EE 131: Fundamentals of Electronics for Engineers
◼ Ms. Shange E.L
◼ Office: G5 (CoET Block G)
◼ Email:
[email protected]◼ 3 Units Course
◼ Lecture: 3Hrs/week
◼ Tutorial: 1Hr/week
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Course Assessment
◼ UE 60% end of Semester (UE
Timetable)
◼ CW 40%
2 tests: 1st Test (wk 7)
2nd Test (wk 13)
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Semiconductors Materials
Atom
◼ All matters are made of atoms made of electrons, protons
and neutrons
◼ An atom is the smallest particle of an element and each
element has a unique atomic structure
◼ According to Bohr Model, atom structure has central
nucleus and orbiting electrons
◼ Each type of atom has a certain number of electrons and
protons different from atoms of other elements
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Atom
Orbiting
Electrons Nucleus
(- ve)
Protons
(+ve)
Neutrons
(Uncharged)
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Energy Levels
❑ Electrons orbit the nucleus of an atom at
certain distance from the nucleus
❑ Each orbit correspond to a certain energy
level
❑ Electrons near the nucleus has less energy
than those in more distant orbits
❑ The orbits are grouped into energy bands
known as shells
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Energy Levels….
◼ An atom has a fixed number of shells
◼ Each shell has a fixed maximum number of
electrons
◼ The shells are designated K, L, M, N, etc
from the nucleus
◼ Energy differences within shells are much
smaller than the energy differences
between shells
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Energy Levels…..
Energy
Level
Outermost shell
Valence Band
Energy Gaps (No
2nd Band electrons)
1st Band
Nucleus
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Energy Levels….
❑ Electrons in the outermost shell are less
tightly bound to the atom than those closer
to the nucleus because of +(ve) and –(ve)
attraction force
❑ That is electrons with the highest energy
levels are relatively loosely bound to the atom
❑ These valence electrons contribute to the
bonding within the structure of a material
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Ionization
❑ Atom can absorb energy from heat or
light sources
❑ When an electron gains energy it moves
to higher orbit
❑ Electrons in the valence band can easily
jump to higher orbits because they have
more energy and are loosely bound to
the nucleus
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Ionization…..
◼ A valence electron can gain sufficient energy
and removed completely from the influence of
the atom
◼ The process of losing an electron is known as
Ionization
◼ The atom becomes positively charged and it
becomes a positive ion designated H+
◼ The escaped valence electron is called Free
Electron
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Covalent Bonds
❑ When atoms combine to form a solid material
they arrange themselves in a fixed pattern called
a Crystal
❑ Atoms within crystal structure are held together
by Covalent bonds
❑ The bonds are created from interaction of the
valence electrons of the adjacent atoms
❑ Silicon (Si) is one of the materials used to
manufacture electronic devices
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Pure (Intrinsic) Si Crystal
Covalent bonds hold
the atoms together
Si
Si Each shared
electron is attracted
equally by two
Si has 4
adjacent atoms
valence
electrons
Sharing of valence electrons
creates 8 electrons for each
atom. Stable structure
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Conduction in Si Crystal
❑ Pure Silicon crystal at room temperature
absorbs heat energy from surrounding air
❑ Some valence electrons will gain enough
energy and become free electrons
❑ The valence electrons will jump into conduction
band and become conduction electrons
❑ For each electron raised to conduction band a
Hole is left in the valence band
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Conduction in Si Crystal…
Energy
Hole Conduction
Band
Si Valence
Free Band
Electron
2nd Band
Heat
energy 1st Band
Nucleus
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Categories of Materials
Conduction
Band
Conduction
Band Conduction
Band
Overlap
Valence Valence Valence
Band Band Band
Insulator Semiconductor Conductor
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Categories of Materials….
❑ Energy gap for insulators is very wide very few
electrons can jump to conduction band e.g.
rubber, glass, mica, etc
❑ Valence and conduction band for conductors
overlap. There are always conduction electrons
without application of external energy e.g.
cooper, aluminium, etc
❑ Semiconductor has narrower energy gap e.g.
Silicon, germanium
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N-type and P-type
Semiconductors
❑ Semiconductor materials do not conduct well and
they are of little value in their intrinsic (pure)
state
❑ Pure silicon (or germanium) must be modified to
increase the free electrons and holes to increase
its conductivity and make it useful in electronic
devices
❑ This is done by adding impurities to the
semiconductor
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N-type and P-type
Semiconductors….
❑ The process of adding impurities to semiconductor
materials is known as DOPING
❑ Doping produces n-type semiconductor or p-type
semiconductor depending on the type of impurity
used
❑ N-type semiconductor has increased number of
conduction electrons
❑ P-type semiconductor has increased number of
holes
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N-type Semiconductor
❑ To increase the number of electrons pentavalent
atoms are added
❑ Pentavalent atom has five valence electrons
❑ Each pentavalent atom forms covalent bond with
four adjacent silicon atoms
❑ Four of the pentavalent atom valence electrons
are used to form the covalent bond, the extra
electron becomes conduction electron
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N-type Semiconductor….
Free
Electron
(Conduction)
Sb
Antimony (Sb)
Valence
Electrons
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Conduction in N-type
Semiconductor
❑ The number of conduction electrons due to
doping can be controlled by the number of
impurity atoms added to silicon
❑ Doping process does not leave a hole in the
valence band
❑ If the N-type semiconductor is heated, electrons
in the valence band will gain energy and move to
conduction band and leave holes in the valence
band
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Conduction in N-type
Semiconductor….
Electrons from Doping
Conduction
Band
Thermally generated
Electrons
Valence
Band
Thermally generated
Holes
Current is defines as flow electrons
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Conduction in N-type
Semiconductor….
❑ There is conduction due the free electrons in
the conduction band known as Majority
Carriers
❑ Electrons in the valance band can move and
occupy the available few holes. Therefore
holes in the valance band contribute in the
conduction hence known as Minority Carries
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Conduction in N-type
Semiconductor….
❑ For N-type semiconductor Electrons are the
Majority carriers and Holes are the Minority
carries
❑ Examples of pentavalent impurity atoms
include
◼ Arsenic
◼ Phosphorus
◼ Antimony
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P-type Semiconductor
◼ To increase the number of holes trivalent atoms
are added
◼ Trivalent atom has three valence electrons
◼ Each trivalent atom forms covalent bonds with
four adjacent silicon atoms
◼ All three valence electrons are used to form the
covalent bond and since four electrons are
required, a hole is formed with each trivalent
atom
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P-type Semiconductor…
B Hole
Boron (B)
Valence
Electrons
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Conduction in P-type
Semiconductor
◼ The number of holes due to doping can be
controlled by the number of impurity atoms
added to silicon
◼ A hole created by doping is not accompanied by
a conduction (free) electron
◼ If the P-type semiconductor is heated, electrons
in the valence band will gain energy and move to
conduction band and leave holes in the valence
band
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Conduction in P-type
Semiconductor
Thermally generated Electrons
Conduction
Band
Thermally generated Holes
Valence
Band
Holes from Doping
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Conduction in P-type
Semiconductor
◼ For P-type semiconductor Holes are the
Majority carriers and Electrons are the Minority
carries
◼ Examples of trivalent impurity atoms include
◼ Aluminium
◼ Boron
◼ Gallium
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Junction Diodes
◼ The basic use of P-type and N-type semiconductor
materials is in diodes
◼ The PN junction is made of two regions
P-type N-type
P-type N-type
silicon silicon
Doping Holes Doping Electrons
pn-junction Thermal Electrons Thermal Holes
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Junction Diodes…..
❑ The n region has free electrons (majority carriers)
and few thermally generated holes (minority
carriers)
❑ The p region has many holes (majority carries)
and few thermally generated electrons (minority
carriers)
❑ The junction diode is a continuous crystal, free
electrons can move across the junction and fill the
holes
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Junction Diodes….
❑ For each electron that crosses the junction
and recombines with the hole, a pentavalent
atom is left with a net of positive charge
(Positive Ion)
❑ Also when an electron combines with a hole is
the p region, a trivalent atom acquires a net
negative charge (Negative Ion)
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Junction Diodes…..
Depletion
Layer Ions
p n
VB
Depletion region has no carriers therefore it
is an insulator
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Junction Diodes…
◼ The ions form a charge that prevents more
electrons from crossing the junction
◼ The positive and negative ions on opposite
sides of the junction creates a Barrier Voltage
(VB) across the depletion layer
◼ At 25OC Barrier voltage is:
◼ ≈ 0.7 V for Silicon
◼ ≈ 0.3 V for Germanium
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