Microelectronic Circuit Design

Physical Operation
Jing Ren
Faculty of Engineering
ENGR3330 Circuit Design

Jing Ren

Winter 2009

Basic Semiconductor Concepts

pn junction consists of
p-type semiconductor material
n-type semiconductor material

ENGR3330 Circuit Design

Jing Ren

Winter 2009

Basic Semiconductor Concepts

The pn junction, in practice, is formed within a
single silicon crystal by creating regions of
different dopings (p and n regions)
External wire connections to the p and n
regions are made through metal contacts
The pn junction is essentially a diode and is
also the basic element of bipolar junction
transistor (BJTs) and plays an important role in
the operation of field-effect transistors (FETs)
ENGR3330 Circuit Design

Jing Ren

Winter 2009

Pure or Intrinsic Silicon

ENGR3330 Circuit Design

Jing Ren

Winter 2009

Pure or Intrinsic Silicon

Todays IC technology is based almost entirely on
silicon.
A pure silicon has a regular lattice structure
Atoms are held in their positions by bonds, called
covalent bonds.
Each atom shares each of its four valence electrons
with a neighboring atom, with each pair of electrons
forming a covalent bond.
At sufficiently low temperature, all covalent bonds
are intact and no free electrons are available to
conduct current
ENGR3330 Circuit Design

Jing Ren

Winter 2009

Pure or Intrinsic Silicon

When the temperature is high enough, a
covalent bond is broken, an electron leaves its
parent atom, a positive charge, is left with the
parent atom.
An electron from a neighboring atom may be
attracted to this positive charge
This process may repeat itself, we have a
positively charged carrier, or hole, moving
through the silicon crystal structure and
conduct current.
ENGR3330 Circuit Design

Jing Ren

Winter 2009

Thermal Ionization and

Recombination
Thermal ionization results in free electrons and
holes in equal numbers and hence equal
concentrations
These free electrons and holes move randomly
through the silicon crystal structure
In the process, some electrons may fill some of
the holes, this process is called recombination
Recombination results in the disappearance of
free electrons and holes
ENGR3330 Circuit Design

Jing Ren

Winter 2009

Thermal Ionization and

Recombination

ENGR3330 Circuit Design

Jing Ren

Winter 2009

Thermal Ionization and

Recombination
The recombination rate is proportional to the number
of free electrons and holes, which is determined by the
ionization rate.
The ionization rate is a strong function of temperature.
In thermal equilibrium, the recombination rate is equal
to the ionization or thermal-generation rate
The concentration of free electrons n, is equal to the
concentration of holes p
n=p=ni
Where ni denotes the concentration of free electrons or
holes in intrinsic silicon at a given temperature
ENGR3330 Circuit Design

Jing Ren

Winter 2009

Thermal Ionization and

Recombination
The intrinsic concentration ni (the number of
free electrons and holes per cubic centimeter)
3 EG / kT

n BT e
2
i

EG represents the minimum energy required to break a

covalent bond and thus generate an electron-hole pair.

Where B 5.4 1031 for silicon; material dependent

EG 1.12eV

k 8.62 10 5 ev / K
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Jing Ren

Boltzmanns constant
Winter 2009

Thermal Ionization and

Recombination
A room temperature, ni=1.5X1010 carriers/cm3.
The silicon crystal has about 5X1022atoms/cm3
i.e. only one of every billion atoms is ionized
at room temperature.
The silicon is called a semiconductor is that
its conductivity, which is determined by the
number of charge carriers available to conduct
electric current, is between that of conductor
and that of insulators
ENGR3330 Circuit Design

Jing Ren

Winter 2009

Example
Find value of the intrinsic carrier concentration ni
for silicon at -70oC. What fraction of the atom is
ionized? Recall that a silicon crystal has
approximately 5X1022 atoms/cm3?
T=273+(-70)
ni2 BT 3e EG / kT

Fraction of ionized atoms = ni/5X1022;

ENGR3330 Circuit Design

Jing Ren

Winter 2009

Diffusion
Diffusion is associated with random motion due to
thermal agitation
In a piece of silicon with uniform concentrations of
free electrons and holes, this random motion does not
result in a net flow of charge (current)
If the concentration of free electrons is made higher
in one part of the piece of silicon than in another, then
diffusion occurs
The diffusion process gives rise to the diffusion
current
The magnitude of the current at any point is
proportional to the slope of the concentration curve,
or the concentration gradient
ENGR3330 Circuit Design

Jing Ren

Winter 2009

Diffusion
Diffusion density (the current per unit area of
the plane perpendicular to the x axis)
dp
J p qD p
dx

ENGR3330 Circuit Design

Jing Ren

Winter 2009

Diffusion
Dp = 12 cm2/s is a diffusion constant or diffusivity
of holes.
The gradient (dp/dx) is negative, resulting in a
positive current in the x direction
In the case of electron diffusion resulting from an
electron concentration gradient, a similar
relationship applies, giving the electron-current
dn
density
J n qDn
dx

ENGR3330 Circuit Design

Jing Ren

Winter 2009

Drift
Carrier drift occurs when an electric field is applied
across a piece of silicon.
Free electrons and holes are accelerated by the
electric field and acquire a velocity component
called drift velocity

vdrift p E

p is the mobility of holes

E is the electric field strength

Drift current density J drift q( p p n n ) E
ENGR3330 Circuit Design

Jing Ren

Winter 2009

Drift
Consider now a silicon crystal having a hole density p and a
free-electron density n subjected to an electric field E.
The total draft current density is

J drift q( p p n n ) E
The resistivity

1 /[q( p p n n )]

simple relationship (Einstein relationship) between the carrier

diffusivity and mobility.

Dn D P

VT
n P
ENGR3330 Circuit Design

Jing Ren

Winter 2009

Doped Semiconductors
Doped semiconductors are materials in which
carriers of one kind (electrons or holes)
predominate
N type
P type

Doping is achieved by introducing a small

number of impurity atoms
N type: phosphorus impurity (donor)
P type: boron impurity (acceptor)
ENGR3330 Circuit Design

Jing Ren

Winter 2009

Doped Semiconductors: n type

Each phosphorus
atom donates one
electron to the
silicon crystal
Each phosphorus
gives rise to an
electron
nn 0 N D
ENGR3330 Circuit Design

ni2
pn 0
ND
Jing Ren

Winter 2009

Doped Semiconductors: p type

Each of the impurity
boron atoms accepts on
electron from the silicon
crystal
Each boron gives rise to
a hole
p p0 N A

ENGR3330 Circuit Design

n p0

ni2

NA

Jing Ren

Winter 2009

Very Important!
It should be emphasized that a piece
of n-type or p-type silicon is
electrically neutral, the majority
free carriers are neutralized by bound
charges associated with the impurity
atoms
ENGR3330 Circuit Design

Jing Ren

Winter 2009

pn Under Open-Circuit Conditions

Open-circuit conditions: the external terminals
are left open
Majority holes in p type and electrons in n
type

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Winter 2009

Charges in pn Under Open-Circuit

Conditions
In p-type material
Majority charged holes
Bound negative charge associated with the
acceptor atoms
Minority electrons due to thermal ionization

In n-type material
Majority electrons
Bound positive charge
Minority holes due to thermal ionization
ENGR3330 Circuit Design

Jing Ren

Winter 2009

Diffusion Current ID
These two current components form the
diffusion current ID
The concentration of holes is high in the p region
and low in the n region, holes diffuse across the
junction from the p side to the n side
Electrons diffuse across the junction from the n
side to the p side

The direction of ID is from the p side to the n

side
ENGR3330 Circuit Design

Jing Ren

Winter 2009

The Depletion Region

Recombination: The holes/electrons that diffuse the
junction into the p/n region quickly recombine with
some of the majority electrons/holes and disappear
Uncovered: due to recombination, some of the bound
positive/negative charge will no longer be neutralized
by free electrons/holes.
Depletion region: a region close to the junction that is
depleted of free electrons/holes and contains
uncovered bound charge.
(Carrier) depletion region exist on both sides of the
junction
ENGR3330 Circuit Design

Jing Ren

Winter 2009

Depletion Region
The charge on both sides of the depletion
region cause an electric field to be
established across the region!
Potential difference across the depletion region
results an electric field that opposes the
diffusion of holes into the n region and the
electrons into the p region
ENGR3330 Circuit Design

Jing Ren

Winter 2009

The Depletion Region: Barrier

Barrier: the voltage drop across the depletion region
has to be overcome for holes to diffuse into the n
region and electrons to diffuse into the p region
The diffusion current ID depends strongly on the
voltage drop V0 across the depletion region

ENGR3330 Circuit Design

Jing Ren

Winter 2009

Drift Current
Drift current is due to minority-carrier drift across the
junction
Specifically, some of the thermally generated holes in
the n material diffuse through the n material to the
edge of the depletion region
They experience the electric field in the depletion
region and are swept across that region into the p side
Similarly some of the minority thermally generated
electrons in the p material into the n side
Under open circuit conditions: ID=Is since no external
current exists
ENGR3330 Circuit Design

Jing Ren

Winter 2009

The Junction Built-in Voltage

With no external voltage applied, the voltage across
the pn junction (junction built-in voltage)
NAND

V0 VT ln
2
ni

NA and ND are the doping concentrations of the p

side and the n side of the junction respectively
For silicon at room temperature, V0 is in the range of
0.6 V to 0.8 V
The contact voltages counter and exactly balance the
barrier voltage, so that Vo does not appear
ENGR3330 Circuit Design

Jing Ren

Winter 2009

Width of the Depletion Region

Depletion region exists in both the p and n
materials
Equal amounts of charge exist on both sides
Usually the doping levels are not equal in the p
and n materials
The depletion layer will extend deeper into the
more lightly doped material.

ENGR3330 Circuit Design

Jing Ren

Winter 2009

Width of the Depletion Region

If we denote the width of the depletion region in
the p side by xP and in the n side by xn, this chargeequality condition can be stated as

qx p AN A qxn AN D
Where A is the cross-sectional area of the junction
This equation can be rearranged to yield
xn N A

xp ND
ENGR3330 Circuit Design

Jing Ren

Winter 2009

Width of the Depletion Region

s is the electrical permittivity of silicon = 1.04 X

10-12 F/cm. Typically Wdep is in the range of
0.1m to 1m

ENGR3330 Circuit Design

Jing Ren

Winter 2009