台灣半導體產業鏈

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 Chapter 1. Semiconductor Diodes
1.1 Introduction
The first IC: 1958
To date: Apple A15 (TSMC 5 nm process)
 6-cores CPU: 15 billion transistors
 16-cores neural engine: 15.8 trillion operations/sec

Limits of miniaturization:
(1) Quality of the semiconductor material (半導體材料的品質)
(2) The circuit design technique (電路設計技術)
(3) The limits of the manufacturing and processing equipment (製造儀器之限制)
(4) The strength of the innovative spirit in the semiconductor industry (半導體產業創新的企圖
心)

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1.2 Semiconductor Materials: Ge, Si, and GaAs
Semiconductors: A special class of elements having a conductivity between that of a good conductor
and that of an insulator.
Two classes:
(1) Single-crystal: Ge, Si
(2) Compound: GaAs, CdS, GaN, GaAsP
The most frequently used semiconductor materials: Ge, Si, and GaAs
Ge: Main material for decades after 1939 (diode discovered).
Disadvantage: Sensitive to change in temperature
Si: 1954, the 1st silicon transistor was developed
Advantage:
Less sensitive to temperature change.
One of the most abundant materials on earth.

GaAs: Early 1970s, operating speed is five times that of Si.

Semiconductor Materials (Ge, Si, GaAs)
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1.3 Covalent Bonding and Intrinsic Materials
The atomic structures of Ge, Si, and GaAs are
shown in Figure 1.3:
Si: 14 electrons (4 valence electrons)
Ge: 32 electrons (4 valence electrons)
Ga: 31 electrons (3 valence electrons)
As: 33 electrons (5 valence electrons)

Valence ( 價 電 帶 ): the potential requires to

remove any one of those electrons from the
atomic structure is significantly lower than that
required for any other electrons in the structure.

Figure 1.3 5
Pure Si or Ge Crystal: GaAs compound:

Figure 1.4 Figure 1.5

Covalent bonding: bonding of atoms Ga is connected with 3 adjacent As.

strengthened by the sharing of electrons. As is connected with 5 adjacent .

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“Free” state: Any electron that has separated from the fixed lattice structure and is very sensitive to
any applied electric field.
Cause: External natural causes that provide kinetic energy to the valance electrons.
Examples of external causes: (1) Light energy in the form of photons (2) Thermal energy

At room temperature: 1.5 1010 free carriers/cm3 intrinsic Si

Intrinsic carriers: The free electrons in a material due only to external causes.
Covalent bonding: bonding of atoms strengthened by the sharing of electrons.

Table 1.1
Intrinsic Carriers
Semiconduuctor Intrinsic Carriers/cm3
GaAs 1.7  106
Si 1.5  1010
Ge 2.5  1013
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1.4 Energy Level
 The farther the electron is
At 0 K, all electrons in the
from the nucleus, the semiconductor are in the valance
higher its energy level. (電 band. At room temperature, a large
子離原子核越遠其能階越 number of electrons will get
高。) enough energy to reach the
conduction band.
 The energy level of each
electron can be expressed
in electron volt (eV). (每㇐
電子之能階可以電子伏特
(electron volt, eV)來表示。)
 W = QV (V = W/Q, The work
done by unit electron.)
 The charge of one electron:
1.6 10-19 Coulomb
Figure 1.6
 1 eV = 1.6 10-19 J 8
1.5 Extrinsic Materials – n and p types
Extrinsic material : A semiconductor material that has been subjected to the “doping” process.
(i.e. The characteristics of semiconductor materials can be altered significantly by the addition of
certain impurity atoms. 加入少許不純物可造成半導體材料特性巨大之改變)

n-type material: The substance (antimony, arsenic,

phosphorus) with 5 electrons in the outermost layer is
added to Ge or Si. (在Ge or Si中加入銻、砷、磷等最外
層有5個電子的物質。)
Take Sb as an example: (Figure 1.7)

Donor atoms: A 5-valent substance added to the

substance. (在物質中加入之5價物質)

Figure 1.7 9
The doping process can be described as Figure 1.8.

Figure 1.8

The extra electrons at the donor energy level have less Eg than that of a intrinsic material.
 The conductivity increases largely at room temperature.
Si: intrinsic 1/1012 atoms; extrinsic 1/107 atoms; 1012/107 = 105.

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p-type material: It’s formed by doping a pure Electron v.s. Hole flow
Ge or Si crystal with impurity atoms having If the outermost electron gains enough energy, it
three electrons. (將含三價之物質加於Ge or Si becomes a free electron, and then moves to the
中。) (Figure 1.9) position of a hole. (若最外層的電子取得足夠能量
則變成自由電子，然後跑到hole的位置。)
 A transfer of holes to the left and electrons to
the right. (Direction of current: direction of hole
flow) (Figure 1.10)

Figure 1.9

Acceptor atom: The trivalent substance added to Ge or Si.

Figure 1.10 11
Majority and Minority carriers

In the intrinsic state, free electrons mainly come from electrons that have enough energy to escape
from the atom and few impurities that could not be removed. (自由電子主要來自有足夠能量而可掙
脫束縛之電子與少量無法去除的雜質.)
In a n-type material:
 The number of holes has not changed from its intrinsic level.
 The number of electrons far outweigh the number of holes.
Majority: electron; Minority: holes

Figure 1.11
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In a p-type material:
 The number of holes far outweigh the number
of electrons.
Majority: holes; Minority: electron

1.6 Semiconductor Diode

The semiconductor diode is formed by simply
bringing the n and p type material together.

Three possible ways to apply voltage(三種可能

施加電壓方式):
1. No bias (VD = 0 V)
2. Forward bias (VD > 0 V)
3. Reverse bias (VD < 0 V) Figure 1.12

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1. No applied bias (VD = 0V)
Any holes in the n-type material that find themselves within
the depletion region will pass directly into the p-type material.
(在n-type內之holes如在depletion region內，則很快跑到p-
type中。)

When the holes in the n-type material are closer to the

junction area, the anions in the p-type material are more
attractive to them, but the cations in the n-type material are
also more resistant to them. (當 n-type 內 之holes 越靠 近
junction area，p-type內的陰離子對其吸引力越大，但n-
type內的陽離子對其阻力也越大。)

Electrons in the n-type material must overcome the attraction of cations in the n-type material and
the barrier of anions in the p-type material before they can reach the p-type material. (在n-type
material內之electrons則必須克服n-type material內陽離子之吸引力及p-type內的陰離子的屏障，
才可跑到p-type material。) 14
Although the number of electrons in n-type material is large, the number of electrons with enough
energy to run into the p-type material is still very small. The holes in the p-type material are also the
same. (n-type material的電子之數量雖大，能得到足夠能量而跑到p-type material內之數量仍是
極少。p-type material的holes亦相同。)

In the absence of an applied bias voltage, the net flow of charge in any one direction for a
semiconductor diode is zero. (電流幾乎是零。)

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