ECE 371

Materials and Devices

Lecture 16
Mobility and Electric field,
Conductivity/Resistivity, Velocity Saturation
 General Information
• Reading for this Lesson
– Ch 5.1.4
– Ch 5.1.3
– Ch 5.2.1
– Ch. 5.2.2
– Ch 5.3.1
– Ch. 5.3.2 (Only Einstein Relation in eq. 5.47)

Reading for next time: 5.3 and 7.1 (skip Ch. 6)

ECE 371 Lecture 16 2

 Carrier Transport
• We now know the carrier densities 𝑛! and 𝑝! (Ch. 4)

• Next: Determine processes by which electrons and holes

move in the semiconductor

• Drift: movement of carriers due to electric fields

• Diffusion: movement of carriers due to concentration

gradients

ECE 371 Lecture 16

 Drift Current Density
• Net movement of charges due to an electric field gives rise to a drift current:
𝐽!"# = 𝜌𝑣! , where 𝜌 is the volume charge density and 𝑣! is the average drift
velocity
• For holes, 𝜌 = 𝑒𝑝, where 𝑒 is the magnitude of the electronic charge and 𝑝 is
the hole concentration
• Holes will accelerate, experience a collision with an ionized impurity or
thermally vibrating lattice atom, and then begin accelerating again
• Introduce concept of mobility – describes how well a particle will move in a
crystal under an applied electric field
• The average drift velocity for holes is proportional to the mobility and the
electric field, 𝑣!$ = 𝜇$ 𝐸, so the drift current for holes is 𝐽$|!"# = 𝑒𝜇$ 𝑝𝐸
• The total drift current including electrons is given by 𝐽!"# = 𝑒(𝜇& 𝑛 + 𝜇$ 𝑝)𝐸
• Both drift currents are in the same direction as the electric field

ECE 371 Lecture 16 4

 Mobility Effects
carrier mobility
𝑒𝜏32
𝜇2 = ∗
𝑚32
𝑒𝜏35
𝜇5 = ∗
𝑚35

1 1 1
𝜏! = mean time between collisions = +
𝑚!∗ is the conductivity effective mass (see App. F) 𝜇 𝜇6 𝜇7
Two scattering mechanisms are dominant in semiconductors:
1. Phonon (lattice) scattering – due to thermal vibrations, 𝜇' ∝ 𝑇 (*⁄+
2. Ionized Impurity scattering – due to Coulomb interaction with ionized
impurities, 𝜇, ∝ 𝑇 *⁄+ ⁄𝑁,

ECE 371 Lecture 16 5

Mobility vs. Temperature

ECE 371 Lecture 16 6

Mobility vs. Impurity Concentration

• Higher impurity concentration implies

higher probability of collision
• At higher temperatures, impurity
scattering goes down
• Undoped silicon dominated by phonon
(lattice) scattering

ECE 371 Lecture 16 7

 Velocity Saturation
• Saturation velocity is the
maximum velocity a carrier can
attain in the semiconductor
• Determines the ultimate “speed
limit” or frequency limit of
transistors
• Mobility is a function of electric
field at high field strengths
Materials vs (cm/s) • When 𝑣# saturates, so does
Si 1.0e7 𝐽#$%
GaAs 7.2e6
SiC 2.2e7
• Saturation caused by
GaN 2.5e7 interaction with phonons

ECE 371 Lecture 16 8

9
Relation of Resistivity to Resistance

• Current density: 𝐽 = 𝐼 ⁄𝐴

• 𝐴 is the cross-sectional
area

• 𝐿 is the length

• Resistivity is a material
property
𝜌𝐿 • Resistance is dependent
𝑅=
𝐴 upon geometry

ECE 371 Lecture 16 10

 Resistivity (𝜌)

• 𝜎 is the conductivity
1 1 • Function of mobility and carrier concentration
𝜌= = • Controllable with doping
𝜎 𝑒(𝜇& 𝑛 + 𝜇' 𝑝)
• p-type resistivity is usually higher than n-type
resistivity

ECE 371 Lecture 16 11

𝑛! and 𝜎 vs. Temperature

• At high T, 𝑛9 increases and

dominates 𝑛! and 𝜎

• Around room temperature,

𝑛! is almost constant
(complete ionization) but 𝜎
decreases with increasing T
since 𝜇2 decreases

• At low T, freeze out begins

and 𝑛! and 𝜎 decrease

ECE 371 Lecture 16 12

13
Diffusion Current Density
• Diffusion: process by which particles flow from a
region of high concentration to a region of low
concentration

Electron and hole diffusion current densities

𝑑𝑛
𝐽&-|!.## = 𝑒𝐷&
𝑑𝑥
*units of A/cm2
𝑑𝑝
𝐽$-|!.## = −𝑒𝐷$
𝑑𝑥
• 𝐷# and 𝐷$ are the diffusion constants (units of
cm2/s) and quantify how well carriers move as a
result of a concentration gradient
• Electron diffusion current is in the opposite
direction to electron particle flux
• Hole diffusion current is in the same direction as
hole particle flux

ECE 371 Lecture 16 14

 Total Current
• The total current in a semiconductor is the sum of the drift and
diffusion currents for both electrons and holes

𝑑𝑛 𝑑𝑝
𝐽 = 𝑒𝑛𝜇& 𝐸) + 𝑒𝑝𝜇' 𝐸) + 𝑒𝐷& − 𝑒𝐷'
𝑑𝑥 𝑑𝑥

Drift current terms that Diffusion current terms

depend upon electric field that depend upon
concentration gradients

*For a given situation , we can often neglect some of the terms in the equation for total current

ECE 371 Lecture 16 15

 Graded Impurity Doping
• Electrons on the side with higher doping
concentration diffuse to the side with lower doping
concentration
• After electrons diffuse, ionize acceptors are left
behind
• An electric field is induced by the charge separation
to oppose the diffusion process
• Quasi-neutrality is assumed so that n0 ≈ Nd

1 𝑑𝐸/. 𝑘𝑇 1 𝑑𝑁! (𝑥)

𝐸- 𝑥 = 𝐸- 𝑥 = −
𝑒 𝑑𝑥 𝑒 𝑁! (𝑥) 𝑑𝑥
*If the intrinsic Fermi level is not *Induced electric field as a function of
constant, there is an electric field impurity concentration as a function of x
present in the semiconductor

ECE 371 Lecture 16 16

 The Einstein Relation
𝐷& 𝐷' 𝑘𝑇
= =
𝜇& 𝜇' 𝑒

• Einstein relations relate the diffusion constants to the mobilities

• Temperature dependence of the diffusion constants is the result of the temperature

dependence of the mobilities (e.g., lattice and ionized impurity scattering)

• The diffusion constants are ~40X smaller than the mobilities at room temperature

ECE 371 Lecture 16 17

Exercise Problems

ECE 371 Lecture 16 18

Test Your Understanding

ECE 371 Lecture 16 19