Semiconductors

Diodes
Materials
Any materials Property is to control the flow of an
electrical current
It includes
Conductors (low resistivity)
 Low Resistance  Allows electrical current flow
Insulators (high resistivity)
 High Resistance  Suppresses electrical current flow
Semi Conductors (medium resistivity)
 Can allow or suppress electrical current flow

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Conductors
• Good conductors have low resistance so
electrons flow through them with ease.
• Best element conductors include:
• Copper, silver, gold, aluminum, &
nickel
• Good conductors can also be liquid:
• Salt water

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Conductor Atomic Structure
Atomic Structure of a good
conductor includes only one
electron in their outer most
shell
It is called Valance Electron
It can be easily removed from
the atom contributing to
current flow

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Insulators
Insulators have a high resistance so current does not
flow in them.
Good insulators include:
– Glass, ceramic, plastics, & wood
Most insulators are compounds of several elements.
The atoms are tightly bound to one another so
electrons are difficult to strip away for current flow.

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Semiconductors
A material whose properties are such that it is not
quite a conductor, not quite an insulator.
Elemental
 Carbon, Silicon and Germanium
Compound
 GaAs - Gallium arsenide
 AlAs - Aluminum arsenide

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Semiconductors – Atomic Structure
The main characteristic of a semiconductor
element is that it has four electrons in its outer or
valence orbit

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Semiconductors – Crystal Lattice

Semiconductor atoms
can link together to form
Crystal Lattice
The links are formed by
means of Covalent Bonds

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Energy band

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Semiconductor – Material Types
Pure Semiconductor
Good Insulator
Intrinsic Semiconductor

Intrinsic Semiconductor Extrinsic Semiconductor

Doping  Addition of Impurities

Extrinsic Semiconductor can conduct current based
on doping concentration

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N-Type
Doping Pentavalent Impurity
Arsenic, Antimony, Bismuth
Additional Valence Electron
left over from bonding with
neighboring atoms
Additional Electron 
Current flow
Majority Charge Carrier 
Electrons

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P-Type
Doping Trivalent Impurity
Boron, Aluminium, Indium
One of the covalent bond shared with the
neighboring atoms is missing one electron  Hole
Hole  current carrier similar to electron to support
current flow
Majority Charge Carrier  Holes

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Diodes
Used in almost all the electronic circuits
Allows current flow in only one direction
(unidirectional device)
The usage of semiconductor materials to build the
electronic components was started with diodes
Before the invention of diode there were with vacuum
tubes, where the applications of both these devices are
similar but the size occupied by the vacuum tube will
be much greater than the diodes

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PN Junction Diode
Join the two types of semi-conductors P-type and N-
type together  P-N junction diode

The arrow indicates the flow of current through it

when the diode is in forward biased mode, the dash or
the block at the tip of the arrow indicates the blockage
of current from the opposite direction

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Junction Formation
When P-type and N-type are joined
 Excess electrons (from N) combines with excess holes (from
P)  Immobile Ions
 Immobile ions resists the flow of electrons or holes through
it which now acts as a barrier in between the two materials
 Barrier  Depletion Region
Width of Depletion region depends on doping
concentration
 When a heavily doped and lightly doped semiconductors are
combined, depletion region will be more in lightly doped side
and less in heavily doped side

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Forward Bias
Battery ‘+’ terminal  P side
Battery ‘-’ terminal  N side
Due to forward bias, majority charge carriers in both
regions get repelled and enter into the depletion region
Diode conducts when the barrier formed in the path is
broken
Applied voltage > 0.7 V (for silicon), 0.3 V (for germanium)
 Width of the depletion region decreases gradually

0.7 V  Cut-in voltage; Offset voltage; Break-point voltage;

firing voltage; Threshold voltage

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Reverse Bias
Battery ‘-’ terminal  P side
Battery ‘+’ terminal  N side
Majority charge carriers in both regions get attracted towards source 
large numbers of immobile ions
Width of the depletion region increases gradually  difficult for the
electrons and holes to cross the junction  open circuit forms and
current flow stops
When Vapplied increased  depletion region cannot withhold the
external force and the junction breaks down  diode permanently fails
The reverse voltage at which the diode conducts is called as Break down
voltage

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Diode Characteristics

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Diode Current
PN junction current is given approximately by

where I is the current, e is the electronic charge, V is

the applied voltage, k is Boltzmann’s constant, T is the
absolute temperature and η (Greek letter eta) is a
constant in the range 1 to 2 determined by the junction
material
for most purposes we can assume η = 1

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Diode models
We usually replace a device or system by its equivalent
circuit. An equivalent circuit of a device (e.g. crystal
diode, transistor etc.) is a combination of electric
elements, when connected in a circuit, acts exactly as
does the device when connected in the same circuit.
Equivalent circuit of a diode
Ideal diode
Constant voltage drop model

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Ideal diode
The diode conducts well in the forward direction and
poorly in the reverse direction. Ideally, a diode acts like a
perfect conductor (zero resistance) when forward Biased
and like a perfect insulator (infinite resistance) when
reverse biased
An ordinary switch has zero resistance when closed and
infinite resistance when open. Therefore, an ideal diode
acts like a switch that closes when forward biased and
opens when reverse biased.
The Ideal diode model treats a forward-biased diode like a
closed switch with a voltage drop of zero volts

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Constant voltage drop model
Figure a shows a current versus voltage for Constant voltage drop
model.
No current - until 0.7 V appear across the diode. When the voltage
reaches 0.7 v the diode turns on, 0.7 V can appear across the diode.
Figure b shows the equivalent circuit for the Constant voltage drop
model a silicon diode. The diode act as a switch in series with a barrier
potential of 0.7 V.
If the voltage across the diode is greater than 0.7 V, the switch will
close. On the other hand, if the voltage is less than 0.7 V, the switch
will open. In this case, there is no current through the diode.

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Diode models

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Problem
Calculate the forward bias current of a Si diode when forward
bias voltage of 0.4V is applied, the reverse saturation current is
1.17×10-9A and the thermal voltage is 25.2mV.
Solution
Equation for diode current
I=Is×(e(V/ηVT)-1)
where Is = reverse saturation current
η = ideality factor
VT = thermal voltage
V = applied voltage
Since in this question ideality factor is not mentioned it can be
taken as one.
I0 = 1.17 x 10-9A, VT = 0.0252V, η = 1, V = 0.4V
Therefore, I= 1.17×10-9x e 0.4/0.025 -1 = 9.156mA 24
Diode parameters
Maximum power rating.
It is the maximum power that can be dissipated at the
junction without damaging it..
Maximum forward current.
It is the highest instantaneous forward current that a pn
junction can conduct without damage to the junction.
Peak inverse voltage.
It is the maximum reverse voltage that a diode can
withstand without destroying the junction.

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Diode parameters
Knee Voltage
In the forward region, the voltage at which the current
starts to increase rapidly is called the knee voltage or Cut
in voltage of the diode. The knee voltage equals the barrier
potential
Vk= 0.7 (Si)
Vk= 0.3 (Ge)
Reverse current or leakage current.
It is the current that flows through a reverse biased diode.

This current is due to the minority carriers.

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Problem
Use the ideal diode model to calculate the load voltage
and load current in the circuit.

Since the diode is forward biased, it is equivalent to a

closed switch. :
Vs= 10 V
With Ohm’s law, the load current is:

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Problem
Use Constant voltage drop model to calculate the load
voltage and load current,
Solution
Since the diode is forward biased, it is equivalent to a
battery of 0.7 V.
VL =10 V - 0.7 V =9.3 V
With Ohm’s law, the load current is:

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Problem
For the series diode configuration given in the Figure,
determine VD, VR, and ID.(Constant voltage drop
model)
The diode is in the “on” state,

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Thank You

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