Methods Of Doping

Doping is the process of adding impurities to intrinsic semiconductors to alter

their properties.
To introduce dopants belonging to Group 13 or Group 15 into a crystal of an
intrinsic semiconductor, the following methods are adopted:
i) The impurity atoms are added to the semiconductor in its molten state.
ii) The pure semiconductor is bombarded by ions of impurity atoms
accelerated to high velocities.
iii) The impurity atoms diffuse into the hot crystal, when in the semiconductor
crystal container the impurity atoms are heated

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 N type Semiconductors
• It is made by adding an impurity in parts per million to a pure
semiconductor such as Silicon or Germanium.
• The impurities used  belong to Group 15 i.e pentavalent impurities.
• Eg.Phosphorus, Arsenic, Antimony, Bismuth called donor impurities.
• Pentavalent elements have five electrons in their outer shell.
• The atoms of the pentavalent impurities replace few of the Si or Ge atoms
in the crystal lattice.
• Four of the pentavalent impurities' electrons form bonds with the
surrounding silicon atoms (4 Si atoms). This leaves one electron free. The
resulting material has a large number of free electrons.
• The pentavalent impurity is called a donor because it gives a free electron to a
semiconductor.
• The energy level of the donated (TO BE ) electrons is represented by a dotted line
just below Ec
• The purpose of doping with Group 15 elements is to make more charge carriers,
i.e electrons available in the material for conduction. This makes the final material a
lot more conductive than the original Silicon or Germanium.
• No. of free electrons ( ne) >> No. of holes ( nh)
• Electrons which possess –ve nature are hence hailed as majority charge carriers
while holes which possess +ve nature become minority charge carriers.
• Pentavalent doped semiconductors are N type extrinsic semiconductors.
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 P type Semiconductors
• It is made by adding an impurity to a pure semiconductor such as Silicon or
Germanium.
• The impurities used  belong to Group 13 i.e trivalent impurities.
• Eg. Boron (B), Gallium (Ga), Indium(In), Aluminium(Al) called Acceptor impurities.
• Trivalent elements have three electrons in their outer shell.
• The atoms of the pentavalent impurities replace few of the Si or Ge atoms in the
crystal lattice.
• This impurity will only be able to contribute three valence electrons to the lattice, i.e
can form bonds with 3 of the 4 surrounding (neighbouring) Si atoms. Therefore one
excess hole corresponding to the incomplete covalent bond is contributed to the
crystal.
• The resulting material has a large number of free holes.
• Since holes will "accept" free electrons, a Group 3 impurity is also called an acceptor.

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• The energy level of the donated (TO BE ) holes is represented by a
dotted line just above Ev.
• The purpose of doping with Group 13 elements is to make more
charge carriers, i.e holes available in the material for conduction. This
makes the final material a lot more conductive than the original Silicon
or Germanium.
• No. of holes (nh) >> No. free electrons ( ne)
• Holes which possess +ve nature are hence hailed as majority charge
carriers while electrons which possess -ve nature become minority
charge carriers.
• Trivalent doped semiconductors are P type extrinsic semiconductors.

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ENERGY BAND DIAGRAMS OF EXTRINSIC SEMICONDUCTOR

• Energy band diagram of n-type semiconductor.

• Energy state due to donor impurity is
represented by ED
• Energy level of the donor (ED) is lower than
that of the conduction band (EC).

• Energy band diagram of p-type semiconductor.

• Energy state due to acceptor impurity is
represented by EA
• Energy level of the acceptor (EA) is higher than
that of the valence band (EV)

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 Neutral Nature of Extrinsic semiconductor
• A P type or N type semiconductor is still electrically neutral even though the
no. of holes is not equal to no. of free electrons in them.
TO UNDERSTAND THIS, LET US TAKE THE EXAMPLE OF P TYPE SEMICONDUCTOR

• The neighboring Si atom in the lattice wants an electron in place of a hole.

• Hence an electron in the outer orbit of an atom in the neighborhood may
jump to fill this vacancy, leaving a vacancy or hole at its own site.

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• The trivalent foreign atom ( trivalent atom) becomes effectively
negatively charged when the incomplete covalent bond with the
neighboring fourth Si atom is filled with an electron.
• A hole is created in the bond from which this electron had come.
• The fixed acceptor (trivalent) atoms, having accepted electrons, become
negative.
• The dopant atom of P-type material can be treated as core of one
negative charge along with its associated hole.
• So a P-type semiconductor is electrically neutral.
• When a pentavalent impurity atom is added to a pure semiconductor to
make it n-type semiconductor, it donates one free electron to the
crystal, leaving a positive charge on the donor atom, the donated
electron remains in the crystal in free state.
• As the charge on the donor ion is equal and opposite to the charge of
the electron, the crystal itself remains electrically neutral.  

CONCLUSION:
The crystal maintains an overall charge neutrality as the charge of
additional charge carriers is just equal and opposite to that of the ionised
cores in the lattice.
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PN DIODES

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 PN JUNCTION FORMATION
• A p-n junction is the basic building block of many semiconductor devices
like diodes, transistor, etc.
• Consider a thin p-type Silicon (p-Si) semiconductor wafer. By adding
precisely a small quantity of pentavalent impurity, part of the p-Si wafer
can be converted into n-Si .
• The wafer now contains p-region and n-region and a metallurgical
junction between p- and n- region.
(If we use different semiconductor materials to make a p-n junction instead
of the above process, there will be a grain boundary that would inhibit the
movement of electrons from one side to the other by scattering the electrons
and holes).
• A p-n junction is an interface or a boundary between two
semiconductor material types, namely the p-type and the n-type, inside
a semiconductor.

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 THE TWO PROCESSES IN A PN DIODE
The processes that follow after the formation of a p-n junction are of two types
– diffusion and drift.
NOTE : In an n-type semiconductor, the concentration of electrons (number of
electrons per unit volume) is more compared to the concentration of holes. In a
p-type semiconductor, the concentration of holes is more than the concentration
of electrons.
1. Due to the concentration gradient of majority charge carriers across p-and
n- sides, majority carriers holes diffuse from p-side to n-side (p → n) and
majority carriers electrons diffuse from n-side to p-side (n → p). This motion
of charge carries gives rise to diffusion current across the junction.

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 P Ei N

Free
holes electrons

Always free electrons move opposite to the direction of an Electric Field

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2. When electrons diffuses from n → p, they leave behind a layer of immobile
positively charged ionised donors on n-side of the junction. Similarly, when holes
diffuse from p → n , they leave behind a layer of immobile negatively charged ionised
acceptors (negative charge) on p-side of the junction.
3. This sets up a space-charge region on either side of the junction together known as
depletion region.
4. Due to the positive space-charge region on n-side of the junction and negative
space charge region on p-side of the junction, an electric field directed from
positive charges (present on the n side) towards negative charges (present on the p
side) develops.
5. The electric field increases in strength due to diffusion current.
6. Due to this internal electric field, minority charges , the -ve electrons on p-side of
the junction moves to n-side and minority charges , +ve holes on n-side of the
junction moves to p-side.
7. The motion of minority charge carriers due to the electric field sets up drift
current opposite to diffusion current in the diode.
8. Initially, diffusion current is large and drift current is small.
9. But as the process continues, the decreasing diffusion current equals the
increasing drift current.
10. A p-n junction is thus formed in which under equilibrium there is no net current.
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The loss of electrons from the n-region and the gain of electrons by the p-
region causes a difference of potential across the junction of the two regions.
The polarity of this potential is such as to oppose further flow of carriers.

This potential tends to prevent the movement of electron from the n

region into the p region and is often called barrier potential.
Value of VB or V0 for
Si is 0.7 V
Ge is 0.2 V

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 DEFINITIONS
• DIFFUSION CURRENT – Current arising due to movement of majority
charge carriers across PN junction.

• DRIFT CURRENT - Current that arises due to movement of minority

charge carriers across PN junction.

• DEPLETION REGION – The space charge region on either side of junction

in a PN diode which contains only immobile ions and no mobile charge
carriers.
• POTENTIAL BARRIER - It is the potential drop established as a result of
formation of depletion layer which is caused by the diffusion of majority
charge carriers across a pn junction. This potential opposes diffusion of
majority charge carriers across pn junction.

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