SEMICONDUCTOR

FUNDAMENTALS
 SEMICONDUCTOR MATERIALS
Semiconductors are special class of elements having a conductivity between that
of a good conductor.
2 Classes of semiconductor materials:
1. Single Crystal
1. Silicon (Si)
2. Germanium (Ge)

2. Compound
1. Gallium Arsenide (GaAs)
2. Cadmium Sulfide (CdS)
3. Gallium Nitride (GaN)
4. Gallium Arsenide Phosphide (GaAsP)
* The three semiconductors used most frequently in the construction of electronic devices are Ge, Si
and GaAs.
 SEMICONDUCTOR MATERIALS
Germanium (Ge)
- It was widely used in 1939 because it is relatively easy to find and available in
fairly large quantities and its purity level is high but it the change in temperature
affects it greatly.
Silicon (Si)
- After the discovery of silicon, it is found out that the sensitivity of this elements to
change in temperature is low and it is widely available than germanium. Until
now, silicon is the most used element as semiconductor.
Gallium Arsenide (GaAs)
- Used for high speed purposes in computers and communications however, it is
more expensive, was more difficult to manufacture at high levels of purity,
 SEMICONDUCTOR MATERIALS

Covalent Bonding and Intrinsic Materials

 SEMICONDUCTOR MATERIALS
Covalent Bonding and Intrinsic Materials
Terminologies:
Atomic Mass – the sum of the protons and neutrons of an atom.
Atomic number - The atomic number or proton number of a chemical element is the number of
protons found in the nucleus of every atom of that element. The atomic number uniquely identifies a
chemical element. It is identical to the charge number of the nucleus.
Valence Electron - a valence electron is an outer shell electron that is associated with an atom, and
that can participate in the formation of a chemical bond if the outer shell is not closed; in a single
covalent bond, both atoms in the bond contribute one valence electron in order to form a shared
pair.
Covalent Bonding - also called a molecular bond, is a chemical bond that involves the sharing of
electron pairs between atoms. These electron pairs are known as shared pairs or bonding pairs,
and the stable balance of attractive and repulsive forces between atoms, when they share electrons,
is known as covalent bonding.
 SEMICONDUCTOR MATERIALS
Intrinsic Materials - An intrinsic (pure) semiconductor, also called an
undoped semiconductor or i-type semiconductor, is a pure semiconductor without any
significant dopant species present. The number of charge carriers is therefore determined by the
properties of the material itself instead of the amount of impurities.

Doping – Adding of impurities.

 SEMICONDUCTOR MATERIALS

Number of Valence Electrons

Conductor 1
Semiconductor 4
Insulator 8
 SEMICONDUCTOR MATERIALS
- Atoms with 4 valence electrons are called TETRAVALENT.
- Atoms with 3 valence electrons are called TRIVALENT.
- Atoms with 5 valence electrons are called PENTAVALENT.
The term valence is used to indicate that the potential required to remove any one of
these electrons from the atomic structure is significantly lower than that required for
any other electron in the structure.
 COVALENT BONDING

This bonding of atoms, strengthened

by the
Sharing of electrons, is called
covalent bonding.
The ability to change the characteristics of a material by adding impurities is called
DOPING.
- In Conductors, the resistance increases as the temperature increases, because the
number of carriers do not increases significantly as the temperature. Conductors is
said to have a positive temperature coefficient.
- In semiconductors, the number of carriers increases as the temperature increases, so
it exhibits to a high conductivity with an increase in temperature, therefore it is said
to have a negative temperature coefficient.
ENERGY LEVELS
 ENERGY LEVELS

- The farther an electron is from the nucleus, the higher is the energy state, and any
electron that has left its parent atom has higher energy state than any electron in the
atomic structure.
Semiconductor Energy Gap
Ge 0.67 eV
Si 1.1 eV
GaAs 1.43 eV

An electron in the valence band of silicon must absorb more energy than one in the valence
band of germanium to become a free carrier. Similarly, an electron in the valence band of gallium
arsenide must gain more energy than one in silicon or germanium to enter the conduction band.
 EXTRINSIC MATERIALS

• A semiconductor material that has been subjected to the doping

process is called an extrinsic material.

2 Types of Extrinsic Materials:

1. p-Type
2. n-Type
 N-TYPE MATERIAL

• N-type material is introduced by adding impurities called the pentavalent elements

or elements with 5 valence electrons.
• Pentavalent elements are: ANTIMONY (Sb), ARSENIC (As) and POSPHORUS (P)
• Diffused impurities with five valence electros are called donor atoms.
P-TYPE MATERIAL