EECS130
Integrated Circuit Devices
Professor Ali Javey
8/28/2007
Semiconductor Fundamentals
Lecture 1
Announcements
• Welcome back and happy Fall semester!!!
• No discussion sections this week
• No HW assignment for this week
Evolution of Devices
Yesterday’s Transistor (1947)
Today’s Transistor (2006)
Why “Semiconductors”?
• Conductors – e.g Metals
• Insulators – e.g. Sand (SiO2)
• Semiconductors
– conductivity between conductors and insulators
– Generally crystalline in structure
• In recent years, non-crystalline semiconductors have
become commercially very important
Polycrystalline amorphous crystalline
What are semiconductors
Elements: Si, Ge, C
Binary: GaAs, InSb, SiC, CdSe, etc.
Ternary+: AlGaAs, InGaAs, etc.
Electrons and Holes in Semiconductors
Silicon Crystal Structure
•
Unit cell of silicon crystal is
cubic.
•
Each Si atom has 4 nearest
neighbors.
5.43 Å
Silicon Wafers and Crystal Planes
z
z
z
y
(100) x
y
y
x
(011)
(111)
x
(100)
plane
(011)
flat
Si (111) plane
• The standard notation
for crystal planes is
based on the cubic
unit cell.
• Silicon wafers are
usually cut along the
(100) plane with a flat
or notch to help orient
the wafer during IC
fabrication.
Bond Model of Electrons and Holes (Intrinsic Si)
Si
Si
Si
Si
Si
Si
Si
Si
Si
• Silicon crystal in
a two-dimensional
representation.
Si
Si
Si
Si
Si
Si
Si
Si
Si
Si
Si
Si
Si
Si
Si
Si
Si
Si
• When an electron breaks loose and becomes a conduction
electron, a hole is also created.
Dopants in Silicon
Si
Si
Si
Si
Si
Si
Si
As
Si
Si
B
Si
Si
Si
Si
Si
Si
Si
N-type Si
P-type Si
• As (Arsenic), a Group V element, introduces conduction electrons and creates
N-type silicon, and is called a donor.
• B (Boron), a Group III element, introduces holes and creates P-type silicon,
and is called an acceptor.
• Donors and acceptors are known as dopants.
GaAs, III-V Compound Semiconductors, and Their Dopants
Ga
As
Ga As
Ga
As Ga
As
Ga As
Ga
• GaAs has the same crystal structure as Si.
• GaAs, GaP, GaN are III-V compound semiconductors, important for
optoelectronics.
• Which group of elements are candidates for donors? acceptors?
From Atoms to Crystals
conduction band
Energy
p
s
valence band
isolated atoms
lattice spacing
Decreasing atomic separation
• Energy states of Si atom (a) expand into energy bands of Si crystal (b).
• The lower bands are filled and higher bands are empty in a semiconductor.
• The highest filled band is the valence band.
• The lowest empty band is the conduction band .
Energy Band Diagram
Conduction band
Ec
Eg Band gap
Ev
Valence band
• Energy band diagram shows the bottom edge of conduction band,
Ec , and top edge of valence band, Ev .
• Ec and Ev are separated by the band gap energy, Eg .
Measuring the Band Gap Energy by Light Absorption
electron
Ec
photons
Eg
photon energy: h v > E g
Ev
hole
• Eg can be determined from the minimum energy (hν) of
photons that are absorbed by the semiconductor.
Bandgap energies of selected semiconductors
Material
E g (eV)
PbTe
Ge
Si
GaAs
GaP
Diamond
0.31
0.67
1.12
1.42
2.25
6.0
Temperature Effect on Band Gap
conduction band
Energy
p
s
valence band
isolated atoms
lattice spacing
Decreasing atomic separation
How does the band gap change with temperature?
Semiconductors, Insulators, and Conductors
Ec
Top of
conduction band
Ec
E g= 9 eV
empty
E g = 1.1 eV
Ev
Ev
Si (Semiconductor)
SiO (Insulator)
2
filled
Ec
Conductor
• Totally filled bands and totally empty bands do not allow
current flow. (Just as there is no motion of liquid in a
. totally empty bottle.)
totally filled or
• Metal conduction band is half-filled.
• Semiconductors have lower Eg 's than insulators and can be
doped.
Donor and Acceptor Levels in the Band Model
Conduction Band
Ed
Donor Level
Ec
Donor ionization energy
Acceptor ionization energy
Acceptor Level
Ea
Valence Band
Ev
Ionization energy of selected donors and acceptors in silicon
Donors
Dopant
Sb
Ionization energy, E c –E d or E a –E v (meV) 39
Hydrogen:
E ion =
P
44
m0 q4
8ε02h2
Acceptors
As
54
B
45
= 13.6 eV
Al
57
In
160
Dopants and Free Carriers
Donors
n-type
Acceptors
p-type
Dopant ionization
energy ~50meV (very low).
Electrons as Moving Particles
• An electron moves with a certain characteristic mass (from
f=ma) in vacuum
• In a solid, f=ma changes, so we can model this change via
an “effective” mass
Effective Mass
In an electric field, , an electron or a hole accelerates.
electrons
Remember :
F=ma=-qE
holes
Electron and hole effective masses
m n /m 0
m p /m 0
Si
0.26
0.39
Ge
0.12
0.30
GaAs
0.068
0.50
GaP
0.82
0.60