1.

Classification of solids

The solids are classified into

1.Conductors 2.Insulators 3.Semiconductors
1.Conductor:When the outermost orbit of an atom has
less than four electrons, the material usually a metal or
conductor. These materials offer least resistance to the
flow of electric current and have resistivity in order of
10^-8 to 10^-6 ohm-m.
Ex: Silver, Copper
2. Insulator: When the outermost orbit of an atom has
more than four electrons, the material usually a non-
metal or insulator. These materials offer high resistance
to the flow of electric current and their resistivity in
order of 10^12 to 10^18 ohm-m.
Ex: Rubber,Paper,Mica etc.,
3.Semiconductor:
When the outermost orbit of an atom has exactly one
half the maximum of eight electrons i.e., four electrons,
the material has both metal and non-metal properties.
A semiconductor, therefore, is a material that has a
conductivity level somewhere between the extremes of
an insulator and a conductor.
Ex: Germanium, Silicon
These materials will act as insulators at 0 K
temperature.
Important Energy bands in solids
1.Valancy Band: The electrons in the outermost shell of an atom are
called valence electrons. The Energy band occupied by the valance
electrons is called the valence band.
2.Conduction Band :In certain materials the valance electrons are
loosely attached to the nucleus. Even at ordinary temperature, some
of the valance electrons may get detached to become free electrons.
These free electrons are responsible for conduction of current.
For this reason these electrons are called conduction electrons.
The band possessed by conduction electrons is known as conduction
band. It may either be empty or partially filled. It may be defined as the
lowest unfilled energy band in an atom.
3.Forbidden Energy gap: The separation between conduction band and
valence band in the energy level diagram is known as energy gap.
No electrons of a solid can stay in the forbidden energy gap .
Fig: conduction and valence bands of an insulator,
semiconductor, and conductor.
 Types of Semiconductors
Semiconductors mainly two types.
1.Intrinsic semiconductor 2.Extrinsic semiconductor

1.Intrinsic semiconductors:

A semiconductor is in extremely pure form is known as an intrinsic semiconductor.

Ex: Pure Germanium, Pure Silicon.
In intrinsic semiconductor even at room temperature a hole electron pairs are created.
When an electric field is applied across an intrinsic semiconductor the current takes
place by electrons and holes. Hence semiconductor conductance consists of
movement of electrons and holes in opposite directions in the conduction and
valance bands respectively. Alternatively an intrinsic semiconductor may be defined
as one in which the number of conduction electrons is equal to the number of holes.
 EXTRINSIC MATERIALS—n- AND p-TYPE

✓ The intrinsic semiconductor has little current conduction capability

at room temperature.
✓ The characteristics of semiconductor materials can be altered
significantly by the addition of certain impurity atoms into the
relatively pure semiconductor material.
✓ These impurities, although only added to perhaps 1 part in 10
million, can alter the band structure sufficiently to totally change the
electrical properties of the material.
semiconductor material that has been subjected to the
doping process is called an extrinsic material.
✓ The purpose of adding impurity is to increase either the number
of free electrons or holes in semiconductor crystal.
Depending upon the type of impurity added, extrinsic semiconductors are classified in to
(a) N-Type semiconductor (b) p-type semiconductor

N-Type semiconductor:
The n-type is created by introducing those impurity elements that have five valence
electrons (pentavalent), such as antimony, arsenic, and phosphorus etc.,
Each antimony atom forms covalent bonds with surrounding four silicon atoms
with the help four of its five electrons. The fifth electron is superfluous and is
loosely bound to the antimony atom. Hence it is easily excited from the valance
band to the conduction band by the application of electric field or increase in its
thermal energy. Thus practically every antimony atom introduced in to the silicon
lattice contributes one conduction electron without creating a positive hole. This
type of semiconductor is called n-type semiconductor. Antimony is called donor
impurity because they donate free electrons to the semiconductor crystal. After
donation of the one electron, the antimony becomes positive donor ion.
In addition to the free electrons, some electron hole pairs are generated with
the application of electric field. In n-type semiconductor the number of electrons
are more than holes. The electrons constitutes majority carriers while hole
constitutes minority carriers.
P-Type semiconductor:
When a small amount of trivalent impurity is added to pure semiconductor, it is known as a
P-Type semiconductor. Examples of trivalent impurities are 3rd group elements i.e., Boron,
Gallium etc. In case of the three valance electrons of boron atom form
covalent bonds with four surrounding silicon atoms but on bond is left incomplete and gives
rise a hole.
The p-type material is formed by doping a pure
germanium or silicon crystal with impurity atoms
having three valence electrons. The elements
most frequently used for this purpose are boron,
gallium, and indium. The effect of one of these
elements, boron, on a base of silicon is indicated
in Figure.
Note that there is now an insufficient number
of electrons to complete the covalent bonds of
the newly formed lattice. The resulting vacancy
is called a hole and is represented by a small
circle or positive sign due to the absence of a
negative charge. Since the resulting vacancy will
readily accept a “free” electron:
Majority and Minority Carriers

In an n-type material, the electron is called the majority carrier and the hole
the minority carrier.
In a p-type material the hole is the majority carrier and the electron is the
minority carrier.
 SEMICONDUCTOR DIODE

The semiconductor diode is formed by simply bringing the n- and p

-type materials together. At the instant the two materials are “joined”
the electrons and holes in the region of the junction will combine,
resulting in a lack of carriers in the region near the junction
This region of uncovered positive and negative ions is called the
depletion region due to the depletion of carriers in this region..
The majority carriers (electrons) of
the n-type material must overcome
the attractive forces of the layer of
positive ions in the n-type material
and the shield of negative ions in
the p-type material to migrate into
the area beyond the depletion
region of the p-type material.

Under no-bias (no applied voltage) conditions, any minority carriers (holes) in the
n-type material that find themselves within the depletion region will pass directly
into the p-type material
In the absence of an applied bias voltage, the net flow of charge in any one
direction for a semiconductor diode is zero.
If an external potential of V volts is applied
across the p-n junction such that the positive
terminal is connected to the n-type material
and the negative terminal is connected to the
p-type material as shown in Fig. the number of
uncovered positive ions in the depletion region
of the n-type material will increase due to the
large number of “free” electrons drawn to the
positive potential of the applied voltage.
For similar reasons, the number of uncovered negative ions will increase in the p-
type material. The net effect, therefore, is a widening of the depletion region. This
widening of the depletion region will establish too great a barrier for the majority
carriers to overcome, effectively reducing the majority carrier flow to zero as shown
in Fig

The current that exists under reverse-bias conditions is called the

reverse saturation current and is represented by Is.
The application of a forward-bias
potential VD will “pressure” electrons
in the n-type material and holes in the
p-type material to recombine with the
ions near the boundary and reduce
the width of the depletion region as
shown in Fig.
As the applied bias increases in magnitude the depletion region will continue
to decrease in width until a flood of electrons can pass through the junction,
resulting in an exponential rise in current as shown in the forward-bias region
of the characteristics of Fig. 1.19.
the general characteristics of a semiconductor diode can be defined by the
following equation for the forward- and reverse-bias regions:
 Ideal Diode

A diode is said to be an Ideal Diode when it is forward biased and acts like a perfect
conductor, with zero voltage across it. Similarly, when the diode is reversed biased,
it acts as a perfect insulator with zero current through it.

V-I characteristics of the Ideal diode

Difference between Ideal diodes and Practical diodes

Ideal diodes Practical diodes

Ideal diodes act as perfect conductor and perfect Practical diodes cannot act as perfect conductor and
insulator. perfect insulator.

Practical diode draws very low current when reverse

Ideal diode draws no current when reverse biased.
biased.

Ideal diode offers infinite resistance when reverse Practical diode offers very high resistance when reverse
biased. biased.

It cannot be manufactured. It can be manufactured.

It has zero cut-in voltage. It has very low cut-in voltage.

Ideal diode has zero voltage drops across its junction It has very low voltage drop across it, when forward
when forward biased. biased.
Diode Applications
 Drift Current and Diffusion Current:

Drift Current: Under the action of electric field the charge carriers ( electrons and holes)
in the semiconductor material stops moving randomly and start drifting towards or away
the applied electric field depends upon their nature. This drift of charge carriers produces
drift current. For drift current external electric field is essential.
Diffusion Current: In semiconductor there may arise a situation where the concentration of
charge carriers within the crystal becomes different and hence producing concentration gradient,
due to which charge carriers cross the surface to maintain equilibrium and constitute a current
which is known as diffusion current. or diffusion current external field is not required any
external energy may stimulate this process. It depends upon rate of charge of carrier
concentration per unit length.
Single Phase Half-wave rectifier:

It converts alternating voltage into unidirectional pulsating voltage, using one half
cycles of the applied voltage, the other half cycles being suppressed because it
conducts only in one direction. This is called half-wave rectifier.
DC output current The average or dc value of output current is given as
 RMS Value of output Voltage

Ripple Factor
Ripple Factor is defined as the ratio of rms value of ac component to the dc component
in the output.
 Form Factor

Efficiency=P dc / P ac

=0.406
=40.6%

FULL-WAVE RECTIFIER

In half-wave rectifier only one half cycle of the input are utilized but in
full-wave rectifiers both half cycles of the input are utilized.
There are two types of full-wave rectifier circuits namely
1.centre-tap rectifier and
2.bridge rectifier.
 FULL-WAVE RECTIFIER

In half-wave rectifier only one half cycle of the input are utilized but in
full-wave rectifiers both half cycles of the input are utilized.
There are two types of full-wave rectifier circuits namely
1.centre-tap rectifier and
2.bridge rectifier.

1.centre-tap full-wave rectifier

2.Bridge rectifier
1.Maximum or Peak current

2.DC output Current

Since the current is the same through the load resistance RL in the two halves
of the ac cycle, magnitude of DC current Idc is equal to the average value of
alternating current, can be obtained by integrating the current
3.DC output Voltage
Average or DC value of voltage across the load is given as

4.RMS Value of Current

RMS or effective value of current flowing through the load resistance RL is given as

4.RMS Value of Voltage

6.Ripple factor:
Form factor of the rectified output voltage of a full-wave rectifier is given as

Efficiency=P dc / P ac

=0.812
=81.2%
Half Wave Rectifier With filter
Full wave rectifier with filter