A Physics Derivation of Mobility

ECE 3030
Physical Foundations of Computer Engineering
Summer 2015
Dr. Vincent John Mooney III
Associate Professor, School of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Adjunct Associate Professor, School of Computer Science
Georgia Institute of Technology

Note: these lecture notes are based on Section 4

of Chapter 3, Energy Bands and Charge Carriers
in Semiconductors, in Solid State Electronic
Devices by B. Streetman, 1990.
Consider Doped Silicon with an Electric Field
Applied: How to Derive Carrier Mobility?
• In active situations, drift current will dominate
– Drift current is due to the applied electric field; other causes of
current exist, e.g., diffusion
– We assume an applied electric field
() = εxî in the x-direction
• Each electron experiences a net force of ‫ = )࢘(ܨ‬- ‫ ݍ‬εxî where ‫ = ݍ‬1.602 x
10-19 C and is the magnitude of the electron charge (note that ‫ ݍ‬is also
the net charge of a proton)
• Consider Si doped n-type with n electrons/cm3 available. Then,
the effect of electric field
() on these n electrons is to alter
their momentum <px>.
– 
= ∗ 
where ∗ is the effective mass of an electron
 
– Recall that electric field
() = Newtons/Coulomb = = and
 · 
() = ⇒  () = 
 = energy

 Mobility
• The effect of electric field
() on the electrons is to alter their momentum <px>
– Each electron experiences a net force of () = -  εxî
• Force = mass * acceleration

ଶ

–   = 
ଶ = 



 
– The force experienced by n electrons is -n  εx= n⋅∗ =n ௫



– This equation may seem to imply continuous electron acceleration; however, there
are collisions!
• Let there be N0 electrons at time t=0 and define N(t) as the number of electrons which
have not undergone a collision by time t.
– The rate of decrease of N(t) is proportional to the number left unscattered at t.
– Let ̅ represent the mean time between scattering events.
ష೟


N(t) 
– Then
 = ̅ N(t) ⇒
() = N0 ೟ത
• Thus, the differential change in ‫ ݔ‬due to collisions (resulting in deceleration) at time dt is




– d ‫ = ݔ‬- ‫
⇒ ̅ ݔ‬௫|collisions = ̅ ௫
• Now, the sum of acceleration and deceleration effects must be zero for steady state


– ⇒ ̅ ೣ - n  εx = 0
 Mobility (cont’d)
• <
 > = -  ̅εx
  ̅
• Then  = ∗ εx = −µ εx


 / / 
• ⇒ µ = = = =
εx / / ·
• Mobility µ has a positive value; however, the
average velocity is negative in relation to the
product of mobility times the electric field strength
since electrons drift opposite the direction of the
electric field
  
• Mobility * electric field strength = =
·  
 Current Density
• Current density Jx due to the net drift
– Jx is the number of electrons crossing a unit area per unit
time, n

, multiplied by the charge of an electron
– Jx = −  n

= Amps/cm2
• Jx = (Coulombs/electron)(electrons/cm3)(cm/sec)
  ଶ ̅
– substituting in for

yields Jx = ∗ εx = σεx
೙
ଶ̅
• ⇒σ= ∗ where σ = (Ω ·cm)-1 = ((Volts/Amp)cm)-1
೙
 ̅
– rewrite σ =  nµ where µ = ∗
೙

 ̅
ೣ
• ⇒ 
= ∗ εx = −µ εx ⇒ µ =
೙ εx
– Note ∗ < ∗ ⇒ µ > µ