UNIT-1 PN JUNCTION DIODE 1.0 INTRODUCTON 1.0.1, Based on the electrical conductivity all the materials in nature are classified as insulators, semiconductors, and conductors. materials eo | Insulator: An insulator is @ material that offers a very low level (or negligible) of conductivity when voltage is applied. Eg: Paper, Mica, glass, quartz. Typical resistivity level of an insulator is of the order of 10" to 10" O-cm. The energy band structure of an insulator is shown ir the fig1.1. Band structure ‘of a material defines the band of encrgy levels that an electron can occupy. Valance band is the range of electron energy where the electron remain bended too the atom and do not contribute to the electric current. Conduction bend is the range of electron energies higher than valance band where electrons are free to accelerate under the influence of oxternal valtage source resulting in the flow of charge. The energy band between the valance band and conduction band \s called as forbidden band Bap. It is the energy required by an electron to move from balance band to conduction band i.e. the energy required for a valance electron to become a free electron, Lev=16x 10°) For an insulator, as shown in the fig.1.1 there is a large forbidden band gap of greater than Sty. Because of this large gap there a very few electrons in the CB and hence the conductivity of insulator is oor. Even an increase in temperature or applied electric field is insufficient to transfer electrons from Voiocn T omer Pee \T aa | corte yyy | WE Wy AN Yo) ee HAI FiG:1.1 Energy band diagrams insulator, semiconductor and conductorvoltage is conductor is a material which supports a generous flow of charge when 3 ‘spplied across ts terminals... thas very high conductivity. Eg: Copper, Aluminum, Silver, Gold, The Fesistivity of 2 conductor isin the order of 10° and 10° Q-cm. The Valance and conduction bands overlap (figh.1) and there is no energy gap for the electrons to move from valance band to conduction band. This implies that there are free electrons in CB even at absolute zero temperature (OK). Therefore at room temperature when clectric field is applied large current flows through the conductor. Semiconductor: A semiconductor is a material that has its conductivity somewhere between the insulator and conductor. The resistivity level is in the range of 10 and 10° -cm. Two of the most ‘commonly used are silicon (Si=14 atomic no.) and germanium (Ge=32 atomie no). Both have 4 valance ‘clectrons. The forbidden band gap is in the order of 1eV. For eg., the band gap energy for Si, Ge and GaAs is 1.21, 0.785 and 1.42 eV, respectively at absolute zero temperature (OK). At OK and at low temperatures, the valance band electrons do not have sufficient energy to move from V to CB. Thus semiconductors act @ insulators at OK. as the temperature increases, a large number of valance ‘electrons acquire sufficient energy to leave the VB, cross the forbidden bandgap and reach CB. These ‘are now free electrons as they can move freely under the influence of electric field. At room temperature there are sufficient electrons in the CB and hence the semiconductor is capable of conducting some current at room temperature Inversely related to the conductivity of a material is its resistance to the flow of charge or current. Typical resistivity values for various materials’ are given as follows. ants '500-cmn (Ge) 50x10" O-cm (Si) Typical resistivity values semiconductor ae eu l Ptipe tehpe is called as intrinsic. semiconductor. Conduction in on or crystal defects. Si and Ge are the two most important alFig 1.3a show that there is a hole at ion 6.lmagine that an electron from ion 5 moves into the hole at jon 6 so that the configuration of 1.3b results. if we compare both figi 3a &fig1.3b, it appears as if the hole has moved towards the left from ion6 to ton 5. Further if we compare fig 1.3 and fig 1.3¢, the hole moves from ionS to fon 4. This discussion indicates the motion of hole is in a direction ‘opposite to that of motion of electron. Hence we consider holes as physical entities whose movement constitutes flow of current. Ina pure semiconductor, the number of holes is equal to the number of free electrons. 1.0.2 EXTRINSIC SEMICONDUCTO! Intrinsic semiconductor has very limited applications as they conduct very small amounts of Current at room temperature. The current conduction capability of intrinsic semiconductor can be increased significantly by adding a small amounts impurity to the intrinsic semiconductor. By adding impurities it becomes impure or extrinsic semiconductor. This process of adding impurities is called as doping. The amount of impurity added is 1 part in 10° atoms. N type semiconductor: if the added impurity is a pentavalent atom then the resultant semiconductor is called N-type semiconductor. Fxamples of pentavalent impurities are Phosphorus, Arsenic, Bismuth, Antimony et. A pentavalent impurity has five valance electrons. Fig 1.4a shows the crystal structure of N-type semiconductor material where four out of five valance electrons of the impurity atom(antimony) forms. covalent bond with the four intrinsic semiconductor atoms. The fifth electron is loosely bound to the impurity atom, This loosely bound electron can be easily +> sifth valance electron of 58 = ce o_o 7 Donor energy level Ee. la ve Fig, 1.4bEnargy band diagram of N type Fig, 1.4a crystal structure of N type SC aTHence in W type se, as the no, of electrons increase the no. of holes decreas ‘similarly in #5 the no. of holes increases the no. of electrons decreases. Thus the product is constant and is /n? in case of intrinsie as well as extrinsic 5. ; ip between free electrons concentration and fed by the law of electrical neutrality 3s ‘aw of mass action has given the relationshi .. These concentrations are further relate electrical neutrality, in an jon is equal to f4wt negative bic centimeter and Na jor atoms are No and “are electrically neutral. According to the law of naterial, the magnitude of positive charge concentrath “Let us consider a sc that has No donor atoms per cul "the concentration of donor anc accept No positively charged ions per cubic centimeter are contributed by donor ‘charged ions per cubic centimeter are contsibuted by the acceptor atoms Let ‘electrons and holes respectively. Then according to the law of neutrality tion fee electron concentration is approximately equal to the concentra 1s since some confusion may arise as to which type of sc is underN junction allowing very large currents ge. The actual potential difference proximately 0.3v This condition represents the low resistance path throueh the P +0 flow through the diode with only a small increase in bias Vola cross the junction or diode is kept constant by the action ofthe depletion layer 3t20F forgermanlum and approximately 0.7 for siican junction diodes. since the diode can conduct infinite” current above this knee point ast efectively becomes a short orcut, therefore resistors are used in series with the diode to limit its current flow. Exceeding its maximum forward current specification causes the device to dissipate more power inthe form of heat than it was designed for F resulting ina very quick failure of the device. - 4.1.2 PN JUNCTION UNDER REVERSE BIAS CONDITION: Reverse Biased Junction Diode “When diode is connected in @ Reverse Bias condition, a positive voltage is applied to the N-type “material and a negative voltage is applied to the P-type material. The postive voltage applied to the N "type material attracts electrons towards the positive electrode and away from the junction, while the Jn the P-type end are also attracted away from the junction towards the negative electrode. The is that the depletion layer grows wider due to a lack of electrons and holes and presents 2 ice path, almost an insulator, The result is that a high potential barrier is created thus , current from flowing through the semiconductor material. Reverse Biased Junction Diode showing an Increase in the Depletion PN janet junction and practically zero current flows ‘However, avery small leakage current (uA). One final point, if the1.4 DIODE EQUIVALENT CIRCUITS ‘An equivalent circuit is a combination of elements properly chosen tobest represent the actual terminal characteristics of a device, system, or such in a particular operating region In other words, equivalent circuit is defined, the device symbol can be removed from 9 schematic and the ‘once the ual behavior of the system. The ‘equivalent circuit inserted inits place without severely affecting the acs results often a network that can be solved using traditional circuit analysis techniaues Piecewise-Linear Equivalent Circuit One technique for obtaining an equivalent circuit for a di {as shown in Fig, 1.21. The resi jode is to approximate the characteristics of the device by straight-line segments, ulting equivalent uit It should be obvious from Fig, 1.31 that circuit is naturally called the piecewise-linear equivalent ‘the straight-line segments do not result in an exact duplication of the actual characteristics, especially in the knee region. However, the resulting segments are sufficiently close to the actual curve to valent circuit that will provide an excellent first approximation to the act luded to establish that there is only one direction of conduction establish an equi tual behaviour of the device. The ideal diode is incl through the device, and a reverse-bias condition will result in the open-circuit state for the device. a silicon semiconductor, diode does not reach the conduction stat in Fig, 1.4a), a battery V; opposing the conduction direction rust apr ib. The battery simply specifies that the voltage across the Since 12 until VD reaches 0.7 V with 2 forward bias (as shown pear in the equivalent circuit as shown in Fig. 1.141 device must be greater than the threshold battery voltage before co 1c ideal diode can be established. When conduction is estal ynduction through the device in the direction dictated by thi lished, the resistance of the diode will be the specified value of ra. year model characteristics Fig: 1.14aDiode piecewise-lincontinue to regulate the voltage until the diodes current falls below the minimum |... value in the reverse breakdown region SPECIAL PURPOSE ELECTRONIC DEVICES 1.8 PRINCIPLE OF OPERATION AND CHARACTERISTICS OF TUNNEL DIODE ‘Atunnel ‘well into the microwave frequency region, by using quantum mechanical effects. de or Esaki diode is a type of semiconductor diode which is capable of very fast operation, It was invented in August 1957 by Leo Esaki when he was with Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo, now known as Sony. In 1973 he received the Nobel Prize in Physics, jointly with Brian Josephson, for discovering the electron tunneling effect used in these diodes, Robert Noyce independently came up with the idea of a tunnel diode while working for William Shockley, but was discouraged from pursuing it. Anode 4 cathode Fig 1.19: Tunnel diode schematic symbol ‘These diodes have a heavily doped p-n junction only some 10 nm (100 A) wide. The heavy doping results in a broken bandgap, where conduction band electron states on the n-side are more or less aligned with valence band hole states on the p-side. Tunnel diodes were manufactured by Sony for the first time in 1957 followed by General Electric and other companies from about 1960, and are still made in low volume today. Tunnel diodes are usually made from germanium, but can also be made in gallium arsenide and silicon materials. They can be used as oscillators, amplifiers, frequency converters and detectors. Tunnelling Phenomenon in a conventional semiconductor diode, conduction takes place while the p-n junction is forward biased and blocks current flow when the junction is reverse biased. This occurs up to a point known as the “reverse breakdown voltage” when conduction begins (often accompanied by destruction of the device), In the tunnel diode, the dopant concentration in the p and n layers are increased to the point where the reverse breakdown voltage becomes zero and the diode conducts in the reverse direction. However, when forward-biased, an odd effect occurs called “quantum mechanical tunnelling” which fives fise to a region where an increase in forward voltage is accompanied by a decrease in forward ‘current. This negative resistance region can be exploited in a solid state version of the dynatron ‘oscillator which normally uses a tetrode thermionic valve (or tube) Forward bias operation Under normal forward bias operation, as voltage begins to increase, electrons at first tunnel through the very narrow p-n junction barrier because filled electron states in the conduction band on the n-