Introduction to

SEMICONDUCTORS
ECE104 – Basic Electronics
Contents
• Electricity
• Atomic Structure & Bohr Atomic Model
• Electrical Classifications of Materials
• Energy Bands
• Bonding of Atoms
• Summary

Electricity
Electricity
• Electricity: phenomenon associated with the presence
and motion of electrons and other charged particles
• Electric Current: the directional motion of electrons
• Electrostatics: deals with stationary charged particles
• Magnetism: effects of moving electrons
• Electromagnetism: magnetism due to electric current

Atomic Structure
 Atomic Structure
• Electrons are present in every material and its motions
are usually illustrated together with protons and
neutrons within an atomic structure.

Electrons Nucleus, where

(orbiting)
protons & neutrons
reside

Elementary Particles:
Electrons are negatively charged particles
Protons are positively charged particles
Neutrons are electrically neutral (no charge) Ronel V. Vidal, PECE
 Atomic Structure
• in the study of electricity, the most fundamental particle involved is
the electron
• Joseph John Thomson (1856 – 1940)
• British physicist who discovered the electron in 1897, which he
initially called corpuscles (living cell)
Elementary Charge Mass Charge to
Particle (Coulomb), C (kg), kg Mass Ratio
(C/ Kg)
Electron – 1.602X10 – 19 9.109X10 – 31 1.76X10 11
Proton +1.602X10 – 19 1.673X10 – 27 3.58X10 7
Neutron None 1.673X10 – 27 None
Ronel V. Vidal, PECE
 Structure of Matter
• The elementary particles are basic form of matter, and as they
combine they form another matter, the atom; and as atoms combine,
forms yet another different matter
• Matter: anything in the universe that has mass, occupies space, and is
convertible to energy
• Atom: a substance consisting of the basic particles electrons, protons,
and neutrons. As atoms combine they form either an element or a
compound
• Element: substance consisting of atoms of only one kind and
considered as the elementary chemical identity of materials
• Compound: a combination of two or more different atoms or
elements and most of the insulators are compound
 Structure of Matter
• Molecule: the smallest part of a compound or material that retains all
the properties of the compound
• Atomic Number: represents the number of protons in the nucleus of
an atom, which in a neutral atom equals the number of electrons in
the shells surrounding the nucleus
• Atomic Mass: mass of the atom, which represents the sum of protons
and neutrons; electron has a relatively very small mass and therefore
neglected
• Valence Shell: the outermost shell or the last shell, this shell or orbit is
filled with the remaining electrons
Ronel V. Vidal, PECE
 Structure of Matter
• Valence Electrons: describe the number of electrons on the
outermost shell of an atom
• Free Electrons: electrons dislodged from the outer shell of an atom
(valence electrons) and as they gain enough energy they escape from
the valence shell and become free
• Free Electrons do not remain permanently associated with the atoms
of a solid, they move from one atom to another and during
conduction of electricity, it is these free electrons that will be in
motion

Bohr Atomic Structure

Ronel V. Vidal, PECE
 BOHR Atomic Model
• Niels Henrik David Bohr (1885 – 1962)
• Danish physicist who in 1913 developed a new model
of atomic structure called the Bohr Atomic Model
• The Bohr model was an improvement of the one first
proposed in 1912 by New Zealand physicist Ernest
Rutherford (1871 – 1937), whom Bohr worked with
BOHR Atomic Model
• The Bohr Atomic Model:
Simplified atomic structure
of Si atom (14)
• Maximum number of
electrons in a shell:
𝑁𝑒 = 2𝑛2
• Electrons can jump from
one orbit to another by
emitting or absorbing http://ee-lab.blogspot.com/

energy
Electrical Classifications of Material
 Electrical Classifications of Materials
• The number of valence electrons is a common
indication that tells us the electrical characteristics of a
material
• Conductor
• Insulator
• Semiconductor

Ronel V. Vidal, PECE

 Conductors
• materials with less than four valence electrons
• materials with very low value of electrical resistivity
• materials that allow electrical current to flow easily
because they have more free electrons
Insulators
• materials with more than four valence electrons
• materials with very high value of electrical resistivity
• has a characteristic that is extremely opposite to that
of conductors
• will not allow electrical current to flow easily because
they have very few or even no free electrons
• materials with stable atomic structure

Ronel V. Vidal, PECE

Semiconductors
• materials with electrical characteristics in between
conductors and insulators
• materials with four valence electrons
• materials that do not allow current to flow as easily as
conductors do and under some conditions,
semiconductors can conduct so poorly that they
behave as insulator

Ronel V. Vidal, PECE

Semiconductors
Examples:
• Elementary Semiconductors (Group IV A)
Silicon (Si)
Germanium (Ge)
• Compound Semiconductors (IIIA – VA)
Gallium Arsenide (GaAs)
Aluminum Arsenide (AlAs)
Gallium Phosphide (GaP)
 Approximate Conductivity of Some Common
Materials at 20°C
Conductivity Conductivity
Conductors Conductors
(Siemens/m) (Siemens/m)
Silver 6.1 X 107 Brass 1.1 x 107
Copper 5.8 X 107 Iron (pure) 107
Gold 4.1 X 107 Lead 5 x 106
Aluminum 3.5 X107 Mercury 106
Tungsten 1.8 x 107 Carbon 3 X 104
Zinc 1.7 x 107 Water (sea) 4
 Approximate Conductivity of Some Common
Materials at 20°C
Conductivity Conductivity
Insulators Insulators
(Siemens/m) (Siemens/m)
Water (distilled) 10– 4 Mica 10–15
Paraffin 10–15
Earth (dry) 10–5
Rubber
Bakelite 10–10 10–15
(hard)
Paper 10–11 Quartz
Glass 10–12 10–17
(fused)
Porcelain 10–12 Wax 10–17
Approximate Conductivity of Some Common
Materials at 20°C
Semiconductors Conductivity (Siemens/m)
Germanium (pure) 2.2
Silicon (pure) 4.4 X 10– 4
Conductors, Semiconductors and Insulators
ℓ
𝑅=𝜌
𝐴
Where:
R ≡ resistance of sample
ρ ≡ resistivity (ohm cm)
A ≡ cross sectional area
ℓ ≡ length of sample
σ = 1/ρ
σ ≡ conductivity (mho/cm)
1 Siemen (S) = 1 mho/m log scale of conductivity (S)
mho = 1/ohm = 1/Ω
Energy Bands
 Energy Bands
• Before a valence electron can escape from its shell and becomes free,
it must gain energy of at least equal to the energy gap
• Energy Gap (eV ): the energy difference between the valence band &
conduction band
• Valence Band: the region where the valence shell & valence electrons
are occupying, and the highest energy level before conduction band
• Conduction Band: the region where free electrons are said to be
present with higher energy level than those electrons at the valence
band
• Forbidden Band: the region in an atom where no electrons exist
Energy Band Diagram of an Atom

Conduction Band
Highest Energy Level

Forbidden Band Eg Eg – Energy Gap

Increasing Energy Level

Valence Band Valence Shell Band

Levels between the 1st

1st Energy Level Energy Level and Valence
Forbidden Band Band
Nucleus
Ground State 1st shell closest to the nucleus electrons

Ronel V. Vidal, PECE

Energy Gap (Eg) Comparison

Energy Energy Energy

Conduction Conduction Conduction

Band Band Band
Bands
Eg=0eV
Eg>5eV Forbidden Eg overlap
Band
Valence Valence
electrons Valence Eg=1.1eV(Si)
Valence Eg=0.67eV(Ge)
Band
Band
Band

Insulator Semiconductor Conductor

with more than four with exactly four with less than four
valence electrons valence electrons valence electrons
 Energy Bands
• the wider the energy gap (Eg), the harder the material can
produce free electrons
• conductors produce free electrons easily than semiconductor
• Germanium produces more free electrons than silicon and
relatively has higher leakage current
• Germanium devices like diode, has lower switch – on voltage
(threshold) than silicon diode due to its lower energy – gap

Bonding of Atoms
Bonding of Atoms
• Ionic Bond or Electrovalent or Electrostatic Bond
• results from the attractive forces between positive and
negative ions or between pairs
• can be achieved by giving off or acquiring electrons from
other atom to achieve stable condition
• forms insulators
Bonding of Atoms
• Metallic Bond
• results from attractive forces between a group of positive
ions and a sea of electrons that are free to move about
among its ions
• when similar atoms with very few electrons on the
outermost shell may allow free electrons to move from one
atom to another
• forms conductors
Bonding of Atoms

www.dvusd.org
The outer electrons are so weakly bound to metal atom that they are free to
roam across the entire metal. Having lost their outer electrons, individual
metal atoms are more like positive ions in a swarm of communal electrons.
Bonding of Atoms
• Covalent Bond
• results when atoms share their valence electrons
with other atoms to achieve stable condition
• the shared electrons are attracted simultaneously to
two atoms resulting in a force that holds them
together
• forms semiconductors
Bonding of Atoms
• Covalent Bond

SolarWiki
Summary
• An atom is stable if there are _____ electrons on the
outermost shell (for more than one shell) or ____ electrons
(for only one shell)
• The three types of materials according to electrical
characteristics are _______________, ______________, and
______________.
• The three types of chemical bonding that form the three
types of electrical materials are _____________,
______________ and ___________.
End

Ronel V. Vidal, PECE