ? Extrinsic materials
Extrinsic materials
Extrinsic materials are made by adding very small fraction of impurities to

pure Si, Ge or GaAs.
Extrinsic materials are of two types.
n-type materials
p-type materials
n-type materials
n-type material is formed by adding material (pentavelent) with five
valence electrons e.g Phosphorous, antimony and arsenic.

Nashelsky - 2008
The additional electron is not associated with any covalent bond and
hence can move freely to the newly formed n type material.
n-type materials
The electrons that comes as a result of doping sits in between the
conduction band and valence band as shown below.

Nashelsky - 2008
At room temperature an intrinsic Si has one free electron every 1012

12
atoms. If the doping is 1 in 10 million parts then the ratio is 10
107
= 105 .
This means that carrier concentration has increased by a ratio of
100,000:1.
p-type materials
p-type material is formed by adding material (trivelent) with three valence
electrons e.g boron, gallium and indium.

Nashelsky - 2008
The deficiency of an electron to make a pair results in this case. This

vacancy is called a hole and is symbolized as a small circle or a plus sign.
Electron vs hole flow
If the electron breaks the covalent bond and fill the neighboring hole then
a hole is created in its place. Therefore, the electron flow to the right and
holes flow to the left. In this subject hole current flow direction will be
used.

Nashelsky - 2008
Majority vs minority carriers

In an n type material the electron is called majority carrier and holes are
called the minority carriers.
In a p type material the holes are called majority carriers and electrons are
called the minority carriers.

Nashelsky - 2008
When the electron leaves the valence orbit, the net charge on atom is
positive and hence a positive sign is shown for donor ion
representation.Similar is the reason for negative sign in acceptor ion.
Semiconductor Diode
Semiconductor Diode
A simple joint between n type and p type material while keeping the
structural continuity intact makes a diode.
Without any dc voltage applied, at the junction the electrons and holes
recombine quickly, thus no free carrier is left near the junction.
Figure: Source:
The region is then left with the positive and negative ions and is called
depletion region.
Semiconductor Diode
Semiconductor Diode
Leads are connected at each of the material type and hence a two terminal
device is formed. Figure below shows the symbolic representation of a
diode.
This leaves three possibilities.

No bias
Forward bias
Reverse bias
Bias is the term used to apply dc voltage at the terminals.
Semiconductor Diode No bias
Diode — No bias
When no voltage is supplied, no current flows and hence it acts like a

resistor with no voltage across its terminals.
The minority carriers near the depletion region will swap quickly i.e the
holes in n-type material moves into the p-type material.
The majority carriers of the n type find it difficult to overcome the positive
ions in n type and negative ions in p type.
Furthermore, due to large number of majority carriers the kinetic energy is
not sufficient to pass through the depletion region into the p type material.
Under no bias condition the net flow of charge is zero.
Semiconductor Diode Reverse bias
Diode — Reverse bias

If the biasing voltage is applied such that the n type material is connected
to positive terminal and p-type material is applied to negative terminal
then the condition is called reverse bias.
In reverse biased condition the electrons in n type are attracted by the

positive terminal of the battery therefore, the number of positive ions
increase. Similarly,the negative ions in p-type material grow thereby
expanding the depletion layer.
Semiconductor Diode Reverse bias
Diode — Reverse bias
The majority carrier current is zero under this condition.

Minority carrier current do flow in this condition.
Definition
The current due to minority carrier is called reverse saturation current (Is ).
This current is in the range of few microamperes for signal electronics.

Note that this current reaches its final value quickly and then saturates
even if the voltage is increased.
Semiconductor Diode Forward bias
Diode — Forward bias

If the biasing voltage is applied such that the n type material is connected
to negative terminal and p-type material is applied to positive terminal
then the condition is called forward bias(VD > 0).
In forward biased condition the electrons in n-type and holes in p-type are
pushed by the battery to recombine with the ions in the depletion layer,
thus reducing the width of depletion layer.
Semiconductor Diode Forward bias
Diode — Forward bias

With reduction in depletion layer the charge carriers find it easier to
recombine on the opposite sides. If the voltage is further increased then
depletion layer becomes very thin and the current rises exponentially
Definition
The forward current (ID ) is equal to the majority current minus the reverse
saturation current (Is ).
The characteristic equation about these scenarios was presented by

Shockley and is given as
V
D
ID = Is e nVT
−1 (2)
where,n is the ideality constant based on material and the amount of

current. Usually taken as 1 for Ge and Si (high current)and 2 for Si (low
current). VT is called thermal voltage given as
kTK
Engr. Dr. Hadeed Ahmed Sher (FEE, GIKI)
VT =
Week 1 Resources January 22, 2018
(3)
26 / 32
Semiconductor Diode Example 1.1
Example 1.1
At a temperature of 27◦ C , determine the thermal voltage VT .

Using (3) we obtain
T = 273 + C ◦ = 273 + 27 = 300K (4)
kTk 1.38 × 10−23 J/K × 30K

VT = = = 25.875mV (5)
q 1.6 × 10−19 C
Thermal voltage for most of the numerical in this course is taken as approx
26mV, however, depending on the operating temperature this may vary.
Diode — Characteristic curve

Figure below shows the current voltage characteristics of a diode with
10pA reverse leakage current.

As earlier discussed, in reverse biased region only leakage current flows.
Therefore (2) can be rewritten as
V
D
ID = Is e nVT
− 1 − Is (6)
During forward biased condition the Is is negligible. The characteristic

curve is zoomed in Fig. below.
During reverse biased condition (6) has only a negative value therefore VD
is approximately equal to the −Is .
From Fig. on slide 28 this is clear that the reverse leakage current is a flat
horizontal line. We will learn later on that reverse voltage has limit beyond
which the diode is shorted and the reverse leakage current rise
exponentially.
At no bias condition (6) make ID =0mA
Ideal Diode
In an ideal diode the Is =0 , VD =0 and the diode acts as a switch with no
losses.

If the reverse voltage is increased further a point comes when the reverse
saturation current increases sharply. This point is called the breakdown
region and the voltage at which it occurs is called VBV .

As the voltage is increased the minority carriers that creates the Is move
faster. Their velocity and the kinetic energy create collisions that release
additional carriers from the stable atomic structures.
The situation creates an avalanche breakdown.
If the value of VBV is to be altered such that it comes close to the vertical
axis then higher doping level is required but this is not always feasible.
This is because at such low level of voltage with high doping, a strong
electric field is created in the junction region that generate the carriers
from the junction.
Peak Inverse Voltage
Maximum voltage that can be applied to a diode before the breakdown
occurs is called peak inverse voltage (PIV) or peak reverse voltage (PRV).
Multiple diodes connected in series increases the PIV rating of the string.
Current rating can be enhanced by connecting diodes in parallel.

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EE-231 Electronics I

Engr. Dr. Hadeed Ahmed Sher

January 22, 2018

Semiconductor has revolutionized the world.

Figure: Source: http://bit.ly/2zNfY6m

Semiconductors are a elements having a conductivity between that of a

Semiconductor material can be classified on the basis of crystal structure.

Covalent bonding and intrinsic materials

Bohr’s atomic model reveals the basics of Si and Ge atom.

Si has 14 electrons out of which 4 are valence shell electrons. Ge has 32

Covalent bonding and intrinsic materials

Figure: Source: Electronic Devices and Circuit Theory by R Boylestad, L

Covalent bonding and intrinsic materials

Figure: Source: Electronic Devices and Circuit Theory by R Boylestad, L

Covalent bonding and intrinsic materials

Figure: Source: Electronic Devices and Circuit Theory by R Boylestad, L

Notice why GaAs are used in super fast applications.

Covalent bonding and intrinsic materials

Semiconductors are intentionally made impure for specific reasons. The

Figure: Source: Electronic Devices and Circuit Theory by R Boylestad, L

Figure: Source: Electronic Devices and Circuit Theory by R Boylestad, L

This reveals another important aspect which is the effect of temperature.

1eV = 1.6 × 10−19 J (1)

Extrinsic materials are made by adding very small fraction of impurities to

Figure: Source: Electronic Devices and Circuit Theory by R Boylestad, L

Figure: Source: Electronic Devices and Circuit Theory by R Boylestad, L

At room temperature an intrinsic Si has one free electron every 1012

Figure: Source: Electronic Devices and Circuit Theory by R Boylestad, L

The deficiency of an electron to make a pair results in this case. This

Electron vs hole flow

Figure: Source: Electronic Devices and Circuit Theory by R Boylestad, L

Majority vs minority carriers

Figure: Source: Electronic Devices and Circuit Theory by R Boylestad, L

This leaves three possibilities.

When no voltage is supplied, no current flows and hence it acts like a

Diode — Reverse bias

In reverse biased condition the electrons in n type are attracted by the

Diode — Reverse bias

The majority carrier current is zero under this condition.

This current is in the range of few microamperes for signal electronics.

Diode — Forward bias

Diode — Forward bias

The characteristic equation about these scenarios was presented by

where,n is the ideality constant based on material and the amount of

At a temperature of 27◦ C , determine the thermal voltage VT .

T = 273 + C ◦ = 273 + 27 = 300K (4)

kTk 1.38 × 10−23 J/K × 30K

Diode — Characteristic curve

Diode — Characteristic curve

During forward biased condition the Is is negligible. The characteristic

Diode — Characteristic curve

Diode — Characteristic curve

Diode — Characteristic curve

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