Welcome to EE231: Electronics-1

(Spring - 2017)
Lecture: 1-2

Course Instructor: Muhammad Suleman

Email: msuleman@giki.edu.pk
Room: G-16
TA: Engr. Samra Naz
• Text Book
– Electronic Devices and Circuit Theory, Tenth Edition by
Robert L. Boylestad and Louis Nashelsky, Prentice Hall,
2010.

• Reference Books
– Electronic Devices (Conventional Current Version),
Ninth Edition by Thomas L. Floyd, Prentice Hall, 2011
– Microelectronic Circuits, Sixth Edition, by Adel S.
Sedra, and Kenneth C. Smith, Oxford University Press,
2009.
– Course Slides
• Grading Policy:
• Surprise and announced Quizzes 10%
• Assignments 10%
• Project 10%
• Mid-Term Exam (8th Week) 25%
• Final-Term Exam 45%

• Quizzes:
• Weekly or biweekly (Announced/Un-announced)
• No re-takes
• Assignments:
• Weekly or Biweekly
• No late assignments will be accepted
• Attendance:
• 80% class attendance is mandatory, in order to appear in the final exam.
• Visiting Hours:
• 2:30 to 3:30 PM
• Note:
• Above contents could be changed if required
• Assignments, Quizzes and MID term must be checked in prescribed date and time
Assignments and Plagiarism Policy
• Assignment must be written on an A-4 size paper
or it will NOT be accepted.
• Submit your assignments in due time by yourself.
• Assignments must be submitted to the instructor
when you enter into the class.
• Any assignment(s) submitted at the end of the
lecture or during lecture will NOT be accepted.
• Those involved in plagiarism will get zero marks
for their assignment(s).
 Course Objectives
• The course is intended to provide the students
with an understanding of basic electronic
theory and also demonstrate knowledge of
how electronic principles are applied to
devices and circuits.
 Learning Outcome
• Through this course the students will:
– Acquire a basic knowledge in solid state
electronics including diodes, BJTs, and MOSFETs.
– Develop the ability to analyze and design analog
electronic circuits using discrete components.
– Design, construct, and take measurement of
various analog circuits to compare experimental
results in the laboratory with theoretical analysis.
 Solid State Devices
• These are devices in which the current flows through solid
semiconductor crystals rather than vacuum tubes
– Hence the name solid state
• Vacuum tubes were used for amplification purposes during early
20th century
– The tubes were heated up to a point, followed by application of signal
to the tube
• The resultant signal was of same frequency but with much higher amplitude
– These devices were bulkier and prone to breakage

Vacuum Tube A typical Diode (Solid State Device)

 Conductor & Insulator
• Conductor
– Any thing that permits the flow of charges in one
or more directions
• e.g; Copper, Gold, Aluminum etc

• Insulator
– An electrical insulator is a material whose
internal electric charges do not flow freely, and
therefore very hard to conduct an electric
current under the influence of an electric field
• e.g; rubber like polymers, plastics etc
 Semiconductor
• A Semiconductor is a special material that possesses a
conductivity which lies between that of a good conductor and
that of an insulator
– Three semiconductors used most frequently in the construction of
electronic devices are
– Ge (Germanium) {Single Crystal}
– Si (Silicon) {Single Crystal}
– GaAs (Gallium-Arsenide) {Compound Semiconductor}
• Hence, in general, semiconductor materials fall into two
categories
– Single crystal → Repetitive crystal structure
– Compound semiconductor → Constructed by two or more
semiconductor materials of
different atomic structures
 History
• Discovery of the diode in 1939 and transistor in 1947
– In the first few years Ge was used almost exclusively.
– Later discoveries found that devices constructed using Ge suffered
from low levels of reliability because it’s a temperature-sensitive
semiconductor
• A valence electron would leave its parent atom and jump out if fed with
certain amount of energy

• In 1954 the first Si transistor was introduced.

– Si is less temperature-sensitive and abundantly available.
– Leading semiconductor material for electronic devices and ICs.

• In the early 1970s the first GaAs transistor was developed (five
times faster than that of Si).
– GaAs is more expensive, but as demands for higher speeds increase, it
will begin to challenge Si as the dominant semiconductor material.
• Electron in the outermost shell or energy level of any
atom of an element is called valence electron
• Leaving the transition elements, there are a total of 8
vertical groups in periodic table
• Elements with same valence shell configuration are in the same
group
• Moving down the group, number of shells increase
– Hence valence electrons (negatively charged) are placed further
away from nucleus (positively charged)
– Both Ge and Si have 4 electrons in their valence (outermost ) shell
which is why both lie in the 4th Group of periodic table of elements
• But since Ge has more number of electrons and hence more number
of shells (or energy levels), therefore its easier to pull out an electron
from Ge as compared to Si
• Thus, lesser external energy is required in case of Ge to set free the
valence electrons as the pull of the positively charged nucleus on its
valence electrons is less as compared to the pull of the positively
charged nucleus in a Si atom
• Hence, germanium is more temperature sensitive and a slight
increase in temperature can result in a valence electron leaving its
parent element
• This is why Si later became the popular choice due to being less
temperature sensitive
• Si is not only less temperature sensitive but also happens to be
one of the most abundant elements available on planet Earth
 Atomic Structure

• Atoms having 4 valence electrons are called tetravalent

– e.g; Ge, Si etc
• Atoms having 3 valence electrons are called trivalent
– E.g; Gallium (Ga)
• Atoms having 5 valence electrons are called pentavalent
– E.g; Aresinc (As)
• Every element strives for having at least 8 electrons in its out most shell to gain
stability
 Covalent Bonding
• In a pure or intrinsic silicon
or germanium crystal, the
four valence electrons of
one atom form a bonding
arrangement with valence
electrons of four adjoining
atoms
• This bonding of atoms
strengthened by the sharing
of electrons, is called
covalent bonding
Covalent Bonding of Silicon atoms
 Intrinsic Materials
• Intrinsic semiconductors are pure semiconductors.
• Valence electrons can absorb kinetic energy from natural causes like
light energy and thermal energy and break the covalent bonds to
become free (known as intrinsic carriers)
• For conductors, the resistance increases with an increase in
temperature due to the vibration pattern of electrons about a fixed
position
– Materials that react in this manner are said to have a positive
temperature coefficient.
• An increase in temperature of a semiconductor results in a
substantial increase in the number of free electrons in the material.
– Semiconductor materials that show a reduction in resistance with
increase in temperature are said to have a negative temperature
coefficient.
 Energy Bands
• The orbits of an atom can be called as
– Shells
– Energy levels
– Energy bands or simply bands

• These different bands of electrons actually represent

electrons with different energy levels
– e.g; electrons with least energy lie in first band or 1st shell
– Electrons with energy greater than that of 1st shell or band and
less than that of 3rd shell, lie in 2nd shell or 2nd band
– Electrons with energy greater than 1st and 2nd bands and less
than 4th band, lie in 3rd band
• The same can be said for corresponding bands i.e; 4th, 5th, 6th and so
on
 Band Gap or Energy Levels
• Valence band of an atom basically represents a band of
highest energy level and valence electrons are confined to
this band

• When an electron acquires energy, it leaves the valence

band and goes into a different band called conduction band
– This electron can now be used for conduction purposes

• The difference in energy between the valence band and the

conduction band is called energy gap or band gap
– This is the amount of energy that a valence electron must have
in order to jump from valence band to the conduction band
– Once the electron goes in to conduction band, the electron is
free to move throughout the material and is not tied to any
given atom
• Between the bands are gaps; these gaps represent
energies that electrons cannot posses
– In other words electrons are not permitted in these bands but
can only pass through these bands to a different allowed band

• The farther an electron is from the nucleus, the higher is

the energy state, and any electron that has left its parent
atom has a higher energy state than any electron in the
atomic structure
Energy Levels Comparison
• The energy gap between the valence band and the
conduction band (Eg) must be overcome by an electron
of valence shell in order to become a free electron

• This energy gap is different for different semiconductor

materials

• While Ge has the smallest gap, GaAs has the largest gap
and hence, greater work or energy is required for a
valence electron in GaAs to become a free electron or a
free carrier

• An electron in the valence band of Si must absorb more

energy than the one in the valence band of Ge to
become a free carrier. Similarly, an electron in the
valence band of GaAs must absorb more energy than
one in silicon or germanium to enter the conduction
band
– Smaller energy gap in Ge is the reason why Ge is more
temperature sensitive than Si.
– Thus for the same amount of rise in temperature, the number
of electrons entering from valence band into conduction band
in a Ge sample would be more than the ones in Si or GaAs

• The unit for energy over here is eV (electron volt)

– Energy required by an electron to move from valence to
conduction band is measured in eV; a unit of energy
– V = W/Q , thus; W = QV
 W = QV
Room
– Substituting the charge of electron
Temperature
(1.6 x 10-19C) and a potential
difference of 1V in above equation
• The result is an energy level referred
to as one electron volt
• W = QV = (1.6 x 10-19C)(1V) = 1.6 x
10-19 Joules or 1 eV
• At 0K (or -273oC), all the valence
electrons are found to be in the Zero
valence band Kelvin
• However, at room temperature
(i.e; 300K or 25oC), a sufficient
number of electrons gain ample
amount of energy to leave the
valence band, cross the energy
gap defined by Eg and move into
conduction band
Manipulating the Forbidden Energy Bands

• By adding certain impurities to intrinsic

semiconductor materials, energy states in the
forbidden bands will occur
– This will cause a net reduction in Eg for both
semiconductor materials (i.e; Si and Ge)
– Consequently, carrier (i.e; free carriers) density
will increase in the conduction band due to a
reduced energy gap between valence and
conduction bands at room temperature
 Extrinsic Materials: n- and p-TYPE
• The electrical properties of pure or intrinsic semiconductor
materials can be altered by addition of certain impurity atoms into
the pure semiconductor material.
– Pentavalent impurity materials like Antimony (Sb), Phosphorous (P),
Arsenic (As)
– Trivalent impurity materials like Boron (B), Gallium (Ga), Indium (In)

• Process of adding certain impurity atoms into pure semiconductor

is called doping process.
– Adding an impurity’s one part in 10 million can alter the band
structure significantly to totally change the electrical properties of the
material

• A semiconductor material that has been subjected to the doping

process is called an extrinsic material.
– n-Type
– p-Type
 n-Type Material
• n-Type material is formed by introducing a
pentavalent impurity (e.g; antimony) in
intrinsic Si or Ge

• Additional fifth electron loosely bound to its

parent (antimony) atom and free to move
within the newly formed n-Type material

• Diffused impurities with five valence electrons

are called donor atoms

• Even though a large number of “free” carriers

have been established in the n-Type material,
it is still electrically neutral as number of
protons in the nuclei of the atoms is still equal
to number of orbiting electrons Antimony Impurity in n-Type Material
• The doping process results in a discrete energy
level called donor level
• The energy gap Eg of this discrete energy level
is less than that of the intrinsic material
– Hence, at room temperature, a large number of
electrons (or carriers) can move in to conduction
band
• This results in an increased conductivity of the material
 p-Type Material
• A p-Type material is formed by doping
pure Ge or Si with a trivalent impurity like
Boron (B), Gallium (Ga) or Indium (In)
• This results in an insufficient number of
electrons to complete the covalent
bonds of the newly formed lattice
– This resulting vacancy is called a hole
represented by a small circle or plus
sign
• The diffused impurities with three
valence electrons are called acceptor
atoms since they will readily accept a
free electron Boron Impurity in p-Type Material

• Even though a large number of holes

have been established in the p-Type
material, it is still electrically neutral
 Electron Vs Hole Flow
• The valence electron might
break its covalent bond and fill
the void created by a hole
– This creates a vacancy or hole in
the covalent bond that released
the electron
• Therefore, there is a transfer of
holes to the left and electrons
to the right.
• Hole flow is known as the
conventional flow
– Conventional flow relates to flow
of positive charge
 Majority & Minority Carriers
• In an n-Type material, electron is called the
majority carrier and hole is called the minority
carrier
• In a p-Type material, hole is the majority
carrier and electron is the minority carrier
• When the fifth electron of a donor atom (in n-type)
leaves the parent atom, the atom remaining
acquires a net positive charge
– Hence the positive sign in the donor-ion representation
• When the vacancy or hole of an acceptor atom (in
p-type) is filled with an electron, the atom acquires
a net negative charge
– Hence the negative sign in the acceptor-ion
representation