ELE 1104

Lecture 8
 The Semiconductor Junction Diode
• Recall from previous lectures

– What semiconductors are

– Concentration levels of carriers

– Fermi Level

– Diffusion / drift current

– Doping

– P and n type dopants

 PN Junction Diode
• Why is silicon preferred to other semiconductors for
the manufacture of PN junction diodes?

• Formed by doping one side of a piece of silicon with

P-type dopant (acceptor impurity atoms) and the
other side with an N-type dopant (donor atoms)

• A metallurgical junction is the interface that

separates the 2 regions.
 PN illustrations
(a) Simplified
geometry of a pn
junction

(b) doping profile of

an ideal uniformly
doped pn junction.

Source : Neamen
 Recall
• For n type semiconductors;

Conduction band is above the

Fermi level.

(𝐸𝑐 −𝐸𝐹 )
−
𝑛 = 𝑁𝑐 𝑒 𝑘𝑇

Where ; 𝑁𝑐 - effective density of

conduction band states
What happens when you join p-doped and n-doped
pieces of semiconductor together?
• Initially, at the metallurgical junction, there is a very
large density gradient in both electron and hole
concentrations.
• Major carrier electrons in the n region start to diffuse
in the p region, and majority carrier holes in the p
region begin to diffuse into the n region until
equilibrium is achieved.
• Therefore, the position of the Fermi level must be
same in both p and n sides resulting in band
bending.
Band bending when P and N doped pieces of the
semiconductor are joined together
.

• As the electrons diffuse into the p-type material, they

recombine with the holes and as the holes diffuse
into the n-type material, the recombine with the
electrons.

• Eventually in the vicinity of the metallurgical

junction all free carriers will be depleted leaving
stripped ions (net positive and negative charges)
behind which produce an electric field across the
junction in the direction from +ve to –ve (i.e., from
the n to the p region)
Movement of carriers in a PN junction
 .
• Electric field opposes further diffusion of charge carriers → no
more movement in the middle region.

• In thermal equilibrium, the diffusion force and the electric field

exactly balance each other). This region is known as the
depletion layer or space charge region.
PN Junction Diode Theory
There are three possible biasing conditions for the PN
junction diode;

• Zero bias – No external voltage applied across the PN

junction diode.

• Forward bias – an external voltage is applied and

connected positively to the P type terminal and
negatively to the N type terminal of the diode.

• Reverse bias - an external voltage is applied and

connected negatively to the P type terminal and
positively to the N type terminal of the diode.
Zero Biased condition
• We shall consider a junction in thermal equilibrium
where no currents exist and no external voltage is
applied.
• We shall determine built-in potential, space charge
region width and the electric field through the
depletion region.
Assumptions:
• Boltzmann approximation is valid, i.e, each semiconductor
region is non-degenerately doped.
• Complete ionization exists, therefore, the temperature of the pn
junction is not “too low.”
Built-in Potential

• The built-in potential in a semiconductor equals the

potential across the depletion region in thermal
equilibrium and is denoted as Vbi. Since thermal
equilibrium implies that the fermi energy is constant
throughout the p-n diode, the internal potential must
equal the difference between the fermi energies of each
region.

• Simply put, built –in potential is the difference of the

Fermi levels in p-and n-type semiconductors before they
were joined.
Built-in Potential Illustrations
Built-in Potential
• Built-in potential equals the sum of the bulk potentials of
each region, since the bulk potential quantifies the
distance between the fermi energy and the intrinsic
energy. This yields the following expression for the built-
in potential;

Recall
Built-in Potential
• From the built-in potential illustration;

• Substitute in equation 1
 Built-in Potential
• Nd and Na denote the net donor and acceptor
concentrations in the individual n and p regions,
respectively ( usually in /𝑐𝑚3). If the p region, for example,
is a compensated material, then Na will represent the
difference between the actual acceptor and donor impurity
concentrations. The parameter Nd is defined in a similar
manner for the n region.

• Please note that the standard unit for Built in potential is

volts.
Volt = Joules / Coulomb
Exercise
 References
• S.O. Kasap, Principles of Electronic Materials and
Devices, 3rd Edition (Read Chapter 6)

• Donald A. Neamen, Semiconductor Physics and

Devices, Basic Principles, 4th Ed (Read Chapter 7)