semiconductor device

Semiconductor materials

Solid-state materials are commonly grouped into three classes: insulators, semiconductors, and conductors. (At low temperatures some conductors, semiconductors, and insulators may become superconductors.) Figure 1 shows the conductivities σ (and the corresponding resistivities ρ = 1/σ) that are associated with some important materials in each of the three classes. Insulators, such as fused quartz and glass, have very low conductivities, on the order of 10⁻¹⁸ to 10⁻¹⁰ siemens per centimetre; and conductors, such as aluminum, have high conductivities, typically from 10⁴ to 10⁶ siemens per centimetre. The conductivities of semiconductors are between these extremes.

The conductivity of a semiconductor is generally sensitive to temperature, illumination, magnetic fields, and minute amounts of impurity atoms. For example, the addition of less than 0.01 percent of a particular type of impurity can increase the electrical conductivity of a semiconductor by four or more orders of magnitude (i.e., 10,000 times). The ranges of semiconductor conductivity due to impurity atoms for five common semiconductors are given in Figure 1.

The study of semiconductor materials began in the early 19th century. Over the years, many semiconductors have been investigated. The table shows a portion of the periodic table related to semiconductors. The elemental semiconductors are those composed of single species of atoms, such as silicon (Si), germanium (Ge), and gray tin (Sn) in column IV and selenium (Se) and tellurium (Te) in column VI. There are, however, numerous compound semiconductors that are composed of two or more elements. Gallium arsenide (GaAs), for example, is a binary III-V compound, which is a combination of gallium (Ga) from column III and arsenic (As) from column V.

Ternary compounds can be formed by elements from three different columns, as, for instance, mercury indium telluride (HgIn₂Te₄), a II-III-VI compound. They also can be formed by elements from two columns, such as aluminum gallium arsenide (Al_xGa_{1 − x}As), which is a ternary III-V compound, where both Al and Ga are from column III and the subscript x is related to the composition of the two elements from 100 percent Al (x = 1) to 100 percent Ga (x = 0). Pure silicon is the most important material for integrated circuit application, and III-V binary and ternary compounds are most significant for light emission.

Prior to the invention of the bipolar transistor in 1947, semiconductors were used only as two-terminal devices, such as rectifiers and photodiodes. During the early 1950s, germanium was the major semiconductor material. However, it proved unsuitable for many applications, because devices made of the material exhibited high leakage currents at only moderately elevated temperatures. Since the early 1960s, silicon has become a practical substitute, virtually supplanting germanium as a material for semiconductor fabrication. The main reasons for this are twofold: (1) silicon devices exhibit much lower leakage currents, and (2) high-quality silicon dioxide (SiO₂), which is an insulator, is easy to produce. Silicon technology is now by far the most advanced among all semiconductor technologies, and silicon-based devices constitute more than 95 percent of all semiconductor hardware sold worldwide.

Many of the compound semiconductors have electrical and optical properties that are absent in silicon. These semiconductors, especially gallium arsenide, are used mainly for high-speed and optoelectronic applications.

Electronic properties

The semiconductor materials treated here are single crystals—i.e., the atoms are arranged in a three-dimensional periodic fashion. Figure 2A shows a simplified two-dimensional representation of an intrinsic silicon crystal that is very pure and contains a negligibly small amount of impurities. Each silicon atom in the crystal is surrounded by four of its nearest neighbours. Each atom has four electrons in its outer orbit and shares these electrons with its four neighbours. Each shared electron pair constitutes a covalent bond. The force of attraction for the electrons by both nuclei holds the two atoms together.

At low temperatures the electrons are bound in their respective positions in the crystal; consequently, they are not available for electrical conduction. At higher temperatures thermal vibration may break some of the covalent bonds. The breaking of a bond yields a free electron that can participate in current conduction. Once an electron moves away from a covalent bond, there is an electron deficiency in that bond. This deficiency may be filled by one of the neighbouring electrons, which results in a shift of the deficiency location from one site to another. This deficiency may thus be regarded as a particle similar to an electron. This fictitious particle, dubbed a hole, carries a positive charge and moves, under the influence of an applied electric field, in a direction opposite to that of an electron.

For an isolated atom, the electrons of the atom can have only discrete energy levels. When a large number of atoms are brought together to form a crystal, the interaction between the atoms causes the discrete energy levels to spread out into energy bands. When there is no thermal vibration (i.e., at low temperature), the electrons in a semiconductor will completely fill a number of energy bands, leaving the rest of the energy bands empty. The highest filled band is called the valence band. The next higher band is the conduction band, which is separated from the valence band by an energy gap. This energy gap, also called a bandgap, is a region that designates energies that the electrons in the semiconductor cannot possess. Most of the important semiconductors have bandgaps in the range 0.25 to 2.5 eV. The bandgap of silicon, for example, is 1.12 eV and that of gallium arsenide is 1.42 eV.

As discussed above, at finite temperatures thermal vibrations will break some bonds. When a bond is broken, a free electron, along with a free hole, results, i.e., the electron possesses enough thermal energy to cross the bandgap to the conduction band, leaving behind a hole in the valence band. When an electric field is applied to the semiconductor, both the electrons in the conduction band and the holes in the valence band gain kinetic energy and conduct electricity. The electrical conductivity of a material depends on the number of charge carriers (i.e., free electrons and free holes) per unit volume and on the rate at which these carriers move under the influence of an electric field. In an intrinsic semiconductor there exists an equal number of free electrons and free holes. The electrons and holes, however, have different mobilities—that is to say, they move with different velocities in an electric field. For example, for intrinsic silicon at room temperature, the electron mobility is 1,500 square centimetres per volt second (cm²/V·s)—i.e., an electron will move at a velocity of 1,500 centimetres per second under an electric field of one volt per centimetre—while the hole mobility is 500 cm²/V·s. The mobilities of a given semiconductor generally decrease with increasing temperature or with increased impurity concentration.

Electrical conduction in intrinsic semiconductors is quite poor at room temperature. To produce higher conduction, one can intentionally introduce impurities (typically to a concentration of one part per million host atoms). This is the so-called doping process. For example, when a silicon atom is replaced by an atom with five outer electrons such as arsenic (Figure 2C), four of the electrons form covalent bonds with the four neighbouring silicon atoms. The fifth electron becomes a conduction electron that is “donated” to the conduction band. The silicon becomes an n-type semiconductor because of the addition of the electron. The arsenic atom is the donor. Similarly, Figure 2C shows that, when an atom with three outer electrons such as boron is substituted for a silicon atom, an additional electron is “accepted” to form four covalent bonds around the boron atom, and a positively charged hole is created in the valence band. This is a p-type semiconductor, with the boron constituting an acceptor.