Semiconductor: 1 Properties
Semiconductor: 1 Properties
Semiconductor: 1 Properties
For devices using semiconductors and their his- 20th century. The rst practical application of semicontory, see Semiconductor device. For other uses, see ductors in electronics was the 1904 development of the
Semiconductor (disambiguation).
Cats-whisker detector, a primitive semiconductor diode
widely used in early radio receivers. Developments in
quantum physics in turn allowed the development of the
Semiconductors are crystalline or amorphous solids
[3]
[1]
with distinct electrical characteristics. They are of transistor in 1947 and the integrated circuit in 1958.
high resistance higher than typical resistance materials, but still of much lower resistance than insulators.
Their resistance decreases as their temperature increases, 1 Properties
which is behavior opposite to that of a metal. Finally, their conducting properties may be altered in use- Variable conductivity Semiconductors in their natural
state are poor conductors because a current requires
ful ways by the deliberate, controlled introduction of
the ow of electrons, and semiconductors have their
impurities ("doping") into the crystal structure, which
valence bands lled, preventing the entry ow of
lowers its resistance but also permits the creation of
new electrons. There are several developed techsemiconductor junctions between dierently-doped reniques that allow semiconducting materials to begions of the extrinsic semiconductor crystal. The behavhave like conducting materials, such as doping or
ior of charge carriers which include electrons, ions and
gating. These modications have two outcomes:
electron holes at these junctions is the basis of diodes,
n-type and p-type. These refer to the excess or
transistors and all modern electronics.
shortage of electrons, respectively. An unbalanced
Semiconductor devices can display a range of useful
number of electrons would cause a current to ow
properties such as passing current more easily in one dithrough the material.[4]
rection than the other, showing variable resistance, and
sensitivity to light or heat. Because the electrical prop- Heterojunctions Heterojunctions occur when two diferties of a semiconductor material can be modied by
ferently doped semiconducting materials are joined
doping, or by the application of electrical elds or light,
together. For example, a conguration could consist
devices made from semiconductors can be used for amof p-doped and n-doped germanium. This results
plication, switching, and energy conversion.
in an exchange of electrons and holes between the
dierently doped semiconducting materials. The
The modern understanding of the properties of a semin-doped germanium would have an excess of elecconductor relies on quantum physics to explain the move[2]
trons, and the p-doped germanium would have an
ment of charge carriers in a crystal lattice. Doping
excess of holes. The transfer occurs until equilibgreatly increases the number of charge carriers within the
rium is reached by a process called recombination,
crystal. When a doped semiconductor contains mostly
which causes the migrating electrons from the nfree holes it is called "p-type", and when it contains
type to come in contact with the migrating holes
mostly free electrons it is known as "n-type". The semifrom the p-type. A product of this process is
conductor materials used in electronic devices are doped
charged ions, which result in an electric eld.[2][4]
under precise conditions to control the concentration and
regions of p- and n-type dopants. A single semiconduc- Excited Electrons A dierence in electric potential on
tor crystal can have many p- and n-type regions; the pn
a semiconducting material would cause it to leave
junctions between these regions are responsible for the
thermal equilibrium and create a non-equilibrium
useful electronic behavior.
situation. This introduces electrons and holes to
the system, which interact via a process called
Although some pure elements and many compounds disambipolar diusion. Whenever thermal equilibplay semiconductor properties, silicon, germanium, and
rium is disturbed in a semiconducting material, the
compounds of gallium are the most widely used in elecamount of holes and electrons changes. Such disruptronic devices. Elements near the so-called "metalloid
tions can occur as a result of a temperature dierstaircase, where the metalloids are located on the perience or photons, which can enter the system and creodic table, are usually used as semiconductors.
ate electrons and holes. The process that creates and
Some of the properties of semiconductor materials were
annihilates electrons and holes are called generation
observed throughout the mid 19th and rst decades of the
and recombination.[4]
1
2 MATERIALS
Light emission In certain semiconductors, excited electrons can relax by emitting light instead of producing heat.[5] These semiconductors are used in the
construction of light emitting diodes and uorescent
quantum dots.
Thermal energy conversion Semiconductors
have
large thermoelectric power factors making them
useful in thermoelectric generators, as well as high
thermoelectric gures of merit making them useful
in thermoelectric coolers.[6]
Materials
2.1
Main article: List of semiconductor materials
A large number of elements and compounds have semi-
3.2
3
3.1
Physics of semiconductors
3
trons via that state. The energies of these quantum states
are critical, since a state is partially lled only if its energy
is near the Fermi level (see FermiDirac statistics).
High conductivity in a material comes from it having
many partially lled states and much state delocalization.
Metals are good electrical conductors and have many partially lled states with energies near their Fermi level.
Insulators, by contrast, have few partially lled states,
their Fermi levels sit within band gaps with few energy
states to occupy. Importantly, an insulator can be made
to conduct by increasing its temperature: heating provides energy to promote some electrons across the band
gap, inducing partially lled states in both the band of
states beneath the band gap (valence band) and the band
of states above the band gap (conduction band). An (intrinsic) semiconductor has a band gap that is smaller than
that of an insulator and at room temperature signicant
numbers of electrons can be excited to cross the band
gap.[10]
A pure semiconductor, however, is not very useful, as it is
Energy bands and electrical conduc- neither a very good insulator nor a very good conductor.
tion
However, one important feature of semiconductors (and
The partial lling of the states at the bottom of the conduction band can be understood as adding electrons to
that band. The electrons do not stay indenitely (due
to the natural thermal recombination) but they can move
around for some time. The actual concentration of electrons is typically very dilute, and so (unlike in metals)
it is possible to think of the electrons in the conduction
band of a semiconductor as a sort of classical ideal gas,
where the electrons y around freely without being subject to the Pauli exclusion principle. In most semiconductors the conduction bands have a parabolic dispersion
relation, and so these electrons respond to forces (elec-
PHYSICS OF SEMICONDUCTORS
5
( an electron hole) is created, which can move around
the lattice and functions as a charge carrier. Group V
elements have ve valence electrons, which allows them
to act as a donor; substitution of these atoms for silicon creates an extra free electron. Therefore, a silicon
crystal doped with boron creates a p-type semiconductor
whereas one doped with phosphorus results in an n-type
material.
Agreement between theoretical predictions (based on developing quantum mechanics) and experimental results
was sometimes poor. This was later explained by John
Bardeen as due to the extreme structure sensitive behavior of semiconductors, whose properties change dramatically based on tiny amounts of impurities.[18] Commercially pure materials of the 1920s containing varying
proportions of trace contaminants produced diering experimental results. This spurred the development of improved material rening techniques, culminating in modern semiconductor reneries producing materials with
parts-per-trillion purity.
The history of the understanding of semiconductors begins with experiments on the electrical properties of materials. The properties of negative temperature coecient of resistance, rectication, and light-sensitivity were
observed starting in the early 19th century.
Devices using semiconductors were at rst constructed
Thomas Johann Seebeck was the rst to notice an ef- based on empirical knowledge, before semiconductor
fect due to semiconductors, in 1821.[13] In 1833, Michael theory provided a guide to construction of more capable
Faraday reported that the resistance of specimens of and reliable devices.
silver sulde decreases when they are heated. This is
contrary to the behavior of metallic substances such as
copper. In 1839, A. E. Becquerel reported observation of a voltage between a solid and a liquid electrolyte
when struck by light, the photovoltaic eect. In 1873
Willoughby Smith observed that selenium resistors exhibit decreasing resistance when light falls on them. In
1874 Karl Ferdinand Braun observed conduction and
rectication in metallic sulphides, although this eect had
been discovered much earlier by M.A. Rosenschold writing for the Annalen der Physik und Chemie in 1835,[14]
and Arthur Schuster found that a copper oxide layer on
wires has rectication properties that ceases when the
wires are cleaned. Adams and Day observed the photovoltaic eect in selenium in 1876.[15]
A unied explanation of these phenomena required a theory of solid-state physics which developed greatly in the
rst half of the 20th Century. In 1878 Edwin Herbert
Hall demonstrated the deection of owing charge carriers by an applied magnetic eld, the Hall eect. The discovery of the electron by J.J. Thomson in 1897 prompted
theories of electron-based conduction in solids. Karl
Baedeker, by observing a Hall eect with the reverse
sign to that in metals, theorized that copper iodide had
positive charge carriers. Johan Koenigsberger classied
solid materials as metals, insulators and variable conductors in 1914, although his student Josef Weiss introduced
term Halbleiter (semiconductor) in modern meaning in
PhD thesis already in 1910.[16][17] Felix Bloch published
7 FURTHER READING
radar systems relied on the fast response of crystal detectors. Considerable research and development of silicon
materials occurred during the war to develop detectors
of consistent quality.[18]
Detector and power rectiers could not amplify a signal.
Many eorts were made to develop a solid-state amplier, but these were unsuccessful because of limited theoretical understanding of semiconductor materials.[18] In
1922 Oleg Losev developed two-terminal, negative resistance ampliers for radio; however, he perished in
the Siege of Leningrad. In 1926 Julius Edgar Lilienfeld patented a device resembling a modern eld-eect
transistor, but it was not practical. R. Hilsch and R. W.
Pohl in 1938 demonstrated a solid-state amplier using a
structure resembling the control grid of a vacuum tube;
although the device displayed power gain, it had a cuto frequency of one cycle per second, too low for any
practical applications, but an eective application of the
available theory.[18] At Bell Labs, William Shockley and
A. Holden started investigating solid-state ampliers in
1938. The rst pn junction in silicon was observed by
Russell Ohl about 1941, when a specimen was found to
be light-sensitive, with a sharp boundary between p-type
impurity at one end and n-type at the other. A slice cut
from the specimen at the pn boundary developed a voltage when exposed to light.
In France, during the war, Herbert Matar had observed [15] Lidia ukasiak & Andrzej Jakubowski (January 2010).
amplication between adjacent point contacts on a gerHistory of Semiconductors (PDF). Journal of Telecommanium base. After the war, Matar's group announced
munication and Information Technology: 3.
their "Transistron" amplier only shortly after Bell Labs
[16] Busch, G (1989). Early history of the physics and chemannounced the "transistor".
See also
Semiconductor industry
Semiconductor characterization techniques
References
istry of semiconductors-from doubts to fact in a hundred years. European Journal of Physics 10 (4): 254
264. Bibcode:1989EJPh...10..254B. doi:10.1088/01430807/10/4/002.
7 Further reading
A. A. Balandin & K. L. Wang (2006). Handbook of
Semiconductor Nanostructures and Nanodevices (5Volume Set). American Scientic Publishers. ISBN
1-58883-073-X.
Sze, Simon M. (1981). Physics of Semiconductor
Devices (2nd ed.). John Wiley and Sons (WIE).
ISBN 0-471-05661-8.
Turley, Jim (2002). The Essential Guide to Semiconductors. Prentice Hall PTR. ISBN 0-13-046404-X.
Yu, Peter Y.; Cardona, Manuel (2004). Fundamentals of Semiconductors : Physics and Materials Properties. Springer. ISBN 3-540-41323-5.
7
Sadao Adachi (2012). The Handbook on Optical
Constants of Semiconductors: In Tables and Figures. World Scientic Publishing. ISBN 9-78981440597-3.
G. B. Abdullayev, T. D. Dzhafarov, S. Torstveit
(Translator), Atomic Diusion in Semiconductor
Structures, Gordon & Breach Science Pub., 1987
ISBN 978-2881241529
External links
Howstuworks semiconductor page
Semiconductor Concepts at Hyperphysics
Calculator for the intrinsic carrier concentration in
silicon
Semiconductor OneSource Hall of Fame, Glossary
Principles of Semiconductor Devices by Bart Van
Zeghbroeck, University of Colorado. An online
textbook]
US Navy Electrical Engineering Training Series
NSM-Archive Physical Properties of Semiconductors]
Semiconductor Manufacturer List
ABACUS: Introduction to Semiconductor Devices
by Gerhard Klimeck and Dragica Vasileska, online
learning resource with simulation tools on nanoHUB
Organic Semiconductor page
DoITPoMS Teaching and Learning Package- Introduction to Semiconductors
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