ELECTRONIC DEVICES

Lecture 1
INTRODUCTION
 SOME DEVICES

Diode Zener Diode BJT

MOSFET Monolithic IC Flat Pack IC

Importance of Semiconductor Devices
These devices enhances:
• Performance
• Reliability
• Cost-effectiveness

Of

Energy Systems Information Systems

 Generate  Store
 Distribute  Process
 Regulate energy  Communicate
Information
 Course Objective

Terminal Characteristics Material Parameters

• DC (I-V) • Geometry
• AC steady state (I-V) • Doping
• Transient [i(t)-v(t)] • Energy gap
• Mobility
• Lifetime
Ambient Conditions
• Dielectric constant
• Temperature
• Illumination
• The specific objective of this course is to relate the
terminal characteristics of devices to material parameters
and ambient conditions.
Terminal Characteristics of few devices :
 Diode:
Bipolar Junction Transistor.
 MOSFET

On the output side we have the drain current which is analogous to

the collector current of a bipolar transistor.
The characteristics of MOSFET also looks very much like BJT.
Properties of Semiconductors
 Polarity of charge carriers
 Concentration of charge carriers
 Transport of charge carriers
 Interaction with electromagnetic field
We are interested in the current voltage characteristics of the device. Few
questions arises like.
• What is the current flow due to?
• What are the polarities of charges?
• What is the concentration of these charged carriers?
• What is the velocity with which the carriers move?
• How does it interact with electromagnetic field?
• Polarities of charge:
In semiconductors you can have both positive polarity and negative
polarity - that is one big difference between the semiconductors and the
metals. In metals we only have negatively charged carriers that is electrons.
The positively charged carriers in semiconductors are called holes.
• Coming to the concentration:
In metals charge carrier concentration is beyond 1021/cm3. So
beyond 1021 we have the metals whereas below 106 we have the insulators
and in between 106 and 1021 we have the semiconductors.
So the concentration of charge carriers in semiconductors varies over almost
15 orders of magnitude 106 to 1021.
• Concentration can varied by: doping, illumination and temperature
variation.

Insulators Semiconductors Metals

106 /cm3 1021 /cm3

concentration of carriers
 The transport of charge carriers:
In metals your current flows only because of drift, but in
semiconductors current can flow also because of diffusion.

 Drift is transport of carriers because of potential gradient.

 Diffusion is because of concentration gradient at different points.
 Another mechanism of current flow is because of temperature gradient
called thermoelectric current (Thermo-ionic emission).

• Drift Transport:
Drift current is associated with drift velocity. The drift velocity increases
with increase in electric field, in the small electric field region this variation
is linear, but on increasing electric field this becomes sub linear and
ultimately the velocity tends to saturate.
 Simple
Semiconductor

Drift Velocity vs Electric Field

In case of compound semiconductor (GaAs) an interesting kind of behaviour

is found, where the drift velocity increases with the electric field, reaches a
peak and then it falls before saturating. It is a situation of negative
differential resistance because dI/dV is negative. This can be use to make
oscillators.
• Mobility:
The drift velocity by electric field ratio for small electric
field i.e. linear region is a constant, so Vd/E is a constant and it is
called mobility.
Mobility decides the resistivity of sample, so resistivity depends on
the carrier concentration and the carrier mobility.

Metals Semiconductors Insulators

10-3 105

Resistance (Ω)
 The interaction of semiconductors with electromagnetic field.

• When the light falls on any surface, part of it is reflected and part of
it is absorbed.
• Because of light falling on an atom the bonds break and the result is
an free electron and a hole, so electron and hole pair generation.
• As a result conductivity of the semiconductor changes and therefore
this effect is referred to as photoconductivity.
• To cause this, the light that strikes the semiconductor must have
enough energy to raise electrons across the band gap, or to excite
the impurities within the band gap.
• Application: Photodetector, Solar Cells

Electron
Photon
Atom

Hole
• Also we can have the situation where free electrons and holes in
semiconductors recombine and the energy is given away as light. This
effect is called electroluminescence.
• Prior to recombination, electrons and holes may be separated either
by doping the material to form a p-n junction or through excitation by
impact of high-energy electrons accelerated by a strong electric field.
• Examples of electroluminescent materials:
1. Powdered zinc sulfide doped with copper (producing greenish light) or silver
(producing bright blue light).
2. Thin-film zinc sulfide doped with manganese (producing orange-red color).
3. Naturally blue diamond, which includes a trace of boron that acts as a
dopant.
4. Semiconductors containing Group III and Group V elements, such as indium
phosphide (InP), gallium arsenide (GaAs), and gallium nitride (GaN).

Electron

Atom
Photon
Hole
• Combination of effects that is, light falling on an atom gives rise to
electron hole pairs and this electron hole pairs recombine and give rise
to a light output where input is light and output is also light but
obviously the frequencies of the two cannot be the same because
there will be some energy loss, so v2 < v1 and this effect is called
photoluminescence.

Electron

Photon Photon
Atom
Atom
hv1 hv2

Hole
 Topics to be covered
 Equilibrium & carrier concentration
 Carrier transport
 Excess carriers
 Procedure for analysing semiconductor devices
 PN Junction
 Bipolar Junction Transistor
 Metal Oxide Semiconductor (MOS) Junction
 MOS Field Effect Transistor (MOSFET)
 Recent Devices/Special Purpose diodes
 Syllabus
Electron as a classical particle, principles of electron emission; E-B diagram, there use in
defining and classifying Semiconductors, Type of semiconductors, example of
Semiconductors, with application areas. Relations determining fermi-level and carrier
concentration in conductors and semiconductors, introduction to E-K diagrams, concept of
effective mass of a carrier .Use of E-K diagram in classifying semiconductors & degenerate
semiconductors. P-N junction, drift and diff phenomenon, diff potential, depletion region &
approximation, result of forward and reverse biasing, fabrication of homojunction,
heterojunction & schottky barriers. Bipolar junction transistors, structures, current gain,
current-voltage characteristics, BJT models, Punch-through and Breakdown, High-frequency
equivalent circuits, Transient analysis. Metal-semiconductor junctions-Schottky and Ohomic
contacts, JFETs and MESFETs-simpleanalysis, Equivalent circuits, MOS capacitors, CV
characteristics, Threshold voltage, Flat-band voltage, MOSFETs, I-V relationship, Equivalent
circuits, Short channel effects, MOSFET structures, CMOS, P-N-P-N diodes, SCRs, LEDs and
photo detectors, UJT, Special semiconductor Devices-Gunn diode, Tunnel diode, varacter,
IMPATT.
Text Books/References:
1) Physics of Semiconductor Devices - S.M.Sze, Kwok K. Ng
2) Solid State Electronics Devices- Streetman, Banerjee
3) Electronics Engg. Materials & Devices- J.Allison
4) Semiconductor Devices- J. Singh
5) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kp-jS6NHsB8&list=PLF178600D851B098F