Semiconductor Basic and Electronic

Concepts
Lecture-1

Outline
Basic Concept

Energy band gaps, Concept of Hole, Free Carriers

Effective Mass, Density of States (DOS)
Fermi-Dirac Function
Carrier Concentration, Charge Neutrality

Electronic Concept
Drift
Drude model, Scattering
Conductivity and Resistivity
Diffusion
Drift & Diffusion Current
Continuity Equation
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Energy Band-gap

Eg = Ec - Ev
Ec -- the lowest possible conduction band energy
Eg = 1.42 eV (GaAs)
Ev -- the highest possible valence band energy
=1.12 eV (Si) @T= 300K
Eg (band gap energy ):
the energy takes to break a bond in the spatial view of the crystal
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Concept of Hole
A pure semiconductor (ideally, T ----- 0K ) contains a
completely filled (with electrons) valence band and a
completely empty conduction band.
Thus no current can flow:
no electrons at all in the conduction band
no empty states (i.e. states containing no
electrons) in the valence band to which electrons
inside this band can move.
A hole is defined as an empty state in the valence band
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Free Carriers
Current can flow (charge transport ) though existing
free electrons or holes, so-called charge carriers (free
carriers)
Free carriers generated by excitation or doping

1- Excitation
If semiconductor is excited by energy (light,
temperature or electric fields), the electrons in
valence band can jump to the conduction band and
take part in a current flow. Also Known as electron-hole
pair (intrinsic) generation.
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Free Carriers
2- Doping
If Si is doped with Group V atoms, i.e. they have one
more valence electron, Nd impurity atoms are called
donors.

Similarly, Na impurity atoms are called acceptors (Group-III atoms)

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Effective Mass
Second law of Newton for crystals that are large compared to
atomic dimensions

-- effective mass of an electron, and

-- group velocity of the wave packet that describes the
electron motion.
Similarly, the empty states in the valence band, have
an effective mass of
e.g. conductivity effective mass and density of states
effective mass - in Si
= 0.26 m0 and 1.18 m0

Density of States (DOS)

DOS function, N(E), describes the distribution of
energy states, i.e. number of states per unit
energy and unit volume

Fermi-Dirac Function
Fermi-Dirac function f(E) specifies how many existing
states at energy (E) will be filled with an electron.
formally, f(E) specifies, under equilibrium conditions,
probability that an available state at an energy E will be
occupied by an electron.

Carrier Concentration
The carrier concentration between the energy levels E1 and E2, n,
can be expressed as the integral

electron concentration in the conduction band at equilibrium

(n0)

where ET is the upper band edge of the conduction band

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Carrier Concentration

Similarly

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Charge Neutrality
A material is doped with Nd donors and Na acceptors, at RT all
impurities are ionized, so-called complete ionization, so that
there exist Nd positive ions and Na negative ions. Thus, for
charge neutrality can be written as:

NOTE: This is based on

assumption that all impurities
are ionized
In most practical cases the net dopant concentration >> intrinsic concentration

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Carrier Action
There are three kinds of carrier action; Drift, Diffusion
and Recombination and Generation.
1- Drift is the mechanism in operation when an external
electric field is applied to the semiconductor; charged
particles respond to the electric field by moving,
depending on the charge, along the field or opposite to
it.

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Carrier Action
2-Diffusion is the process whereby particles tend to
spread out or redistribute as a result of their random
thermal motion, migrating on a macroscopic scale from
regions of high particle concentration into regions of
low particle concentration.
Mathematically the diffusion of electrons in a nonuniformly doped semiconductor can be written as

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Carrier Action
3-Recombination-Generation(R-G) is not manifested
through carrier transport, but rather affects current
densities by changing the carrier concentration.
Unlike drift and diffusion the terms recombination and
generation do not refer to a single process: there are
several processes based on R-G.

Either the R-G process goes directly from band to band

or it passes through some localized allowed energy
state, an R-G center, sometimes referred to as a defect
state or trap.
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Carrier Action
Recombination-Generation(R-G)

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Energy Bandgap
In the context of R-G, it is possible to notice the
differentiation between direct and indirect band-gap
energies of semiconductors.
Direct Energy Bandgap
The energy minima of both the conduction
and valence band occur at k = 0.
The transition occurs without any R-G
center visited in between conduction and
valence band, but not necessarily without a
change in momentum.

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Energy Bandgap
Indirect Energy Bandgap
The minimum of the conduction band is
displaced to a non-zero momentum in
the k- space.
In indirect transitions, they require an RG center via which the R-G makes the
transition. There is large probability of
occurrence for two-particle interaction.
e.g. a free carrier and a phonon that can
take place if there are R-G centers into
which electrons and holes can make
transitions
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Drift: Drude model

Electric field E

qE

v
= m
t

v avg

qt
=
E
m

F = ma

Caused by electric field

Electron density constant

nq 2 t
j = nq vavg =
E
m

random scattering centers

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Types of scattering
Electron-phonon

Very temperature dependent

Phonons are lattice vibrations
At low temperatures, lattice is perfectly still

t total

t electron phonon t impurity

Impurity scattering

Temperature independent
Depends on impurity concentration
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Drift Mechanism
The general description of an electron in an electric field now
becomes

Where,
I is mean free time , and vx is the electron velocity
in x-direction, it is calculated by following relation

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Drift Mechanism
The current density for n electrons with charge q as

Where, n is the mobility of the electron, and defined as

Similarly for hole, p is defined as

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Conductivity and Resistivity

The definition of the conductivity of the semiconductor, , as

The current density can also be written as

Similarly, the resistivity is defined as;

An essential Ohms law can be written as in form of resistivity

is as following
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Example

Solution :

Known parameters:
q = 1.6x10-19 C
A = 5 mm2
Ex =10 V/cm
n= 8500 cm2/Vs for GaAs
p= 400 cm2/Vs
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Example -cont
Sample-1
= 1.04x 10 7 cm 3

I = 7.1 nA

Sample-2
no = 3.8x105 cm 3 , and Po = 1.04x 10 7 cm 3

I = 0.59 nA.
These samples are not very good to conduct current due to the
extremely light doping.

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Diffusion current
Now assume n depends on position:

dn( x )
J
dx

dn( x)
J = qD
dx
Einstein relationship:

k BT
Dn =
mn
q
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Diffusion Mechanism
A sketch showing a situation where the semiconductor
has a non-zero doping gradient and where has to exist
diffusion of carriers that balances the difference in the
concentration.
Assuming electrons as carriers (means no electric field),
the mean free path, lcn
lcn is the distance covered
by an electron in the mean
free time, cn

Diffusion due to a doping gradient.

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Diffusion Mechanism
As each electron carries a charge , -q, the particle flow corresponds
to a electron current density due to diffusion

Where

------ Diffusion coefficient

Similarly for hole

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Drift and Diffusion Current

Electrons:
dn( x)
J n = q.mn n E q.Dn
dx

Holes:
dp( x)
J p = q m p p E qD p
dx

E, n can depend on x!
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Continuity Equation

How many electrons in blue box

after a time t?

J ( x x)

J (x )

1
AJ ( x)t
q

---- enter

1
AJ ( x dx)t
q
n no

Axt

Gn Axt

---- Leave

---- recombine
---- generated

1
n no
N = AJ ( x ) J ( x dx )t
Axt Gn Axt
e
t
Divide by:

Axt

n 1 J ( x) n no

Gn
t q x
t

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Neutrality Assumption
n n no = p p po
For p-type materials:

n
2n
(n) n
= Dn
mn E
Gn
2
t
x
x
t
For n-type materials:

p
p
(p) p
= Dp
mpE
Gp
2
t
x
x
t
2

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Steady state
n
2n n
= Dn

=0
2
t
x
t

(Assume E=0)

n n
D 2 =
x
t
2

x
n( x ) = n( x = 0) exp

D
t
n

Dt n diffusion length
Typically about a micron.
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Thank you!

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