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Conduction in Semiconductor-Drift and Diffusion

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Electronic Devices (Anna University)

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K K Nagarajan,
Associate Professor (ECE),
SSN College of Engineering,
Kalavakkam – 603 110

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Conduction in Semiconductors

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Smell of Vadai

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Diffusion in gases

In gases the molecules can move freely

As a result
A lt off their
th i random
d movements
t th
the
molecules become evenly distributed

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Diffusion in liquids
I liquids
In li id th
the molecules
l l can move

Time

Figures taken from Google images – search key words – diffusion

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Diffusion gradient

The molecules are more densely packed on

the left and so they tend to diffuse into the
space on the right. This is a diffusion gradient

A diffusion gradient

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Diffusion of oxygen into a cell

The concentration of So the oxygen molecules
oxygen molecules is diffuse into the cell
greater
t outside
t id th
the cellll
than inside

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All substances are made up of sub-microscopic

particles called molecules

In gases (like air) the molecules can move freely

In liquids (like water) the molecules can move

In solids the molecules are more or less stationary

but the electrons in conduction band can move

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Brownian motion
motion Diffusion

• Physical phenomenon that minute particles

immersed/suspended in a fluid will experience a
random movement
• Directly proportional to temperature

p
• Can be compared with Perpetual
p motion of
electrons – no need to give any energy –
always present
• From where they get energy?

• Proportional to (i) Concentration gradient (ii)

Temperature

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Perpetual motion of electrons

• Phonons – crystal
y defects – Interact with free
electron
• Viewed as a series of collisions obeying the
principles of conservation of energy and
momentum
Consequence
• Electrons are never at rest
• Are submitted to a perpetual random motion
• Can be compared to the Brownian motion of fine
particles in a liquid

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Perpetual motion of holes

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Drift of carriers

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Random motion of electrons along with

external
t l field
fi ld

Stars represent collisions

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Drift
• Need to raise potential energy
• Diffusion always present

Juan A Anta, “Electron transport in nanostructured metal-oxide semiconductors”,

Current Opinion in Colloid and Interface Science, Vol. 17, No. 3, PP. 124-131, 2012

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Electrical current = diffusion superimposed

with
ith d
drift
ift
• Only tiny drift velocity superimposed by the
applied electric field
• Fermi speed not significantly altered

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Mobility

• Average drift
velocity – vdn
• Relaxation time - n
• Effective mass – me*
• Mobility - n

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Mobility dependence

• Mobilityy  relaxation time of the electrons

– Decreases with temperature because thermal lattice
vibrations -or phonons- increase with increasing
temperature
– Decreases with increasing impurity or defect
concentration
• Mobility  1/effective mass
– In Silicon, hole mass (mh*) > electron mass (me*)
–  h < n

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Mobility dependence

Temperature dependence

Doping dependence

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Drift current

J = Jn + Jp =  E

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Ohm’s law at a point

I
J 
a
If d it
density i nott uniform
is if
I
J  Lim
S  0 S
V  IR
E .l  J . a . R
l
J  E
aR
l
R 
a
1
J  E  E


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Resistivity versus doping concentration

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Conductivity versus 1/T

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FYI : Conductor can become insulator

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Diffusion current

• Diffusion proportional to
– Temperature
– Concentration gradient
g i.e. higher
g to lower ((- d/dx))

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Carrier concentration gradient

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Drift-diffusion
Drift diffusion equations

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Non-uniformly
Non uniformly doped semiconductor

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Excess carrier

• Consider nn-type
type
semiconductor, doped
with 5 x 1016 cm-3
donors
• Uniformlyy illuminated
with appropriate
wavelength light
• Photogeneration
– Extra electron-hole pairs

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Thermal equilibrium

• nno - majority
j y carrier concentration ((electron
concentration n-type semiconductor) in thermal
equilibrium in the dark
• Majority carriers - thermally ionized from the
donors
• pno - minority carrier concentration (hole
concentration
t ti in i n-type
t semiconductor)
i d t ) iin
thermal equilibrium in the dark
• Minority carriers - thermally generated
• Thermal equilibrium means that the mass action
law obeyed and nnopno = ni2

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Excess concentration
• nn = pn
• nn - excess electron (majority carrier) concentration:
nn = nn - nno
• pn - excess hole (minority carrier) concentration:
pn = pn — pno
• Under illumination,, at any
y instant,, therefore nn = nno
+ nn and pn = Pno + pn
• nnopno = ni2 but nnpn  ni2

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nno and pno depend on temperature & constant w.r.t time

Assume 5 x 1016 cm-3 and"weak" illumination,

which causes, say, only a 10 percent change in nno,
causes say
that is,

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Low level injection

• Low-level injection in
n-type semiconductor
• Does not significantly
affect nn
• But
B t drastically
d ti ll affects
ff t
pn
• Affects minority
concentration

Dark Illuminated
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Generation and recombination

From C to A it takes some time

Minority carrier life time

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Minority carrier life time

• h - Minority carrier life time aka Mean

recombination time
• If the minority carrier recombination time is, say,
10 s, and if there are some 1000 excess holes,
then it is clear that these excess holes will be
disappearing at a rate of 1000/10 s = 100 per
second
• Rate of recombination of excess minority
carriers is simply pn/ h

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Continuity equation

• Rate of particle flow = Particle flow rate due to

current—Particle loss rate due to recombination

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Assuming current is strictly by diffusion

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Steady state  time derivative is zero

Ln(Lp) defined as
diffusion lengths

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Steady state – e.g.

Assume excess
electrons
l t are somehow
h
injected into semi-
infinite bar @ x=0
and also maintained
δp(x) = A1ex/Lp + A2e−x/Lp
x/Lp

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Quasi Fermi
levels

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