ECN 572 – Autumn 2022 M.

Tech in VLSI for Industry Professionals

Assignment 1
If material parameters are not given, use well known values from text-book/google. Write all your assumptions
clearly. If you are borrowing a solution from any article, text-book or your classmate, make sure you credit that
source appropriately.

Question 1: 10 Marks
(a) Show that the probability of finding an electron at 0.1 eV above the Fermi level is same as the probability of
finding an empty state 0.1eV below the Fermi level. [2 Marks]
(b) Determine for what energy above EF (in terms of kT) the Fermi-Dirac probability function is within 1% of
the Boltzmann approximation. Give the value of the probability function at this energy for both Fermi-Dirac
and Boltzmann approximations. [4 Marks]
(c) Derive the position of the intrinsic Fermi level (Ei) relative to the middle of the band gap (noted as Emidgap).
Calculate the intrinsic Fermi level position for a semiconductor with electron effective mass of 1.08 m 0 and
hole effective mass of 0.5m0 at 300K. [4 Marks]

Question 2: 10 Marks
(a) A Si substrate at room temperature is doped with 2.7x1016/cm3 donor atoms. Determine the electron and hole
concentrations of the sample. [Given: ni = 1.5x1010/cm3, Nc = 6.0953x1019/cm3, Eg = 1.1 eV] [5 marks]
(b) If the above sample is additionally doped with 5x1016/cm3 acceptor atoms, what will be the new electron and
hole concentrations for the substrate? What will be the type of the substrate after acceptor doping? [5 marks]

Question 3: 10 Marks
An unknown semiconductor sample has an intrinsic carrier concentration of 1010/cm3 at 300K, it has conduction
and valence band effective density of states Nc and Nv both equal to 2x1019/cm3.
(a) What is the band gap Eg? [2 Marks]
(b) If the semiconductor is doped with Nd = 1016/cm3 (donor type), what are the equilibrium concentration of
electrons and holes at 300K? [3 Marks]
(c) If the same sample is now doped with additional 5x1016/cm3 acceptors, what are the new equilibrium values
of electrons and holes? [3 Marks]
(d) For part (c), calculate the Fermi level position with respect to the intrinsic Fermi level, EF-Ei. [2 Marks]

Question 5: 10 Marks
Draw equilibrium band-diagrams of
(a) n+ poly-Si, SiO2 and n-type Si with Nd = 1017/cm3 separately [4 marks]
(b) when all three are connected to each other to form a Poly-Insulator-Semiconductor structure [6 marks]

Draw vacuum level in all cases and mention all relevant energy gaps/values. Clearly indicate the direction of
band-bending and ensure slopes are correct

Question 4: 10 Marks
(a) Look at the figure below – we have this measured data from an unknown material, ni is the intrinsic carrier
density. Find the approximate bandgap from this data. State your assumptions for this estimation. [5 Marks]
(b) Consider silicon at T = 300 K. Determine p0 if EFi – EF = 0.35 eV. Now assuming that p0 remains constant,
determine the value of EFi – EF, when T= 400 K. Find the value of n0 for both 300K and 400K. [5 Marks]