CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION TO ELECTRONICS
Introduction
To acquire a basic understanding of semiconductors, you must have some basic knowledge of
atomic theory and structure of semiconductors. In this chapter, you will learn about atomic
theory.
The study of electronics
The field electronics covers a broad range of specialty areas, including audio systems, digital
computers, communications systems, instrumentation, and automatic controls. All electronics
specialties utilize electronic devices such as transistors, diodes, integrated circuits, and
various special components. The electrical characteristics of these devices make it possible to
construct circuits that perform useful functions in many different kinds of applications.
The study of electronic devices is now almost synonymous with the study of semiconductor
devices. Semiconductors material is widely abundant, yet unique in terms of its electrical
properties because it is neither a conductor nor an insulator. Silicon is now the most widely
used semiconductor material.
Semiconductors devices are the fundamental building blocks from which all types of useful
electronics products Such as amplifiers, high frequency communication equipment, power
supplies, computers, control systems…etc are constructed.
Review of Atomic structure
The ultimate concern of electronic is predicting and controlling the flow of atomic charge and
hence atomic structure influences the electrical properties of materials.
Every chemical element is composed of atoms, and all of the atoms within a single element
have the same structure. Each atom itself is composed of a central nucleus containing one or
more positively charged particles called protons. When an atom is complete, its nucleus is
surrounded by negatively charged particles, called electrons, equal in number to the quantity
of protons in the nucleus. Depending on the element that a particular atom represents, the
nucleus may also contain particles called neutrons that carry no electrical charge.
Shells
Valance electron

Nucleus

Figure -1.1 a diagram of the silicon atom showing its nucleus and electronic shells
Although electrons tend to remain in their shells because of their force of attraction to the
positively charged nucleus, some of them acquire enough energy to break away from their
“parent” atoms and wander randomly through the material. Electrons that have escaped their
shell are called free electrons. The number of electron in the valance shell has a significant
influence on the electrical properties of an element.
Looking at the structure of silicon and germanium atom, it can be seen that valance electron
of germanium are at larger distance from the nucleus than valance electrons of silicon. So at
high temperature, germanium become unstable than silicon and hence silicon is widely used
semiconductor material.
Semiconductors materials
There are three basic types of materials that we concerned within electronics. There
difference is described in the table-1.
Conductors Semiconductors Insulators
Have very low electrical Have resistivity values in Have high electrical
resistivity between those of conductors resistivity
and insulators
Have very few electrons in They are not good conductors Valance electrons are
their valance shells nor good insulators strongly attracted by the
positively charged inner
nucleus.

Have plenty of "free
electrons" floating about
within their basic atom
structure.
Examples are Copper,
Aluminum, Silver
They have very few "free
electrons" because their
atoms are closely grouped
together in a crystalline
pattern called a "Crystal
Lattice". Their ability to
conduct electricity can be
greatly improved by adding
certain "Impurities" to this
crystalline structure.
Examples are silicon and
germanium
Made of materials, generally
non-metals, that have very
few or no "free electrons"
floating about within their
basic atom structure
Examples are marble, fused
quartz, paper, plastics, rubber
etc.

Table-1 classification of materials based on their resistivity

Energy band in solids

An energy band diagram shows the energy level of the electrons in the material. We are only
interested in two of the bands, the conduction band and the valance band.
Valance band is the band of energy occupied by the valance electrons which are still attached
to their parent atoms and is, obviously, the highest occupied band. It may be completely filled
or partially filled with electrons but never empty. The next higher permitted energy band is
called the conduction band and may either be empty or partially filled with electrons which
are free from their parent atoms. In conduction band electrons can move freely and hence are
known as conduction electrons. The gap between these two bands is known as the forbidden
energy gap. This energy gap reflects the amount of energy that would be needed to remove an
electron from its parent atom. The number of valance electrons in the pure silicon is enough
to completely fill the valance band. Therefore, the conduction band is completely empty.
Energy gap for semiconductor depends on temperature. A typical insulator has a large
forbidden band. The energy gap for conductors is quite small (≤ 0.01 eV) or non-existent, and
the conduction and valance bans are generally considered to overlap.

Figure-1.2 Energy band diagrams from several different materials

Intrinsic Semiconductors
An intrinsic semiconductor is one which is made of semiconductor material in its extremely
pure form common examples of such semiconductors are: pure germanium and silicon which
have forbidden energy gap of 0.72eV and 1.1eV respectively.
A semiconductor atom achieves stability by sharing the valance electrons of four of its
neighboring atoms. Every atom uses four of its own electrons and one each from four of its
neighbors to fill its p-sub shell. The result is a stable, tightly bound, lattice structure called a
crystal. The interlocking of semiconductor atoms through electron sharing is called covalent
bonding.
The net result is that each nucleus along with the inner shells is surrounded by eight outer
electrons tightly bound in the atomic structure. This reflects the fact that there are no free
electrons to produce an electrical current if a voltage is applied to the material.

Figure-1.3 covalent bonding in a semiconductor crystal

Electron - Hole pair generation
The amount of energy required for jumping the energy gap can be supplied to the electrons
from heat energy. At room temperature some electron will have acquired the energy to jump
into the conduction band. If the temperature is increased so will the number of electrons in
the conduction band. This process is called electron-hole pair generation. This is because by
supplying energy electron can transfer from the valance band to the conduction band. This
produces a free electron in the conduction band and leaves a hole (vacant electron position) in
the valance band.

Electron

Hole

Figure-1.4 electron-hole generation

Heat increases the conduction properties of pure semiconductor.
Holes and Hole current
Whenever a covalent bond in a semiconductor is ruptured, a hole is left in the crystal
structure by virtue of the loss of an electron. Since the atom that lost the electron now has a
net positive charge, we can regard that hole as representing a unit of positive charge. If a
nearby valance- band electron should now enter the hole, leaving behind a new hole, then the
net effect is that a unit of positive charge has moved from the first atom to the second. Since
charge transfer can take place by the motion of either negatively charged electrons or
positively charged holes, we refer to electrons and holes collectively as charge carriers.
Although we regard holes as positively charged particles they are not real particles and all the
effects we see are actually caused by the movement of electrons in the valance band.
In a pure semiconductor materials the electron density (electrons/m3) equals the hole density
(holes/m3) ni = pi
n= number of electron, p= number of holes
Drift current
When an electrical potential applied across a semiconductor the electric field established in
the material caused free electrons to drift in one direction and holes to drift in the other.
Because the positive holes moves in the opposite direction from the negative electrons, these
two components of current add rather than cancel. The total current due to the electric filed is
called the drift current. Drift current depends on the ability of the charge carriers to move
through the semiconductor. The measure of this ability to move is called drift mobility (µ).
Note that the units of µ are square meter per volt-second.
vn = Ēµn and vp = Ēµp
We can use carrier mobility to compute the total current density J in a semiconductor when
the electric field intensity is known.
J=I/A
J= Jn+ Jp = nqnµnĒ + pqpµpĒ = nqnvn + pqpvp
J= current density, A/m2;
qn=qp= unit electron charge= 1.6 *10-19C;
Ē= electric field intensity, V/m;
vn , vp = electron and hole velocities, m/s
The conductivity of a semiconductor is: σ = nµnqn+ pµpqp
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 Example 1
A bar of intrinsic germanium 4 cm long has pi = 2.4 × 1019 holes/m3. The electron and hole
mobility’s are 0.38 m2/ (V.s), respectively. What should be the dimensions of the cross-
section if it is to be square in shape and if 3.2mA are to flow in the bar when a 60V potential
difference applied across its end?
Solution
We will assume that the electric field is established uniformly throughout the bar and that all
current flow is along the horizontal axis of the bar (in the direction of the electric field).
Let dimension =d
Ē = (60V)/ (4 × 10-2) = 1500 V/m. since the material is intrinsic,
pi = ni = 2.4 × 1019 carriers/m3 and
J = niqnĒ (µn +µp) = piqpĒ (µn +µp)
J = piqpĒ (µn +µp) = (2.4 × 1019)*(1.6 × 10-19)*(1500)*(0.38 + 0.18) = 3225.6 A/m2
the cross-sectional area of the bar is
A = I/J= (3mA)/ (3225.6 A/m2) = 9.3 × 10-7 m2
Since the cross-section is square in shape A=d2
d = √ A = √ (9.3 ×10−7)= 0.965mm
Example 2
16
Find the conductivity and resistivity of intrinsic silicon if ni = 1.5 10 electrons/m3 and the
electron and hole mobility’s are 0.14 m2/(V.s) and 0.05 m2/(V.s), respectively.
Solution since the material is intrinsic, the conductivity of silicon is:
σ = ni qn (µn+µp) = (1.5 1016 ¿*(1.6× 10−19 )*(0.14 + 0.05) = 4.56 10−4S/m
−4
And resistivity of silicon is ρ = 1/ σ = 1/ (4.56 10 ¿=¿ 2192.98Ω.m
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Diffusion current
Whenever there is a concentration of carriers (electrons or holes) in one region of a
semiconductor and a scarcity in other, the carriers in the high density region will migrate
toward the low density region, until their distribution becomes more or less uniform. During
the time that carriers are migration from the region of high concentration to the one of low
concentration, there is a transfer of charge taking place, and therefore an electric current. This
current is called diffusion current.
Apart from drift and diffusion, a third phenomenon which occurs in semiconductors is called
recombination that results from the collision an electron with hole. The process is essentially
the free conduction electron to the valence band and is accompanied by the emission of
energy.
Extrinsic Semiconductors
Extrinsic semiconductors are semiconductors where the balance between holes and electrons
is intentionally altered by introducing certain impurity atoms into the crystal structure. The
process of introducing impurity atoms into a crystal structure to crate extrinsic semiconductor
is called doping.
When pure silicon is doped with a group 5 element (such as phosphorus, antimony or
arsenic), which has atoms with five valance electrons (pentavalent atoms), four of these
electrons will form covalent bond with neighboring silicon atoms and the fifth electron
become free. So every impurity atom will produce a free electron in the conduction band.
These electrons will drift to produce an electrical current if a voltage is applied to the
material. Since electrons are predominated in this material the material is called N-type
semiconductor material. N-type semiconductor is much better conductor than the intrinsic
semiconductor.

Figure-1.5 structure of a silicon crystal containing a donor atom (Antimony atom)

Regarding the energy band diagram of N- type semiconductor at 00K the valance band is
completely full as all of the covalent bonds are complete. The conduction band contains free
electrons from the fifth valance electrons in the donor atoms. In an N –type material the
number of electrons (both added and thermally generated) is much more than that of holes.
Hence, in such material, electrons constitute majority carriers and holes form minority
carriers.
When pure silicon is doped with group three elements (such as boron, aluminum or indium),
which has atoms with three valance electrons (trivalent atoms), three of these electrons will
form covalent bonds with neighboring silicon atoms. However there are not enough electrons
to form the fourth covalent bond. This leaves a hole in the covalent bond structure and
therefore a hole in the valance band of the energy level diagram. Every impurity atom will
produce a hole in the valance band. These holes will drift to produce an electrical current if a
voltage is applied to the material. Since holes are predominated in this material the material is
called P-type semiconductor material. P-type semiconductor is much better conductor than
the intrinsic semiconductor.

Figure-1.6 structure of a silicon crystal containing an acceptor atom (born atom)

Regarding the energy band diagram of P-type semiconductor at 00K the valance band
contains holes due to the incomplete covalent band around each acceptor atom. The
conduction band is empty as there are no free electrons. In a P –type material the number of
holes (both added and thermally generated) is much more than that of electrons. Hence, in
such material, holes constitute majority carriers and electrons form minority carriers.

Figure -1.7 n-type and p-type materials

An important relationship between electron and hole density in most practical semiconductor
material is given by:
np = ni2 = pi2
n= electron density; p= hole density; ni= intrinsic electron density; pi = intrinsic hole density
σ nµnqn for N-type material n >> p
σ pµpqp for P-type material p >> n
The conductivity of a semiconductor increases in direct proportion to the degree of doping
with impurity atoms that produce the majority carrier.
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Example 3
A bar of silicon with intrinsic electron density 1.4 ×10 16 electrons/m3 is doped with impurity
atoms until the hole density is 8.5 ×1021 holes/m3. The mobilities of the electrons and holes
are µn = 0.14 m2/ (V.s) and µp= 0.05 m2/ (V.s). Find the extrinsic conductivity.
Solution
The electron density of extrinsic material is:
n¿ ni2/p ¿ (1.4 ×10 16 ¿ /8.5 × 1021=2.3× 1010 electrons/m3
Since p > n, the material is P-type. From equation 1.5,
σ = nµnqn+ pµpqp = (2.3 ×1010 )(0.14)(1.6 ×10−19) + (8.5 ×1021 )(0.05)(1.6 ×10−19)
= 5.152× 10−10 + 68 ≈ 68 S/m
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