Unit 4.

Principles of semiconductors [3]

4.1 Introduction to Semiconductor, Atomic structure, Semi-conductor Crystals
and their characteristics.
4.2 Adding impurities to semiconductors, Donor and Acceptor impurity in
intrinsic Germanium.
4.3 N Type and P Type Semiconductor.

Introduction to Semiconductor: A semiconductor can be considered a material having a

conductivity ranging between that of an insulator and a metal.
 A semiconductor material is defined by its ability to conduct electricity and its conductivity
properties lie between conductor and insulator.
 Under specific conditions, Semiconductors have the ability to act either as a pure conductor or
a pure insulator.
 Moreover, semiconductors (after creating a PN junction) can also control the direction of the
flow of electrical charges, which is not the case with conductors (as they allow current to flow
in both directions).
 Examples of Semiconductor materials are Silicon, Germanium, Gallium Arsenide etc., where
Silicon is the most commonly used.
 Gallium arsenide stands as the second-best semiconductor material and is used in solar cells,
laser diodes, microwave frequency integrated circuits etc.
Atomic structure:
 Semiconductors, such as Silicon (Si) are made up of individual atoms bonded together in a
regular, periodic structure to form an arrangement whereby each atom is surrounded by 8
electrons.
 An individual atom consists of a nucleus made up of a core of protons (positively charged
particles) and neutrons (particles having no charge) surrounded by electrons. The number of
electrons and protons is equal, such that the atom is overall electrically neutral.
 The electrons surrounding each atom in a semiconductor are part of a covalent bond. A
covalent bond consists of two atoms "sharing" a pair of electrons. Each atom forms 4
covalent bonds with the 4 surrounding atoms.
 Therefore, between each atom and its 4 surrounding atoms, 8 electrons are being shared. The
structure of a semiconductor is shown in the figure below.
 An individual atom consists of a nucleus made up of protons and neutrons surrounded by
electrons. The number of electrons and protons is equal such that the atom is overall
electrically neutral.
 The electrons surrounding each atom in a semiconductor are part of a covalent bond. A
covalent bond consists of two atoms sharing of pair or couple of electron.
 Each atom forms four covalent bond with four surrounding atoms. Therefore between each
atom and its four surrounding atoms eight electron being shared. The structure of
semiconductor is shown in figure.
Adding impurities to semiconductors, Donor and Acceptor impurity in intrinsic
Germanium

Effect of doping on N-type material:

 On addition of Arsenic to pure silicon the crystal becomes N-type material.

 Arsenic atom has additional electron or negative charge that does not take part in the process
of covalent bond.
 These impurities donate one electron to the crystal and they are referred as donor impurities
 An N-type material has extra free electrons than a intrinsic material.
 Only 0.7eV is required to move for more electrons of valence band into conduction band.
 Electrons are considered to be the majority current carriers and holes are the minority current
carriers.

Effect of doping on P-type material:

 When Indium and Gallium is added to pure semiconductors Silicon and Germanium a P-type
semiconductor material is formed.
 This type of dopant material has three valence electrons.
 In P type material each hole can be filled with an electron and an extra hole hole is remain
vacant.
 The extra hole makes the semiconductor material having greater number of positively
charged ions.

Types of Semiconductors:
Semiconductor may be classified as under:

Intrinsic Semiconductors
An intrinsic semiconductor is one which is made of the semiconductor material in its extremely
pure form. Examples of such semiconductors are: pure germanium and silicon which have
forbidden energy gaps of 0.72 eV and 1.1 eV respectively. The energy gap is so small that even
at ordinary room temperature; there are many electrons which possess sufficient energy to jump
across the small energy Alternatively, an intrinsic semiconductor may be defined as one in
which the number of conduction electrons is equal to the number of holes.
Schematic energy band diagram of an intrinsic semiconductor at room temperatureis shown in
Fig. below.
 a. Extrinsic Semiconductors:
Those intrinsic semiconductors to which some suitable impurity or doping agent or doping has
been added in extremely small amounts (about 1 part in 108) are called extrinsic or impurity
semiconductors. Depending on the type of doping material used, extrinsic semiconductors can
be sub-divided into two classes:
(i) N-type semiconductors and
(ii) P-type semiconductors.
(i) N-type Extrinsic Semiconductor:
This type of semiconductor is obtained when a pentavalent material like antimony (Sb) is
added to pure germanium crystal. As shown in Fig. below, each antimony atom forms covalent
bonds with the surrounding four germanium atoms with the help of four of its five electrons.
The fifth electron is superfluous and is loosely bound to the antimony atom.
Hence, it can be easily excited from the valence band to the conduction band by the
application of electric field or increase in thermal energy. It is seen from the above description

that in N-type semiconductors, electrons are the majority carriers while holes constitute the
minority carriers.

(ii) P-type Extrinsic Semiconductor:

This type of semiconductor is obtained when traces of a trivalent like boron (B) are added to
a pure germanium crystal. In this case, the three valence electrons of boron atom form covalent
bonds with four surrounding germanium atoms but one bond is left incomplete and gives rise
to a hole as shown in Fig. below.
Thus, boron which is called an acceptor impurity causes as many positive holes in a
germanium crystal as there are boron atoms thereby producing a P-type (P for positive)
extrinsic semiconductor. In this type of semiconductor, conduction is by the movement of
holes in the valence band.

Majority and Minority Carriers:

In a piece of pure germanium or silicon, no free charge carriers are available at 0ºK. However,
as its temperature is raised to room temperature, some of the covalent bonds are broken by
heat energy and as a result, electron-hole produced. These are called thermally-generated
charge carriers. They are also known as intrinsically-available charge carriers. Ordinarily, their
number is quite small. An intrinsic of pure germanium can be converted into a P-type
semiconductor by the addition of an acceptor impurity which adds a large number of holes to
it. Hence, a P-type material contains following charge carriers:
(a) Large number of positive holes—most of them being the added impurity holes with only
a very small number of thermally generated ones.
(b) A very small number of thermally-generated electrons (the companions of the thermally
generated holes mentioned above).
Obviously, in a P-type material, the number of holes (both added and thermally- generated) is
much more than that of electrons. Hence, in such a material, holes constitute majority carriers
and electrons form minority carriers as shown in Fig. below (a). Similarly, in an N-type
material, the number of electrons (both added and thermally-generated) is much larger than the
number of thermally-generated holes. Hence, in such a material, electrons are majority carriers
whereas holes are minority carriers as shown in Fig. below (b).