Chapter 0:

Semiconductor Materials
Pham Duy Hung, PhD
Faculty of Electronics and Telecommunications,
VNU-University of Engineering and Technology
Email: hungpd@vnu.edu.vn

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Outline
• Recall: the atom
• Materials used in electronics
• Current in Semiconductors
• N-type and P-type Semiconductors
• The PN-junction

Textbook: Thomas L. Floyd, Electronic devices, 9th edition, Prentice Hall (Section 1)

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 Recall: the atom • Valence electrons: outermost shell is known
as the valence shell, and electrons in this
shell are called valence electrons.
• Ionization: if a valence electron acquires a
• Atomic number: equals to the number of
sufficient amount of energy, called ionization
protons in the nucleus
energy, it can escape from the outer shell
• Electron shells and Orbits
and the atom’s influence. The process of
 Orbit: Electrons orbits the nucleus of an
Hydrogen atom losing a valence electron is known as
atom at certain distances from the nucleus.
ionization and the resulting positively
 Energy levels: each orbit corresponds to a
charged atom is called a positive ion.
certain energy levels. The orbits are
grouped into energy levels called as shells.
 Maximum number of electrons in each shell:
Ne=2n2, where n is the number of the shell.
Helium atom
o Shell 1: Ne=2(1)2=2
o Shell 2: Ne=2(2)2=8
o Shell 3: Ne=2(3)2=18
Energy increases o Shell 4: Ne=2(4)2=32
as the distance Bohr model
from the nucleus of an atom
increases 3
 Materials used in electronics
• Conductors: are materials that easily conduct electrical current. The best conductors are
single-element materials, such as Cu, Ag, Au, Al.
• Insulators: are materials that do not conduct
electrical current under normal conditions.
Most good insulators are compounds rather
than single-element materials.
• Semiconductors: are materials that are
between conductors and insulators in its
ability to conduct electrical current. The
single-element semiconductors are
characterized by atoms with four valence
electrons.
Energy diagrams for three types of materials
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Materials used in electronics
• Comparison of a semiconductor atom and a conductor atom

Silicon atom Copper atom Silicon atom Germanium atom

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Materials used in electronics
• Covalent bonds:

Center silicon atom shares an electron with
each of four surrounding silicon atoms,
creating a covalent bond with each.
Covalent bonds in a silicon crystal
Bonding diagram: the red
negative signs represent the
shared valence electrons.
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Current in Semiconductors
• Conduction electrons and holes

Energy diagram
Bonding diagram

Electron-hole pair Energy band diagram for an unexcited atom

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in a pure silicon crystal
Current in Semiconductors
• Electron and hole current

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 N-type and P-type Semiconductors
• Intrinsic semiconductive materials do not conduct current well
because of the limited number of free electrons in the
conduction band and the holes in the valence band.
• Doping: addition of impurities to the intrinsic semiconductive
materials can drastically increase their conductivity (number of
current carriers: electrons or holes)
• N-type semiconductor: to increase the number of conduction-
band electrons in intrinsic silicon, pentavalent impurity atoms
(having five valence electrons) are added such as arsenic (As),
phosphorus (P), bismuth(Bi), and antimony (Sb).
 Majority carriers: electrons
 Minority carriers: holes
The pentavalent atom gives up an
electron, it is often called a donor atom

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 N-type and P-type Semiconductors
• P-type Semiconductor: to increase the number of
holes in intrinsic silicon, trivalent impurity atoms
(having three valence electrons) are added such as
boron (B), indium (In), and gallium (Ga).

 Majority carriers: holes

 Minority carriers: electrons

The trivalent atom can take an electron, it is

often referred to as an acceptor atom
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 The PN junction
• When take a block of silicon and dope part of it with a trivalent impurity and the other part with a
pentavalent impurity, a boundary called the pn junction is formed between the resulting p-type
and n-type portions.

The basic silicon structure at the instant of junction formation showing
only the majority and minority carriers. Free electrons in the n region
near the pn junction begin to diffuse across the junction and fall into
holes near the junction in the p region.
For every electron that diffuses across the junction and combines with a holes,
a positive charge is left in the n region and a negative charge is created in the p
region, forming a barrier potential. This action continuous until the voltage of
the barrier repels further diffusion. The blue arrows between the positive and
negative charges in the depletion region represent the electric field.
The PN junction
• Energy diagrams of the pn junction and depletion region
“Energy Hill”

At the instant of junction formation At equilibrium 12

Exercises
• Self-Test (Pages 21-23)
• Problems (page 23)

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