B.

TECH FIRST YEAR

ACADEMIC YEAR: 2020-2021

Course name: Basic Electronics

Course code : EC 1001
lecture series no : 01 (one)
Credits : 3
Mode of delivery : online (Power point presentation)
Faculty : Dr. Ajay Kumar
Email-id : ajay.kumar@Jaipur.manipal.edu
DATE OF DELIVERY:
 “Recall concept of
Session outcome Semiconductors”
 Assignment
quiz
mid term examination –I
mid term examination –II
Assessment criteria’S
END TERM EXAMINATION
 PROGRAM
OUTCOMES
MAPPING WITH CO1
[[EC1001.1]. Apply principles of physics
to describe the working of semiconductor
devices. ]

[PO1]

Engineering knowledge: Demonstrate and apply

knowledge of Mathematics, Science, and Engineering to
classical and recent problems of electronic design &
communication system.
Introduction to Semiconductors
Objective of the lecture: Define a semiconductor
– number of electrons in outer shell, location on
periodic table, most commonly used ones etc.
 Introduction
Semiconductors are materials whose electrical
properties lie between Conductors and Insulators.

Ex : Silicon and Germanium

Give the examples of Conductors and

Insulators!

Difference in conductivity
Semiconductor Materials: Ge, Si, and GaAs
Semiconductors are a special class of elements having a
conductivity between that of a good conductor and
that of an insulator.
• They fall into two classes : single crystal and compound
• Single crystal : Germanium (Ge) and silicon (Si).
• Compound : gallium arsenide (GaAs),
cadmium sulfide (CdS),
gallium nitride (GaN),
gallium arsenide
phosphide (GaAsP)
The three semiconductors used most frequently in the
construction of electronic devices are Ge, Si, and GaAs.
 Semiconductor Materials
• Elemental semiconductors – Si and Ge (column IV of
periodic table) –compose of single species of atoms
• Compound semiconductors – combinations of atoms of
column III and column V and some atoms from column II
and VI. (combination of two atoms results in binary
compounds)
• There are also three-element (ternary) compounds (GaAsP) and
four-elements (quaternary) compounds such as InGaAsP.
Group → 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18

↓ Period

1 2
1 H He

3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
2 Li Be B C N O F Ne

11 12
13 14 15 16 17 18
N M
3 Al Si P S Cl Ar
a g

21
19 20 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36
4 S
K Ca Ti V Cr Mn Fe Co Ni Cu Zn Ga Ge As Se Br Kr
c

37
38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54
5 R
Sr Y Zr Nb Mo Tc Ru Rh Pd Ag Cd In Sn Sb Te I Xe
b

55 56 * 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86
6 Cs Ba Hf Ta W Re Os Ir Pt Au Hg Tl Pb Bi Po At Rn

87 88 ** 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118
7 Fr Ra Rf Db Sg Bh Hs Mt Ds Rg Uub Uut Uuq Uup Uuh Uus Uuo

57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71
* Lanthanides La Ce Pr Nd Pm Sm Eu Gd Tb Dy Ho Er Tm Yb Lu

89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103

** Actinides Ac Th Pa U Np Pu Am Cm Bk Cf Es Fm Md No Lr
 History
• Diode , in 1939 was using Ge
• Transistor, in 1947 was using Ge
• In1954 Si was used in Transistor because Si is less
temperature sensitive and abundantly available.
• High speed transistor was using GaAs in 1970 (which is 5
times faster compared to Si)
• Si, Ge and GaAs are the semiconductor of choice
 Atomic Structure
Valence shell (4 valence electrons) Valence shell (4 valence electrons)
Valence
shells
electron
Valenc
+ e
+ electro
n

Nucleus
orbiting
electrons
orbiting
Germanium electron
s
Silicon
32 orbiting electrons 14 orbiting electrons
(tetravalent) (tetravalent)
• Valence electrons: electrons in the outermost shell.
• Atoms with four valence electrons are called tetravalent.
Silicon: our primary example and focus
Atomic no. 14
14 electrons in three shells: 2 , 8 4 i.e., 4 electrons in the outer "bonding" shell Silicon forms
strong covalent bonds with 4 neighbors
The Germanium Atomic Structure
 Atomic Structure
Valence shell (3 valence electrons) Valence shell (5 valence electrons)
Valence Valence
shells shells
electron electron

+ +

Nucleus orbiting
electrons
Nucleus orbiting
electrons
Gallium
Arsenic

31 orbiting electrons 33 orbiting electrons

(trivalent) (pentavalent)

• Atoms with three valence electrons are called trivalent, and

those with five are called pentavalent.
 The Silicon Atom
A covalent bond can be formed between two atoms
which have only one electron in an outer orbit or
energy level. In this case the individual electrons
from the separate atoms at the same energy level
orbit both atoms jointly as shown in figures.

Both atoms essentially share the pair of electrons at the given energy level in the outer
sub-shell, with the two electrons having opposite spins. This forms a bonding
attraction between the two atoms which is not extremely strong but is nonetheless
powerful and maintains a high degree of stability in the material.
In the case of Silicon, each of the 4 outer electrons enters into a covalent bond
with a neighbouring atom.

A Covalent Bond Formed by the

Sharing of Electrons in an
Outer Energy Level
 Covalent Bonding

Covalent bonding of Si crystal

This bonding of atoms, strengthened by the sharing of electrons,
is called covalent bonding
 Covalent Bonding

There is sharing of
electrons, five electrons
provided by As atom and
three by the Ga atom.

Covalent bonding of GaAs crystal

 Band theory of a solid
• A solid is formed by bringing together isolated single atoms.
• Consider the combination of two atoms. If the atoms are far
apart there is no interaction between them and the energy
levels are the same for each atom. The numbers of levels at a
particular energy is simply doubled

n=3 n=3

n=2 n=2

n=1 n=1

Atom 1 Atom 2

• If the atoms are close together the electron wave functions will
overlap and the energy levels are shifted with respect to each
other.
n=3 n=3

n=2 n=3

n=1 n=2

n=2

n=1

n=1
• A solid will have millions of atoms n=3
close together in a lattice so
these energy levels will creates
bands each separated by a gap. n=2

• Conductors: n=1

– If we have used up all the

electrons available and a band
Conduction band,
is still only half filled, the solid half filled with
is said to be a good conductor. electrons
The half filled band is known
as the conduction band. Valence band,
filled with
electrons
• Insulators:
– If, when we have used up all
the electrons the highest band Empty
is full and the next one is conduction band

empty with a large gap Large energy gap

between the two bands, the
material is said to be a good Valence band,
insulator. The highest filled filled with
band is known as the valence electrons
band while the empty next
band is known as the
conduction band.
Semiconductors:
• Some materials have a filled valence band
Empty
just like insulators but a small gap to the conduction band
conduction band.
• At zero Kelvin the material behave just Small energy gap

like an insulator but at room temperature,

it is possible for some electrons to Valence bands,
filled with
acquire the energy to jump up to the electrons
conduction band. The electrons move
easily through this conduction band under
the application of an electric field. This At zero Kelvin – no conduction
is an intrinsic semiconductor.

Conduction
band, with some
electrons

So where are all these materials

Top valence to be found in the periodic table ?
band now
missing some
electrons

At room temperature – some conduction

Semiconductor
materials
 Possible Semiconductor Materials
1. Very Expensive
Carbon C 6 2. Band Gap Large: 6eV
3. Difficult to produce without high contamination
1. Cheap
Silicon Si 14 2. Ultra High Purity
3. Oxide is amazingly perfect for IC applications
1. High Mobility
Germanium Ge 32 2. High Purity Material
3. Oxide is porous to water/hydrogen (problematic)

1. Only “White Tin” is semiconductor

Tin Sn 50
2. Converts to metallic form under moderate heat

1. Only “White Lead” is semiconductor

Lead Pb 82
2. Converts to metallic form under moderate heat
 Energy Levels

The farther an electron is from the nucleus, the higher is

the
energy state.
 Energy Levels

An electron in the valence band of silicon must absorb more energy than
one in the valence band of germanium to become a free carrier. [free
carriers are free electrons due only to external causes such as applied
electric fields established by voltage sources or potential difference.