MATERIAL SCIENCE ASSIGNMENTS

1. DESCRIBE THE TYPE OF SEMICONDUCTORS

SEMICONDUCTORS
Substance whose conductance likes in between that of metals (conductors) and insulators are called
semiconductor. Silicon and Germanium are examples of semiconductor.

There are two types of main semiconductors

(i) Intrinsic semiconductors (pure semiconductor)
(ii) Extrinsic semiconductor (ptype semiconductor and n-type semiconductor)

INTRINSIC SEMICONDUCTOR

An intrinsic semiconductor, also called an undoped semiconductor or i-type semiconductor, is a

pure semiconductor without any significant dopant species present. The number of charge
carriers is therefore determined by the properties of the material itself instead of the amount of
impurities. In intrinsic semiconductors the number of excited electrons and the number
of holes are equal: n = p. This may even be the case after doping the semiconductor, though only
if it is doped with both donors and acceptors equally. In this case, n = p still holds, and the
semiconductor remains intrinsic, though dope

EXTRINSIC SEMICONDUCTORS

An extrinsic semiconductor is one that has been doped, that is, into which a doping agent has
been introduced, giving it different electrical properties than the intrinsic (pure) semiconductor.
This doping involves adding dopant atoms to an intrinsic semiconductor, which changes
the electron and hole carrier concentrations of the semiconductor at thermal equilibrium, the
temperature at which two adjacent substances exchange no heat energy. Dominant carrier
concentrations in an extrinsic semiconductor classify it as either an n-type or p-
type semiconductor. The electrical properties of extrinsic semiconductors make them essential
components of many electronic devices.
i) ntype semiconductor:
the semiconductors have electron rich impurities. Silicon and germanium belong to group 14 of
the periodic table and each has four valence electrons . Four out of five electrons are used in the
formation of four covalent bonds with the four neighbouring silicon atoms. Extra fifth electron is
becomes delocalized. These delocalized electrons increase the conductivity of doped silicon or
germanium both . Here the increase in conductivity is due to the negatively charged mobile
electron. Hence semiconductors doped with electronrich impurity are called ntype
semiconductor.

ii) ptype semiconductor:

Si or Ge can also be doped with a group 13 element. The elements of group 13 contains only three
valence electrons. Elements of 14th group have has 4 valence electron. The place where the
fourth valence electron is missing is called electron hole .An electron from a neighbouring atom
can come and fill the electron hole, but in doing so it would leave an electron hole at its original
position. If it happens, it would appear as if the electron hole has moved in the direction opposite
to that of the electron that filled it. Under the influence of electric field, electrons would move
towards the positively charged plate through electronic holes, but it would appear as if electron
holes are positively charged and are moving towards negatively charged plate. This type of
semi conductors are called ptype semiconductors.
2. EXPLAIN THE GENERAL PROPERTIES AND APPLICATION OF EACH TYPE OF
SEMICONDUCTORS

GENERAL PROPERTIES OF SEMICONDUCTORS

1) Variable conductivity
Semiconductors in their natural state are poor conductors because a current requires the
flow of electrons, and semiconductors have their valence bands filled, preventing the
entry flow of new electrons. There are several developed techniques that allow
semiconducting materials to behave like conducting materials, such as doping or gating.
These modifications have two outcomes: n-type and p-type. These refer to the excess or
shortage of electrons, respectively. An unbalanced number of electrons would cause a
current to flow through the material.
2) Heterojunctions
Heterojunctions occur when two differently doped semiconducting materials are joined
together. For example, a configuration could consist of p-doped and n-doped germanium.
This results in an exchange of electrons and holes between the differently doped
semiconducting materials. The n-doped germanium would have an excess of electrons,
and the p-doped germanium would have an excess of holes. The transfer occurs until
equilibrium is reached by a process called recombination, which causes the migrating
electrons from the n-type to come in contact with the migrating holes from the p-type. A
product of this process is charged ions, which result in an electric field.
3) Excited electrons
A difference in electric potential on a semiconducting material would cause it to leave
thermal equilibrium and create a non-equilibrium situation. This introduces electrons and
holes to the system, which interact via a process called ambipolar diffusion. Whenever
thermal equilibrium is disturbed in a semiconducting material, the amount of holes and
electrons changes. Such disruptions can occur as a result of a temperature difference
or photons, which can enter the system and create electrons and holes. The process that
creates and annihilates electrons and holes are called generation and recombination.
 4) Light emission
In certain semiconductors, excited electrons can relax by emitting light instead of
producing heat. These semiconductors are used in the construction of light-emitting
diodesand fluorescent quantum dots.
5) Thermal energy conversion
Semiconductors have large thermoelectric power factors making them useful
in thermoelectric generators, as well as high thermoelectric figures of merit making them
useful in thermoelectric coolers.

Application of each type of semiconductors

When a doped semiconductor contains excess holes it is called p-type(positive for

holes)semiconductor, and when it contains some excess of free electrons, it is known as n-
type(negative for electrons) semiconductor, is the sign of charge of the majority mobile charge
carriers. The junctions which formed where n-type and p-type semiconductors are joined
together is called pn junction.

Diode
A semiconductor diode is a device typically made up of a single p-n junction. The junction of a
p-type and n-type semiconductor forms a depletion region where current conduction is reserved
by the lack of mobile charge carriers. When the device is forward biased, this depletion region is
reduced, allowing for significant conduction, when the diode is reverse biased, the only less
current can be achieved and the depletion region can be extended. Exposing a semiconductor to
light can produce electron hole pairs, which increases the number of free carriers and thereby the
conductivity. Diodes optimized to take advantage of this phenomenon is known as photodiodes.
Compound semiconductor diodes are also being used to generate light, light-emitting diodes and
laser diodes.
Transistor
Bipolar junction transistors are formed by two p-n junctions, in either p-n-p or n-p-n
configuration. The middle or base, the region between the junctions is typically very narrow. The
other regions, and their related terminals, are known as the emitter and collector. A small current
injected through the junction between the base and emitter change the properties of the base
collector junction so it can be conduct current even though it is reverse biased. This creates a
larger current between the collector and emitter, and controlled by the base-emitter current.

Semiconductor Device Materials

The silicon (Si) is most widely used material in semiconductor devices. Its having lower raw
material cost and relatively simple process. Its useful temperature range makes it currently the
best compromise among the various competing materials. Silicon used in semiconductor device
manufacturing is presently fabricated into bowls that are large enough in diameter to allow the
manufacture of 300 mm (12 in.) wafers.

Germanium (Ge) was a widely used in early semiconductor material, but its thermal sensitivity
makes less useful than silicon. Nowadays, germanium is often alloyed with (Si) silicon for use in
very-high-speed SiGe devices; IBM is a main producer of such devices.

Gallium arsenide (GaAs) is also widely used with high-speed devices, but so far, it has been
difficult to form large-diameter bowls of this material, limiting the wafer diameter sizes
significantly smaller than silicon wafers thus making mass production of Gallium arsenide
(GaAs) devices significantly more expensive than silicon.