Physics of Semiconductor Materials

Daniel Manaye (Ph.D)

Lecture 1: Introduction to
Semiconductor materials
 Prerequisites
 To understand this presentation, you should have the following prior
knowledge:

 Draw the structure of an atom, including electrons, protons, and

neutrons.

 Define resistance and conductance.

 Label an electronic schematic, indicating current flow.

 Define Ohm’s laws.

 Describe the characteristics of DC and AC (sine wave) voltages.

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 Student Learning Outcomes

 Upon completion of viewing this presentation, you should be able to:

 Define conductor, insulator and semiconductor.
 Name at least three semiconductor materials and state the most
widely used.
 Name the basic structure of material and explain how it is formed with
atoms.
 Define doping and name the two types of semiconductor material
formed with doping.
 Name the current carriers in N and P-type material.
 Explain how current flows in semiconductor material.

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 Semiconductor Materials
• Semiconductor devices such as diodes, transistors and integrated circuits can
be found everywhere in our daily lives, in Walkman, televisions, automobiles,
washing machines and computers.
• We have come to rely on them and increasingly have come to expect higher
performance at lower cost.

• The essential fact which has driven the successful growth of the computer
industry is that through industrial skill and technological advances one
manages to make smaller and smaller transistors.

• These devices deliver year after year better performance while consuming less
power and because of their smaller size they can also be manufactured at a
lower cost per device.
 Why semiconductors?
• SEMICONDUCTORS: They are here, there, and everywhere
• Computers, palm pilots, Silicon (Si) MOSFETs, ICs, CMOS
laptops, anything “intelligent”
• Cell phones, pagers Si ICs, GaAs FETs, BJTs
• CD players AlGaAs and InGaP laser diodes, Si photodiodes
• TV remotes, mobile terminals Light emitting diodes (LEDs)
• Satellite dishes InGaAs MMICs (Monolithic Microwave ICs)
• Fiber networks InGaAsP laser diodes, pin photodiodes
• Traffic signals, car GaN LEDs (green, blue)
taillights InGaAsP LEDs (red, amber)
• Air bags Si MEMs, Si ICs
• and, they are important, especially to Elec.Eng.& Computer
Sciences
 Introduction
Semiconductors are materials whose electrical properties lie between
Conductors and Insulators.

Ex : Silicon and Germanium

Give the examples of Conductors and Insulators!

Difference in conductivity
 Semiconductor Materials
• Elemental semiconductors – Si and Ge (column IV of periodic table) –
compose of single species of atoms
• Compound semiconductors – combinations of atoms of column III and
column V and some atoms from column II and VI. (combination of two
atoms results in binary compounds)
• There are also three-element (ternary) compounds (GaAsP) and four-
elements (quaternary) compounds such as InGaAsP.
Semiconductor
materials
 Semiconductor Materials
• The wide variety of electronic and optical properties of these
semiconductors provides the device engineer with great flexibility in the
design of electronic and opto-electronic functions.

• Ge was widely used in the early days of semiconductor development for

transistors and diodes.

• Si is now used for the majority of rectifiers, transistors and integrated

circuits.

• Compound semiconductors are widely used in high-speed devices and

devices requiring the emission or absorption of light.
 Electronic Materials
 The goal of electronic materials is to generate and control the flow of an
electrical current.

 Electronic materials include:

1. Conductors: have low resistance which allows electrical current flow

2. Insulators: have high resistance which suppresses electrical current flow

3. Semiconductors: have intermediate resistance which can allow or

suppress electrical current flow. Conductivity lies between that of
conductors and insulators.

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 Conductors
 Good conductors have low resistance so electrons flow through them with
ease.
 Conductors (metals) have a very small (or nonexistent) energy gap, in
which electrons easily jump to conduction bands due to thermal excitation
(current flows easily)
 Best element conductors include:
 Copper, silver, gold, aluminum, & nickel
E.g. Copper have easily released electrons that drift within the metal
 Alloys are also good conductors:
 Brass & steel
 Good conductors can also be liquid:
 Salt water
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 Conductor Atomic Structure

 The atomic structure of good conductors usually includes only one

electron in their outer shell.

 It is called a valence electron.

 It is easily striped from the atom, producing current flow.

+
electron flow direction

-
Current flow governed by Ohm’s Law V = IR
Copper Atom
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 Insulators

 Insulators have a high resistance so current does not flow in them.

 Good insulators include:

 Glass, ceramic, plastics, & wood

 Most insulators are compounds of several elements.

 The atoms are tightly bound to one another so electrons are difficult to
strip away for current flow.

 Insulators have a large energy gap in which electrons can’t jump from
valence to conduction bands (no current flows).

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 Semiconductors
o Semiconductors are materials that essentially can be conditioned to act as
good conductors, or good insulators, or any thing in between.
o Semiconductors have a moderate energy gap only a few electrons can jump
to the conduction band.
o leaving “holes”(only a little current can flow)
o Common elements such as carbon, silicon, and germanium are
semiconductors.
o Silicon is the best and most widely used semiconductor.
o Generally crystalline in structure for IC devices
o In recent years, however, non-crystalline semiconductors have become
commercially very important

polycrystalline amorphous crystalline 14

 A crystalline material with a single grain is called a single crystal
 A polycrystalline solid or polycrystal is comprised of many individual grains or crystallites
of different orientations (like a ceramic).
 The periodic arrangement of atoms in crystal is called the lattice; the lattice
contains a volume, called a unit cell, which is representative of the entire lattice
and is regularly repeated throughout the crystal.
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Semiconductor Materials

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 Semiconductor Valence Orbit
The main characteristic of a
semiconductor element is that it has four
electrons in its outer or valence orbit.
o For example: Silicon atoms have 4
electrons in outer shell
• inner electrons are very closely
bound to atom
o These electrons are shared with
neighbor atoms on both sides to “fill”
the shell
• resulting structure is very stable
• electrons are fairly tightly bound
 no “loose” electrons
• at room temperature, if battery
applied, very little electric current
flows 17
 Crystal Lattice Structure

 The unique capability of semiconductor atoms is their ability to link

together to form a physical structure called a crystal lattice.

 The atoms link together with one another sharing their outer electrons.

 These links are called covalent bonds.

2D Crystal Lattice Structure

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3D Crystal Lattice Structure

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 Semiconductors can be Insulators

 If the material is pure semiconductor material like silicon, the

crystal lattice structure forms an excellent insulator since all the
atoms are bound to one another and are not free for current flow.

 Good insulating semiconductor material is referred to as intrinsic.

 Since the outer valence electrons of each atom are tightly bound
together with one another, the electrons are difficult to dislodge
for current flow.

 Silicon in this form is a great insulator.

 Semiconductor material is often used as an insulator.

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 Silicon

o Atomic density: 5 x 1022 atoms/cm3

o Si has four valence electrons. Therefore, it can form covalent bonds with
four of its nearest neighbors.

o When temperature goes up, electrons can become free to move about
the Si lattice.

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 Electronic Properties of Si

 Silicon is a semiconductor material.

 Pure Si has a relatively high electrical resistivity at room
temperature.

 There are 2 types of mobile charge-carriers in Si:

 Conduction electrons are negatively charged;
 Holes are positively charged.

 The concentration (#/cm3) of conduction electrons & holes in a

semiconductor can be modulated in several ways:
by adding special impurity atoms ( dopants )
by applying an electric field
by changing the temperature
by irradiation

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 Electron-Hole Pair Generation

• When a conduction electron is thermally generated, a “hole” is also

generated.

• A hole is associated with a positive charge, and is free to move about the
Si lattice as well.

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 Carrier Concentrations in Intrinsic Si
 The “band-gap energy” Eg is the amount of energy needed to remove an
electron from a covalent bond.

 The space between the bands is the energy gap, or forbidden band.

 The concentration of conduction electrons in intrinsic silicon, ni, depends

exponentially on Eg and the absolute temperature (T):

 Eg
ni  5.2 10 T
15 3/ 2
exp electrons / cm3
2kT

ni  11010 electrons / cm3 at 300K

ni  11015 electrons / cm3 at 600K

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 Doping

• The electronic and optical properties of semiconductors are strongly

affected by impurities, which may be added in precisely controlled
amounts (e.g. an impurity concentration of one part per million can
change a sample of Si from a poor conductor to a good conductor of
electric current). This process called doping.

• To make the semiconductor conduct electricity, other atoms called

impurities must be added.

• “Impurities” are different elements.

• This process is called doping

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 Semiconductors can be Conductors
• Si can be “doped” with other elements to change its electrical
properties.
• For example, if Si is doped with phosphorus (P), each P atom can
contribute a conduction electron, so that the Si lattice has more
electrons than holes, i.e. it becomes “N type”:
• An impurity, or element like arsenic, has 5 valence electrons.
• Adding arsenic (doping) will allow four of the arsenic valence electrons
to bond with the neighboring silicon atoms.
• The one electron left over for each arsenic atom becomes available to
conduct current flow.
Notation:
n = conduction
electron
concentration

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Conduction Band (the
upper band)

Valence Band (the

lower band)

Conductor Semiconductor Insulator

 Hole-Electron Pairs
• Sometimes thermal energy is enough to cause an electron to jump from the valence
band to the conduction band
 produces a hole - electron pair
• Electrons also “fall” back out of the conduction band into the valence band, combining
with a hole

pair elimination pair creation

hole electron
 Improving Conduction by Doping

 To make semiconductors better conductors, add impurities (dopants) to

contribute extra electrons or extra holes

 elements with 5 outer electrons contribute an extra electron to the

lattice (donor dopant)

 elements with 3 outer electrons accept an electron from the silicon

(acceptor dopant)

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 Doping (n type)
• Phosphorus and arsenic are donor dopants

– if phosphorus is introduced into the silicon lattice, there is an extra

electron “free” to move around and contribute to electric current

• very loosely bound to atom and can easily jump to conduction

band

– produces n type silicon

• sometimes use + symbol to indicate heavier doping, so n+ silicon

– phosphorus becomes positive ion after giving up electron

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 Doping (P type)
 If Si is doped with Boron (B), each B atom can contribute a hole, so that
the Si lattice has more holes than electrons, i.e. it becomes “P type”:

 Boron has 3 electrons in its outer shell, so it contributes a hole if it

displaces a silicon atom

 boron is an acceptor dopant

 yields p type silicon

 boron becomes negative ion after

accepting an electron
Notation:
p = hole concentration

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 Resistance Effects of Doping

• If you use lots of arsenic atoms for doping, there will be lots of extra
electrons so the resistance of the material will be low and current will
flow freely.

• If you use only a few boron atoms, there will be fewer free electrons so
the resistance will be high and less current will flow.

• By controlling the doping amount, virtually any resistance can be

achieved.

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 Another Way to Dope
 You can also dope a semiconductor material with an atom such as boron
that has only 3 valence electrons.

 The 3 electrons in the outer orbit do form covalent bonds with its
neighboring semiconductor atoms as before. But one electron is missing
from the bond.

 This place where a fourth electron should be is referred to as a hole.

 The hole assumes a positive charge so it can attract electrons from some
other source.

 Holes become a type of current carrier like the electron to support

current flow.

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 Hole and Electron Concentrations
• To produce reasonable levels of conduction doesn’t require much doping

– silicon has about 5 x 1022 atoms/cm3

– typical dopant levels are about 1015 atoms/cm3

• In undoped (intrinsic) silicon, the number of holes and number of free

electrons is equal, and their product equals a constant

– actually, ni increases with increasing temperature

np = ni2
• This equation holds true for doped silicon as well, so increasing the
number of free electrons decreases the number of holes
 Types of Semiconductor Materials

• The silicon doped with extra electrons is called an “N type”

semiconductor.

– “N” is for negative, which is the charge of an electron.

• Silicon doped with material missing electrons that produce locations

called holes is called “P type” semiconductor.

– “P” is for positive, which is the charge of a hole.

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 Current Flow in N-type Semiconductors
 The DC voltage source has a positive terminal that attracts the free
electrons in the semiconductor and pulls them away from their atoms
leaving the atoms charged positively.

 Electrons from the negative terminal of the supply enter the

semiconductor material and are attracted by the positive charge of the
atoms missing one of their electrons.

 Current (electrons) flows from the positive terminal to the negative

terminal.

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 Current Flow in P-type Semiconductors
 Electrons from the negative supply terminal are attracted to the positive
holes and fill them.

 The positive terminal of the supply pulls the electrons from the holes
leaving the holes to attract more electrons.

 Current (electrons) flows from the negative terminal to the positive

terminal.

 Inside the semiconductor current flow is actually by the movement of

the holes from positive to negative.

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Summary of Charge Carriers

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 Electron and Hole Concentrations

• Under thermal equilibrium conditions, the product of the conduction-

electron density and the hole density is always equal to the square of ni:

np  ni
2

N-type material P-type material

n  ND p  NA
2
ni
p
2
ni
ND n
NA

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 Terminology

 donor: impurity atom that increases n

 acceptor: impurity atom that increases p

 N-type material: contains more electrons than holes

 P-type material: contains more holes than electrons

 majority carrier: the most abundant carrier

 minority carrier: the least abundant carrier

 intrinsic semiconductor: n = p = ni

 extrinsic semiconductor: doped semiconductor

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 Summary

 In its pure state, semiconductor material is an excellent insulator.

 The commonly used semiconductor material is silicon.
 Semiconductor materials can be doped with other atoms to add or
subtract electrons.
 An N-type semiconductor material has extra electrons.
 A P-type semiconductor material has a shortage of electrons with
vacancies called holes.
 The heavier the doping, the greater the conductivity or the lower the
resistance.
 By controlling the doping of silicon the semiconductor material can be
made as conductive as desired.

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 Summary
 The band gap energy is the energy required to free an electron from a
covalent bond.
 Eg for Si at 300K = 1.12eV

 In a pure Si crystal, conduction electrons and holes are formed in pairs.

 Holes can be considered as positively charged mobile particles which exist
inside a semiconductor.
 Both holes and electrons can conduct current.

 Substitutional dopants in Si:

 Group-V elements (donors) contribute conduction electrons
 Group-III elements (acceptors) contribute holes
 Very low ionization energies (<50 meV)

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