Chapter 0:

Semiconductor Materials
Nguyen Dang Phu , PhD
Faculty of Electronics and Telecommunications,
VNU-University of Engineering and Technology
Email: phund@vnu.edu.vn

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Outline
• Recall: the atom
• Materials used in electronics
• Current in Semiconductors
• N-type and P-type Semiconductors
• The PN-junction

Textbook: Thomas L. Floyd, Electronic devices, 9th edition, Prentice Hall (Section 1)

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 Recall: the atom • Valence electrons: outermost shell is known
as the valence shell, and electrons in this
shell are called valence electrons.
• Ionization: if a valence electron acquires a
• Atomic number: equals to the number of
sufficient amount of energy, called ionization
protons in the nucleus
energy, it can escape from the outer shell
• Electron shells and Orbits
and the atom’s influence. The process of
 Orbit: Electrons orbits the nucleus of an
Hydrogen atom losing a valence electron is known as
atom at certain distances from the nucleus.
ionization and the resulting positively
 Energy levels: each orbit corresponds to a
charged atom is called a positive ion.
certain energy levels. The orbits are
grouped into energy levels called as shells.
 Maximum number of electrons in each shell:
Ne=2n2, where n is the number of the shell.
Helium atom
o Shell 1: Ne=2(1)2=2
o Shell 2: Ne=2(2)2=8
o Shell 3: Ne=2(3)2=18
Energy increases o Shell 4: Ne=2(4)2=32
as the distance Bohr model
from the nucleus of an atom
increases
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 Materials used in electronics
• Conductors: are materials that easily conduct electrical current. The best conductors are
single-element materials, such as Cu, Ag, Au, Al.
• Insulators: are materials that do not conduct
electrical current under normal conditions.
Most good insulators are compounds rather
than single-element materials.
• Semiconductors: are materials that are
between conductors and insulators in its
ability to conduct electrical current. The
single-element semiconductors are
characterized by atoms with four valence
electrons.
Energy diagrams for three types of materials
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Materials used in electronics
• Comparison of a semiconductor atom and a conductor atom

Silicon atom Copper atom Silicon atom Germanium atom

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Materials used in electronics
• Covalent bonds:

Center silicon atom shares an electron with Bonding diagram: the red
each of four surrounding silicon atoms, negative signs represent the
creating a covalent bond with each. shared valence electrons.
Covalent bonds in a silicon crystal
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Current in Semiconductors
• Conduction electrons and holes

Energy diagram
Bonding diagram

Electron-hole pair Energy band diagram for an unexcited atom

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in a pure silicon crystal
Current in Semiconductors
• Electron and hole current

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 N-type and P-type Semiconductors
• Intrinsic semiconductive materials do not conduct current
well because of the limited number of free electrons in the
conduction band and the holes in the valence band.
• Doping: addition of impurities to the intrinsic semiconductive
materials can drastically increase their conductivity (number of
current carriers: electrons or holes)
• N-type semiconductor: to increase the number of conduction-
band electrons in intrinsic silicon, pentavalent impurity atoms
(having five valence electrons) are added such as arsenic (As),
phosphorus (P), bismuth(Bi), and antimony (Sb).
 Majority carriers: electrons
 Minority carriers: holes
The pentavalent atom gives up an
electron, it is often called a donor atom

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 N-type and P-type Semiconductors
• P-type Semiconductor: to increase the number of
holes in intrinsic silicon, trivalent impurity atoms
(having three valence electrons) are added such as
boron (B), indium (In), and gallium (Ga).

 Majority carriers: holes

 Minority carriers: electrons

The trivalent atom can take an electron, it is

often referred to as an acceptor atom
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 The PN junction
• When take a block of silicon and dope part of it with a trivalent impurity and the other part with a
pentavalent impurity, a boundary called the pn junction is formed between the resulting p-type
and n-type portions.

The basic silicon structure at the instant of junction formation showing For every electron that diffuses across the junction and combines with a holes, a
only the majority and minority carriers. Free electrons in the n region positive charge is left in the n region and a negative charge is created in the p
near the pn junction begin to diffuse across the junction and fall into region, forming a barrier potential. This action continuous until the voltage of
holes near the junction in the p region. the barrier repels further diffusion. The blue arrows between the positive and
negative charges in the depletion region represent the electric field.
The PN junction
• Energy diagrams of the pn junction and depletion region
“Energy Hill”

At the instant of junction formation At equilibrium 12