Computer Engineering Faculty - University of Tripoli

EC 310: Electronic Material & Devices

Dr. Amna Elhawil
A.elhawil@uot.edu.ly

CHAPTER (1): ENERGY L EVELS AND ENERGY BANDS

 Contents
Chapter (1): Energy levels and energy bands
Chapter (2): Semiconductor physics
Chapter (3): Diodes
Chapter (4): Bipolar junction transistors (BJT)
Chapter (5): Field-effect transistors (FET)

EC310 - CHAPTER (1): ENERGY LEVELS AND ENERGY BANDS 2

 Text Books:
• Microelectronics, J. Millman, A. Grabel
• Semiconductor Physics and Devices: Basic Principles, D. A. Neamen, 4th edition.
• Electronic devices and circuit theory, R. Boylestad, L. Nashelsky, 7th edition.
• Microelectronic Circuits, A. Sedra and K. Smith, 5th edition

Grading Scheme:
 Quizzes, Assignments & attendance 20%
 2 Midterm exams 40%
 Final exam 40%

EC310 - CHAPTER (1): ENERGY LEVELS AND ENERGY BANDS 3

Chapter (1)
Energy levels and
energy bands

EC310 - CHAPTER (1): ENERGY LEVELS AND ENERGY BANDS 4

 1.1 Atomic Structure
Atoms are made up of 3 types of particles
electrons, protons and neutrons.
Electrons are tiny, very light particles that have a
negative electrical charge.
Protons are much larger and heavier than
electrons and have the opposite charge, protons
have a positive charge.
Neutrons are large and heavy like protons;
however neutrons have no electrical charge.

Fig. 1.1

EC310 - CHAPTER (1): ENERGY LEVELS AND ENERGY BANDS 5

 Energy levels
The electrons are arranged in energy levels or shells around the nucleus and with 'orbits' on
average increasing in distance from the nucleus.
Each electron in an atom is in a particular energy level (or shell) and the electrons must occupy
the lowest available energy level (or shell) available nearest the nucleus.
When the level is full, the next electron goes into the next highest level (shell) available.
The maximum number of electrons allowed in each shell is as following:
◦ The 1st shell can contain a maximum of 2 electrons (electrons 1-2)
◦ The 2nd shell can contain a maximum of 8 electrons (electrons 3-10)
◦ The 3rd shell also has a maximum of 18 electrons.
◦ The 4th shell contains 32 electrons.

EC310 - CHAPTER (1): ENERGY LEVELS AND ENERGY BANDS 6

 Each shell number n has n subshells, there are four subshells (s, p, d, f ):
 The subshell s contains 2 electrons, p contains 6 electrons, d has 10 electrons and f has 14 electrons
 The 1st shell has the subshell s. So maximum number of electrons is 2.
 The 2nd shell has the subshells s and p. So maximum number of electrons is (2 + 6 = 8).
 The 3rd shell has the subshells s, p and d. So maximum number of electrons is 18 (2 + 6 + 10).
 The 4th shell has s, p, d and f. So maximum number of electrons is 32.

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 Fig. 1.2

EC310 - CHAPTER (1): ENERGY LEVELS AND ENERGY BANDS 8

Group No. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

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Atomic Number

Atomic Number = number of electrons in a neutral atom

1. Boron (B, atomic number = 5):
1s2 2s2 2p1.

2. Silicon (Si, atomic number = 14):

1s2 2s2 2p6 3s2 3p2

3. Germanium (Ge, atomic number = 32):

1s2 2s2 2p6 3s2 3p6 4s2 3d10 4p2.

EC310 - CHAPTER (1): ENERGY LEVELS AND ENERGY BANDS 10

 Types of Chemical Bonds
The two main types of bonds formed between atoms are ionic bonds and covalent bonds:
1. A covalent bond is formed when two same atoms share a single electron(s) .

 No free electrons
 Covalent bonded materials are poor conductors at normal temperature.
 Have high melting and boiling temperature.
Fig. 1.3 Covalent atom

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2. Ionic bond: the electrons are shared between two different atoms, one atom accepts an
electron or more and becomes negative ion and the other donates an electron or more and
becomes positive ion.
• For example, sodium (11) and chloride (17) form an ionic bond, to make NaCl, or table salt.

Fig. 1.4 Ionic atom

 Ionic bond is very strong.
 The movement of electrons under applied voltage is not possible  good insulators
 Have very high melting and boiling temperature.

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• When electrons are shared by two metallic atoms the bond is called metallic bond. This bond is very strong
that is why metals have higher boiling and melting.

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 Energy bands
1. Conduction band: is the upper band of allowed states. When it is drawn
it is represented by a line labeled by Ec which represents the lowest
possible energy state in the conduction band.
• This band is usually empty. It contains few or no electrons since energy is required for them to get
there from the valence band. Electrons in the conduction band are free to move about the crystal, thus
the name conduction band.

2. Valence band: is the lower band of allowed states. In the drawings it is

depicted by a line labeled by Ev which represents the highest energy
state in the valence band. Since electrons have a tendency to fill the
lowest available energy states. The valence band is always nearly
completely filled with electrons
Fig. 1.5

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3. The Band Gap: The band gap energy is the energy needed to break a bond in the crystal. When a
bond is broken, the electron has absorbed enough energy to leave the valence band and "jump" to
the conduction band. The width of the band gap determines the type of material (conductor,
semiconductor, insulator) you are working with. This is shown pictorially using a band diagram.

• EG of some semiconductors
– Silicon (Si): 1.1 eV
– Germanium (Ge): 0.7 eV
– Gallium arsenide (GaAs): 1.4 eV
– Zinc selenide (ZnSe): 2.7 eV

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 The Fermi Level
 The Fermi Level is the highest energy level which an electron can occupy at the absolute zero temperature. Since at
absolute zero temperature the electrons are all in the lowest energy state hence the Fermi level is in between the
valence band and the conduction band.
 For metals the Fermi level is inside the conduction band.
 In the case of the semiconductor it exists between the conduction and the valence band at absolute zero temperature.
 In case of the insulator is inside the valence band and hence it is impossible for an electron to cross it and hence the
insulator acts as bad conductors. For the proper understanding of these concepts refer to the below diagram.

Fig. 1.6

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Material Classification

Materials can be classified according to their bandgaps:

1. An insulator is a poor conductor since it requires a lot of energy, 5-8 eV.
2. A metal is an excellent conductor because, at room temperature, it has electrons in its conduction band
constantly, with little or no energy being applied to it.
3. A semiconductor: the reason semiconductors are so popular is because they are a medium between a
metal and an insulator. The band gap is wide enough to where current is not going through it at all times,
but narrow enough to where it does not take a lot of energy to have electrons in the conduction band
creating a current.

Fig. 1.7

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Conduction in materials
1. In metals there are empty states just above the Fermi levels, where electrons can be promoted. The
promotion energy is negligibly small so that at any temperature electrons can be found in the conduction
band.
2. In insulators, there is an energy gap between the valence and conduction bands, so energy is needed to
promote an electron to the conduction band. This energy may come from heat, or from energetic radiation,
like light of sufficiently small wavelength.

◦ For example, the bandgap energy Eg of the Carbon is about 6 eV. This large forbidden band separates the valance band
from the conduction band.
◦ Since the electron cannot acquire sufficient applied energy, conduction is impossible, and here Carbon is an insulator.

3. In semiconductors the width of the bandgap is relatively small ( ≈ 1 eV). Energies of these values normally
cannot be acquired from an applied field.
◦ Hence the valance band remains full, the conduction band empty and these materials are insulators at low temperature.
However, the conductivity increases with temperature so some valance electrons acquire thermal energy greater than Eg
and move to the conduction band.

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Coulomb’s law

Important terms
1. Coulomb’s law
The electrostatic force between two point electric charges q1 and q2 is directly proportional to the
product of the magnitudes of each charge and inversely proportional to the distance between the
charges:
𝑞1 𝑞2
𝐹=𝑘 (N) (1.1)
𝑟2

− q is the electron charge (q = 1.6 × 10−19 Coulombs).

− k is Coulombs constant equals to 9 x109 .

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2. Electric field
 If a voltage source is applied on two parallel plates. The electrostatic forces cause the
electrons to be accelerated in a direction opposite to that of the applied field, which
causes conduction current to flow. This produced force per unit charge, is called electric
field

E = F/q (V/m) or (Netwon/C) (1.2)

 The electric field is proportional to the applied voltage and inversely proportional to the
distance between charges.
E = V/L (V/m) (1.3)
− L is the distance in meter.
 Note that, the voltage is a potential energy per charge while the electric field is the force
per charge.
 From (1.3) we note that
V = EL (V/m)
− V is the amount of energy required to move an object a distance L through electric
field E.
EC310 - CHAPTER (1): ENERGY LEVELS AND ENERGY BANDS 20
 Fig. 1.8

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3. Drift Velocity
 When electrons gains energy from the applied voltage source, they break the bonds and start moving
randomly. If an electron did not collide with the bound ions, its velocity would increase indefinitely.
 However, energy is lost with each collision so that the average velocity approaches a constant or steady-
state value.
 The average velocity vd (m/ s) is called the drift velocity. It is proportional to the applied field and is given
by
vd = −μ E (1.4)
where μ (m2 /V. s) is the electron mobility.
µ of silicon at 300◦ k is 1400 cm2/(V.s)
µ of Gallium arsenide (GaAs) is 8500 cm2/(V.s)
 The minus sign in Eq. (1.4) is required because the negative charge on the electron causes it to move is a
direction opposite to the field.

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4. Potential energy

 The electrons receive energy from both their position and motion.
 The energy received by motion of electrons is called kinetic energy (K.E), while the energy gained from the
position is called potential energy (P.E).
1. The kinetic energy is defined as
1
K. E = mvd 2 (J) (1.5)
2
− m is the mass of electrons equals (9.11 x 10-31 Kg)
− vd is its drift velocity.

2. The potential energy of a charge is relative to other charged objects:

𝑞1 𝑞2
𝑃. 𝐸 = 𝑘 (J)
𝐿
 For atoms the charges are equal and the distance between them equals to the radius of the orbit so the
potential energy is
𝑞2 (J) (1.6)
𝑃. 𝐸 = 𝑘
𝑟𝑛
− The constant k =1/ 4πɛ0 = 9x109,
− rn is the radius of n orbit.

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  The total energy is the sum of both energies

Total energy = K.E + P.E (J) (1.7)

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5. The eV unit of energy
 From (1.1) and (1.6), we have
𝑃. 𝐸 = 𝐹 × 𝑟
• by equating (1.2) and (1.3)
𝑉×𝑞
𝐹=
𝑟
 So the potential energy in function of the voltage and charge is given by
P.E = qV
 The potential energy of electron gained from 1 Volt is:
P.E = qV = (1.6 x 10-19 C) (1 V) = 1.6 x 10-19 J
So the electron possesses a tiny amount of energy. However, the eV (electron vole) unit is introduced to define
small amounts of power.
1 eV = 1.6 x 10-19 J

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6. Current Density
 The total current passing the wire is the total charge passing any area per time:
𝑞𝑁 (1.8)
𝐼=
𝑡
− q is the electron charge.
− N number of charge (electrons)

 To relate the current in a conductor to the drift velocity of the moving charges, consider
a wire of length L and a cross section area A in which a current I is flowing.

𝑞 𝑁𝐿 𝑞 𝑁 𝑣𝑑 (1.9)
𝐼= =
𝑡 𝐿 𝐿
 The current density J (A/m2) in a conductor is defined as the current per unit area
Fig. 1.9
flowing in a particular direction.
𝐼
𝐽=𝐴 (A/m2) (1.10)
 The current density J can be related to the drift velocity vd as follows:

qNvd
J= (A/m2) (1.11)
LA

− where A is the cross section area.

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 If we consider the electron concentration n equals to
𝑁 (1.12)
𝑛=
𝐿𝐴
 (1.10) can be reduced to

J = nqvd (A/m2) (1.13)

 So the current is proportional to both the electron concentration and the drift velocity.
 Since the drift velocity is limited one can increase the current by increasing the carrier concentration.

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7. Conductivity

 Both are physical properties of materials. Using Eqs. (1.4) through (1.13), we can relate the current
density J to the electric field E in a metal as follows:

J=nqμE (A/m2 ) (1.14)

 Since q and μ are constants, to increase the current density either we increase the applied voltage
(electric field) or the carrier concentration (n).
J=σE (A/m2 ) (1.15)
 The conductivity σ ( Ω−1m−1) of the metal is given by

σ = nqμe (1.16)

 Because n is independent of temperature in a metal, it follows that the decrease in electron mobility μ
with temperature causes the conductivity σ to decrease with temperature.

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8. Resistivity
 The inverse of the conductivity is called resistivity:

ρ=1/σ (Ω.m) (1.17)

 The resistivity is related to the resistance of the material as following, from (1.10)

𝐽 = 𝜎𝐸 (1.18)
• Replacing J as given in (1.11)
𝐼 = 𝜎𝐸𝐴

 Considering the applied voltage E= V/ L:

𝜎𝐴𝑉 𝑉
𝐼= =
𝐿 𝑅
𝐿
𝑅 = 𝜎𝐴 (1.19)
Or
𝐿
𝑅 = 𝜌𝐴 (1.20)
The term ρ is the resistivity.

EC310 - CHAPTER (1): ENERGY LEVELS AND ENERGY BANDS 29

EC310 - CHAPTER (1): ENERGY LEVELS AND ENERGY BANDS 30
 Table 1.1 Resistivity of some materials at 20º C
Resistivity
Material
(Ω.m)
Silver 1.59 x 10-8
Copper 1.68 x 10-8
Conductors
Aluminum 2.65 x 10-8
Iron 9.71 x 10-8
Glass 1-10000 x 109
Insulators Quartz 7.5 x 1017
Rubber 1-100 x 1013

EC310 - CHAPTER (1): ENERGY LEVELS AND ENERGY BANDS 31

Example 1.1
Suppose we have a piece of solid aluminum bar, 4 centimeters wide by 3 centimeters tall by 125 centimeters long.
What is the end-to-end resistance?

Solution
• First, the cross-sectional area of the bar:
Area= width x height
𝐴 = 4 𝑐𝑚 × 3 𝑐𝑚 = 12 𝑐𝑚2
• The resistance of aluminum is calculated using (1.14)

𝐿
𝑅=𝜌
𝐴
• From Table 1.1 the resistivity of the aluminum equals 2.65 x 10-8

125 𝑐𝑚
𝑅 = (2.65 × 10−8 )
12 𝑐𝑚2
𝑅 = 27.6 𝜇Ω

EC310 - CHAPTER (1): ENERGY LEVELS AND ENERGY BANDS 32