Today’s objectives-

Semiconductors and Integrated Circuits

1. Draw band diagrams for metals, insulators, intrinsic semiconductor,
and n and p type doped semiconductors, including Ec, Ef, and Ev.
2. How does conductivity change as a function of temperature for
metals and intrinsic semiconductors. What about for extrinsic
(doped) semiconductors?
3. What are common n and p type dopants?
4. What is the appropriate conductivity equation for intrinsic, n, and p
type semiconductors.
5. How does the concentration of free charges change with
temperature and doping (for intrinsic and extrinsic
semiconductors)?
6. How does mobility change with temperature
and doping?
 Semiconductor Industry in 2003
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http://www.infras.com/Tutorial/sld001.htm
 Typical Semiconductors
Silicon
Diamond Cubic Structure
4 atoms at (0,0,0)+ FCC translations
4 atoms at (¼,¼,¼)+FCC translations
Bonding: covalent
GaAs
ZnS (Zinc Blende) Structure
4 Ga atoms at (0,0,0)+ FCC translations
4 As atoms at (¼,¼,¼)+FCC translations
Bonding: covalent, partially ionic
 Band structures for semiconductors and insulators
• Semiconductors and Insulators have totally full valence bands and empty
conduction bands with a bandgap between them. Ec is at the base of the
conduction band, Ev is at the top of the valence band, and Ef is in the
bandgap.
– The distinction between semiconducting and insulating materials is arbitrarily
set to a bandgap of < or > 2 eV, respectively.
Energy Empty 4p
(conduction)
Empty
Band gap (conduction)
Empty
Ec (conduction)
partially Band gap
Band gap
Ef , filled 4s Ef Ef
Fermi (conduction) E
v
level Filled Filled
(valence) (valence)

Band gap Band gap Band gap

filled Filled Filled
3p, 2p, 2s, (deep valence) (deep valence)
1p, 1s
(valence)
Metal (Cu) Semiconductor (Si) Insulator (Al2O3)
 electrical conductivity, 
Electron Conductivity (Ohm-m) -1
 e  n e e  1  10 4
10 3
• Metals 10 2 metal
– Dominated by mobility, which decreases 10 1
with increasing Temperature due to 10 0 pure
increased probability of scattering. (undoped)
10 -1
10 -2
• Intrinsic Semiconductors (no 50 10 0 1000
T(K)
dopants)
Energy
– Dominated by number of carriers, which
increases exponentially with increasing empty
band
Temperature due to increased probability ?
GAP
of electrons jumping across the band gap.
filled
 E gap / kT
n e valence

filled states
electrons band

n=electrons/m3
filled
(1016 for Si)
band
Electrical Conduction in Intrinsic SCs
 E gap / kT
nelectrons  e
# of e- in CB = # of h+ in VB

(empty at T=OK)

e- e- jumping to
CB via
thermal
h+ excitation at
T>OK

(full at T=OK)

“Real” Band Diagram Schematic Band

Diagram
 Electron and hole conductivity
• In a semiconductor, there can be electrons and holes:
valence electron hole electron hole
electron Si atom
pair creation pair migration

+ - + -

no applied applied applied

electric field electric field electric field

• Total Electrical Conductivity thus given by:

# holes/m 3
 i  n e e  p e h
hole mobility
# electrons/m 3 electron mobility

How can we think of conductivity carried by a hole, something that isn’t there?
 Intrinsic carriers
• With intrinsic systems (only), for every free
electron, there is also a free hole.

# electrons = n = # holes = p = ni
--true for pure Si, or Ge, etc.
  n e e  p e h  ni e  e  h 

μh is ~20% of μe

• Holes don’t move as easily (mobility of holes is

always less than for electrons), but still there are
so many that they will contribute at least an extra
10-20% to the intrinsic conductivity.
 Analogy to metals
• As a general rule, as temperature increases, scattering also
increases. This decreases conductivity drastically for metals.
• The mobility for an intrinsic semiconductor will also diminish
with increasing temperature due to increased scattering.
• Still, the extra temperature provides lots of extra electrons and
holes in the conduction band for intrinsic semiconductors. This
causes n to increase exponentially with Temperature.
  n e e  p e h  ni e  e  h   e e   e  h 
 E gap / kT

• n goes up so fast w/r to mobility that the excess electrons

totally wash out the diminishing effect of extra scattering.

Thus, conductivity almost always increases with temperature for a

semiconductor, the opposite of a metal.
 Extrinsic SCs

P in Si donates an extra
electron to the crystal.
This electron exists in (or near)
the conduction band.
The electron thus may be able
to carry current in an E field.
 Typical Donor and Acceptor Dopants for Si
For Silicon:
• Donors (n type):
– P, As, Sb
give up 1e

inert gases
• Acceptors (p type):
give up 2e

– B, Al, Ga, In

accept 2e
accept 1e
Metal
give up 3e

Nonmetal
H He
Li Be Intermediate Ne
O F
Na Mg S Cl Ar
K Ca Sc Se Br Kr
Rb Sr Y Te I Xe
Cs Ba Po At Rn
Fr Ra
 Donor electrons
• For every donor dopant atom (Nd) near the conduction band,
there is another free electron (n)
– NOTE no change in T is needed as for metals.
• Unlike for intrinsic semiconductors, free electron doesn’t leave a
mobile free hole behind. Instead, any holes are trapped in donor
state and thus will not contribute substantially to conductivity as
for intrinsic semiconductors (thus p~0).
  n e  e  p e  h  n e e  N d e  e

Ef=Edonor=
Ec-0.05eV
 Extrinsic conductivity—p type
• We can do the same thing with “acceptor dopants.”
• Every acceptor generates excess mobile holes (p=Na).
• Now holes totally outnumber electrons, so conductivity equation
switches to p domination.
  n e e  p e h  p e h  N a e h
 Acceptor vs. donor doped extrinsic semiconductors

• The electrons that

jump into the acceptor
states are “trapped” Ef=Eacceptor=
since the states are Ev+0.05eV
isolated (analogous to
holes at dopant states
in a n-doped system).

Ef=Edonor=
Ec-0.05eV
 Summary: Intrinsic vs. Extrinsic (n or p)
• Intrinsic:
# electrons = # holes (n = p)   ni e  e  h 
--case for pure Si
• Extrinsic:   n e e  p e h
--n ≠ p
--occurs when DOPANTS are added with a different
# valence electrons than the host (e.g., Si atoms)
• N-type Extrinsic: (n >> p) • P-type Extrinsic: (p >> n)
Phosphorus atom Boron atom
hole
4+ 4+ 4+ 4+ conduction 4+ 4+ 4+ 4+
electron
  n e e 4 + 5+ 4 + 4 + 4+ 3+ 4+ 4+   p e h
valence
4+ 4+ 4+ 4+ electron 4+ 4+ 4+ 4+
no applied Si atom no applied
electric field electric field
n, p  ni * 103
 Intrinsic vs. Extrinsic—charge concentration vs.
concentration (10 21 /m 3 ) Temperature
doped
undoped • Comparison: intrinsic vs
3 extrinsic conduction...
conduction electron

For an extrinsic doping level of:

freeze-out

extrinsic

intrinsic
1021/m3 of a n-type donor
2 impurity (such as P).
--for T < 100K: "freeze-out”
thermal energy only sufficient to
1 excite a very few electrons.
--for 150K < T < 450K: "extrinsic"
--for T >> 450K: "intrinsic"
0
0 200 400 600 T(K)
• The dopant sites essentially lower the activation energy to
generate free electrons at room temperature.

Adapted from Fig. 18.16, Callister 6e. (Fig. 18.16 from S.M. Sze, Semiconductor Devices,
Physics, and Technology, Bell Telephone Laboratories, Inc., 1985.)
 Actual Conductivity vs. Temperature
Why the decrease?
• Conductivity is not as
10 4


0.0052at%B flat as free charge

concentration.
10 3
• This is because mobility
electrical conductivity,

doped
10 2
(Ohm-m) -1

0.0013at%B is always decreasing

with increased
10 1 temperature (more
scattering)
10 0 pure
(undoped)
10 -1
10 -2
50 10 0 1000
T(K)
Adapted from Fig. 19.15, Callister 5e. (Fig. 19.15 adapted from G.L. Pearson and J. Bardeen, Phys. Rev. 75, p. 865, 1949.)
 Carrier mobility vs T
  n e e  p e h  n e e  N d e e
 Carrier mobility vs. dopant concentration

• One might worry about whether too many dopants will

decrease mobility too (and thus conductivity, the opposite
of the reason for putting them there). After all, dopants are
defects.
• This effect is small, roughly an order of magnitude for
doping from 1016 to 1019 donors (or acceptors) / cm3.
 SUMMARY

• Draw band diagrams for metals, insulators, intrinsic semiconductor,

and n and p type doped semiconductors, including Ec, Ef, and Ev.
• How does conductivity change as a function of temperature for metals
and intrinsic semiconductors. What about for extrinsic (doped)
semiconductors?
• What are common n and p type dopants?
• What is the appropriate conductivity equation for intrinsic, n, and p type
semiconductors.
• How does the concentration of free charges change with temperature
and doping (for intrinsic and extrinsic semiconductors)?
• How does mobility change with temperature and doping?