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INSULATORS
Semiconductors
You learned that some materials
called conductors conduct
electricity while others called
insulators do not readily conduct
electricity. We will now study a
third type of material, the
semiconductors whose ability to
conduct electricity lies between
those of conductors and
Semiconductors
Semiconductors are employed in the
manufacture of various kinds of electronic
devices, including
diodes transistors Integrated circuit
What makes a semiconductor material
special?
Semiconductor materials have a natural
conduction called intrinsic conduction which
could be increased as the temperature of the
material is increased. In addition, they have an
artificial extra conduction due to impurities
added to them during manufacture. This latter
conduction is called impurity conduction or
extrinsic conduction.
In a semiconductor, the gap between
the valence band and conduction
band is smaller. At room temperature
there is sufficient energy available to
move some electrons from the
valence band into the conduction
band. This allows some conduction
to take place.
An increase in temperature
increases the conductivity of a
semiconductor because more
electrons will have enough energy to
move into the conduction band.
Doped Semiconductors
The process of deliberately adding
very small amounts of impurities or
foreign substances to an otherwise
pure substance is called doping, and
the impurities are called dopants .
Silicon and germanium crystals are
used in the manufacture of
semiconductor devices. They are
intrinsic semiconductors, or pure
semiconductors without doping.
They belong to Group IV .
Silicon and germanium have four
outer electrons per atom, and
doping them with an element with
five outer electrons such as
phosphorus frees the fifth electron
so that the semiconductor has an
excess electron.
It is then known as n-type (negative
type) semiconductor, because the
major charge carriers are negative
electrons.
free
electron
Doping with an element that
has only three outer electrons such
as boron or aluminum produces a
crystal lattice with spaces, known
as holes , which electrons from
nearby atoms readily fill.
Doping in semiconductors is the process of intentionally adding impurities to an
intrinsic (undoped) semiconductor material to modify its electrical properties,
primarily its conductivity. This is achieved by introducing dopant atoms into the
crystal lattice, which alters the number of free charge carriers (electrons or holes)
available for conduction.
This type of semiconductor does
not have free electrons which is an
equivalent to an excess of positive
charges . This is known as a p-type
(positive type) semiconductor.
Types of Semiconductors
Semiconductors can be classified as:
1. Intrinsic Semiconductor.
2. Extrinsic Semiconductor.
Extrinsic Semiconductors are further
classified as:
a. n-type Semiconductors.
b. p-type Semiconductors.
Intrinsic Semiconductor
Semiconductor in pure form
is known as Intrinsic
Semiconductor.
• Ex. Pure Germanium, Pure
Silicon.
• At room temperature
number of electrons to
number of holes.
Extrinsic Semiconductor
• When we add an impurity to pure
semiconductor to increase the charge
carriers then it becomes an Extrinsic
Semiconductor.
• In extrinsic semiconductor without
breaking the covalent bonds we can
increase the charge carriers.
Comparison of semiconductors
Intrinsic Extrinsic Semiconductor
Semiconductor 1. It is formed by adding
1. It is in pure form. trivalent or pentavalent
2. Holes and electrons impurity to a pure
are equal. semiconductor.
2. Number of holes are
more in p typeand
number of electrons are
more in n-type.
Comparison between n-type and p-type
semiconductors
Other examples:
Dopant Atom Type of Doping Host Material Resulting TypePhosphorus (P) Donor (n-type) Silicon (Si) n-
typeArsenic (As) Donor (n-type) Silicon (Si) n-typeBoron (B)Acceptor (p-type) Silicon (Si) p-typeGallium (Ga)
Acceptor (p-type) Silicon (Si) p-type
