Lecture #4

ANNOUNCEMENTS
• Prof. King will not hold office hours this week, but will hold
an extra office hour next Mo (2/3) from 11AM-12:30PM
• Quiz #1 will be given at the beginning of class on Th 2/6
– covers material in Chapters 1 & 2 (HW#1 & HW#2)
– closed book; one page of notes allowed

OUTLINE
– Drift (Chapter 3.1)
» carrier motion
» mobility
» resistivity
Spring 2003 EE130 Lecture 4, Slide 1

Nondegenerately Doped Semiconductor

• Recall that the expressions for n and p were derived using
the Boltzmann approximation, i.e. we assumed

Ev + 3kT ≤ EF ≤ Ec − 3kT

The semiconductor is said to be nondegenerately doped in this case.

Spring 2003 EE130 Lecture 4, Slide 2

1
 Degenerately Doped Semiconductor
• If a semiconductor is very heavily doped, the Boltzmann
approximation is not valid.
In Si at T=300K: Ec-EF < 3kT if ND > 1.6x1018 cm-3

EF-Ev < 3kT if NA > 9.1x1017 cm-3

The semiconductor is said to be degenerately doped in this case.

Ev + 3kT ≤ EF ≤ Ec − 3kT

Spring 2003 EE130 Lecture 4, Slide 3

Band Gap Narrowing

• If the dopant concentration is a significant fraction of
the silicon atomic density, the energy-band structure
is perturbed
Æ the band gap is reduced by ∆EG

N = 1018 cm-3:

N = 1019 cm-3:

Spring 2003 EE130 Lecture 4, Slide 4

2
 Free Carriers in Semiconductors
• Three primary types of carrier action occur
inside a semiconductor:

– drift

– diffusion

– recombination-generation

Spring 2003 EE130 Lecture 4, Slide 5

Electrons as Moving Particles

F = (-q) = moa F = (-q) = mn*a

where
mn* is the electron effective mass

Spring 2003 EE130 Lecture 4, Slide 6

3
 Carrier Effective Mass
In an electric field, , an electron or a hole accelerates:

electrons

holes

Electron and hole conductivity effective masses:

Si Ge GaAs
m n /m 0 0.26 0.12 0.068
m p /m 0 0.39 0.30 0.50

Spring 2003 EE130 Lecture 4, Slide 7

Thermal Velocity
3 1
Average electron or hole kinetic energy = kT = m * vth
2

2 2

3 kT 3 × 0 . 026 eV × (1 . 6 × 10 − 19 J/eV)
v th = =
m* 0 . 26 × 9 . 1 × 10 − 31 kg
= 2 . 3 × 10 5 m/s = 2 . 3 × 10 7 cm/s

Spring 2003 EE130 Lecture 4, Slide 8

4
 Carrier Scattering
• Mobile electrons and atoms in the Si lattice are
always in random thermal motion.
– Electrons make frequent collisions with the vibrating atoms
• “lattice scattering” or “phonon scattering”
– increases with increasing temperature
– Average velocity of thermal motion for electrons: ~107 cm/s @ 300K
• Other scattering mechanisms:
– deflection by ionized impurity atoms
– deflection due to Coulombic force between carriers
• “carrier-carrier scattering”
• only significant at high carrier concentrations

• The net current in any direction is zero, if no electric

field is applied. 2 3
1
4 electron
Spring 2003 EE130 Lecture 4, Slide 9
5

Carrier Drift
• When an electric field (e.g. due to an externally applied
voltage) is applied to a semiconductor, mobile charge-
carriers will be accelerated by the electrostatic force. This
force superimposes on the random motion of electrons:
2
3 1
4 electron
5

• Electrons drift in the direction opposite to the electric field

Æ current flows
™ Because of scattering, electrons in a semiconductor do not achieve
constant acceleration. However, they can be viewed as quasi-classical
particles moving at a constant average drift velocity vd
Spring 2003 EE130 Lecture 4, Slide 10

5
 Electron Momentum
• With every collision, the electron loses momentum
mn*vd

• Between collisions, the electron gains momentum

(-q) τmn

where τmn = average time between scattering events

Spring 2003 EE130 Lecture 4, Slide 11

Carrier Mobility

mn*vd = (-q) τmn

|vd| = q τmn / mn* = µn

• µn ≡ [qτmn / mn*] is the electron mobility

Similarly, for holes: |vd| = q τmp / mp* ≡ µp

• µp ≡ [qτmp / mp*] is the hole mobility

Spring 2003 EE130 Lecture 4, Slide 12

6
 Electron and Hole Mobilities

 cm/s cm 2 
µ has the dimensions of v/ :  = 
 V/cm V ⋅ s 

Electron and hole mobilities of selected

intrinsic semiconductors (T=300K)

Si Ge GaAs InAs
2
µ n (cm /V·s) 1400 3900 8500 30000
µ p (cm2/V·s) 470 1900 400 500

Spring 2003 EE130 Lecture 4, Slide 13

Example: Drift Velocity Calculation

Find the hole drift velocity in an intrinsic Si sample for = 103 V/cm.
What is τmp, and what is the distance traveled between collisions?

Solution:

Spring 2003 EE130 Lecture 4, Slide 14

7
 Mobility Dependence on Doping
1600

1400 1 1 1
= +
1200
τ τ phonon τ impurity
E lectrons
1 1 1
= +
Mobility (cm V s )
-1

1000
µ µ phonon µ impurity
-1

800
2

600

400
H o les
200

1E 14 1E 15 1E 16 1E 17 1E 18 1E 19 1E 20
-3
Total Doping
T otal Concentration
Im p urity C on ce nra tio nN(a
A + ND (cm )
to m s cm -3)

Spring 2003 EE130 Lecture 4, Slide 15

Drift Current

vd t A = volume from which all holes cross plane in time t

p vd t A = # of holes crossing plane in time t
q p vd t A = charge crossing plane in time t
q p vd A = charge crossing plane per unit time = hole current
Î Hole current per unit area J = q p vd
Spring 2003 EE130 Lecture 4, Slide 16

8
 Conductivity and Resistivity

Jn,drift = –qnv = qnµn

Jp,drift = qpv = qpµp

Jdrift = Jn,drift + Jp,drift = σ =(qnµn+qpµp)

Conductivity of a semiconductor is σ ≡ qnµn + qpµp

Resistivity ρ ≡ 1 / σ (Unit: ohm-cm)

Spring 2003 EE130 Lecture 4, Slide 17

Resistivity Dependence on Doping

For n-type mat’l:

1
ρ≅
qnµ n

p-type For p-type mat’l:

1
n-type ρ≅
qpµ p

Note: This plot does not apply

for compensated material!

Spring 2003 EE130 Lecture 4, Slide 18

9
 Electrical Resistance
V
I _
+
W
t
homogeneously doped sample

V L
Resistance R≡ =ρ (Unit: ohms)
I Wt
where ρ is the resistivity
Spring 2003 EE130 Lecture 4, Slide 19

Example
Consider a Si sample doped with 1016/cm3 Boron.
What is its resistivity?
Answer:
NA = 1016/cm3 , ND = 0 (NA >> ND Æ p-type)
Æ p ≈ 1016/cm3 and n ≈ 104/cm3
1 1
ρ= ≅
qnµ n + qpµ p qpµ p
[
= (1.6 × 10 −19 )(1016 )(450) ]−1
= 1.4 Ω − cm
Spring 2003 EE130 Lecture 4, Slide 20

10
 Example: Dopant Compensation
Consider the same Si sample, doped additionally
with 1017/cm3 Arsenic. What is its resistivity?
Answer:
NA = 1016/cm3, ND = 1017/cm3 (ND>>NA Æ n-type)
Æ n ≈ 9x1016/cm3 and p ≈ 1.1x103/cm3
1 1
ρ= ≅
qnµ n + qpµ p qnµ n
[
= (1.6 ×10 −19 )(9 × 1016 )(600) ]
−1
= 0.12 Ω − cm
Spring 2003 EE130 Lecture 4, Slide 21

Summary
• Electrons and holes moving under the influence of an
electric field can be modelled as quasi-classical
particles with average drift velocity
|vd| = µ

• The conductivity of a semiconductor is dependent on

the carrier concentrations and mobilities
σ = qnµn + qpµp

1 1
• Resistivity ρ= =
σ qnµ n + qpµ p
Spring 2003 EE130 Lecture 4, Slide 22

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