Semiconductor Devices

(BTech 5th Sem)

Lecture 4: Conductivity and Mobility

Instructor:
Dr. Anirban Bhowal
Assistant Professor
Dept. of ECE
NIT Rourkela
Email: bhowala@iiitnr.edu.in
 Carrier Drift
• The process in which charged particles move because of an electric field is
called drift.
• Charged particles within a semiconductor move with an average velocity
proportional to the electric field.
• The proportionality constant is the carrier mobility.

 
Hole velocity
vh   p E
 
Electron velocity ve    n E

Notation:
p  hole mobility (cm2/V·s)
n  electron mobility (cm2/V·s)
 Velocity Saturation
• In reality, carrier velocities saturate at an upper limit, called the
saturation velocity (vsat).

0

1  bE
0
vsat 
b
0
v  E
0 E
1
vsat
 Drift Current
• Drift current is proportional to the carrier velocity and
carrier concentration:

Total current Jp,drift= Q/t

Q= total charge contained in the

volume shown to the right
t= time taken by Q to cross the
volume

Q=ep(in cm3)X Volume=epAL=epAvht

 Hole current per unit area (i.e. current density) Jp,drift = e p vh

 Conductivity and Resistivity
• In a semiconductor, both electrons and holes conduct
current:
J p ,drift  ep p E J n ,drift  en(  n E )
J tot ,drift  J p ,drift  J n ,drift  ep p E  en n E
J tot ,drift  e( p p  n n ) E  E

• The conductivity of a semiconductor is

• Unit: mho/cm   ep p  en n
• The resistivity of a semiconductor is
• Unit: ohm-cm 1


 Resistivity Example

• Estimate the resistivity of a Si sample doped with phosphorus to a

concentration of 1015 cm-3 and boron to a concentration of 6x1017 cm-3.
Mobility vs Temperature
 Diffusion Current
• Non-uniform doping in semiconductors
• To maintain uniformity, flow of charge carriers from higher concentration area
to lower concentration area
• Diffusion current occurs without external voltage or field
• Direction same or reverse to that of drift current

n type semiconductor diffusion process

 Calculation of Diffusion Current
• Concentration Gradient for n type:
dn Dn, Dp- Diffusion coefficients
Jn 
dx
• Concentration Gradient for p type:
dp
Jp 
dx
• Diffusion current density due to electrons
dn
J n  eDn
dx
• Diffusion current density due to holes
dp
J p  eD p
dx
 Calculation of Total Current
• Overall diffusion density w.r.t. electrons:
dn
J n  en n E  eDn
dx
• Overall diffusion density w.r.t. holes:
dp
J p  ep p E  eD p
dx
• Overall current density:

J  Jn  J p
 Difference Between Drift and Diffusion Current
Drift Current Diffusion Current
Applied electric field causes movement of charge Movement of charge carriers occurs in the absence of
carriers electric field due to concentration gradient
Requires electrical energy Some amount of external energy is sufficient to initiate
the process
Obeys Ohm’s law Do not obey Ohm’s law
Direction of drift current and electric field will be the Direction of diffusion current decided by the
same concentration of the carrier gradient
Depends on permittivity Independent of permittivity
Non-Uniformly Doped Semiconductor

• The position of EF relative to the band edges is determined by the

carrier concentrations, which is determined by the net dopant
concentration.
• In equilibrium EF is constant; therefore, the band-edge energies vary
with position in a non-uniformly doped semiconductor:
Potential Difference due to n(x), p(x)

• The ratio of carrier densities at two points depends exponentially on

the potential difference between these points:
 n1   n1 
EF  Ei1  kT ln    Ei1  EF  kT ln  
 ni   ni 
 n2 
Similarly, Ei2  EF  kT ln  
 ni 
  n2   n1   n2 
Therefore Ei1  Ei2  kT ln    ln    kT ln  
  ni   ni   n1 
kT  n2 
V2  V1  Ei1  Ei2  
1
ln  
q q  n1 
 Ev(x)

Built-In Electric Field due to n(x), p(x)

Ef

• Consider a piece of a non-uniformly

E (x) doped semiconductor:
c

 ( Ec  E F ) / kT
n  Nce
n-type semiconductor
dn N dE
  c e ( Ec  EF ) / kT c
Decreasing donor concentration dx kT dx
n dEc

kT dx
n
 qε
kT
Einstein Relationship

• In equilibrium there is no net flow of electrons or holes

Jn = 0 and Jp = 0
 The drift and diffusion current components must balance each
other exactly. (A built-in electric field exists, such that the drift
current exactly cancels out the diffusion current due to the
concentration gradient.)
dn dp
J n  qn n ε  qDn 0 J p  qp p ε  qD p 0
dx dx