Outlines

• Introduction to Electronics
• History of Electronics
• Basics of Semiconductors
• ..\EE I Course file\EE I theory course handout
2017- 2018.docx

• ..\EE I Course file\Teaching shedule EE I.doc

 Why Electronics?
Electronics : They are here, there, and everywhere
DOMESTIC : Televisions , Radio , Tape recorders ,Stereo record players, Voltage
stabilizers , Emergency lights, UPS , Washing machines,Refrigerators , Mobile phones ,
Remote controls, Laptops, chargers,AC etc..

MEDICAL FIELD : ECG , EMG , EEG , X-ray machine , Electron microscope, Ultra sound
scanning machines, Computers etc..

MILITARY APPLICATIONS : Design of RADAR , Anti – aircraft guns , Space craft ,Guided missiles etc..

OTHER MISCELLANEOUS APPLICATIONS: Air traffic control , Research labs , Desk

calculators, Modem ,Automobiles, Process control industries to monitor & Control
temperature , pressure , humidity of chemicals , Automatic welding circuits ,
Over current protection through solid state circuit breakers ,automatic door
openers , lighting systems , sound systems , power systems and safety
devices and many more.
Owing to vast applications of electronics , its study has
become imperative
 What is Electronics
Electronics is derived from two words Electron &
Mechanics .
Electronics = Electron + Mechanics
It is a field of science and engineering which deals
with motion(mechanics) of electron in a
Semiconductor material (Device) under the
application of Electric field.
The Institution of Radio Engineers(IRE) has
defined the term Electronics as that field of
Science and Engineering which deals with the
study of Electronic devices and their Utilization or
Application
 What Do Electronic Devices Do?
They are capable of performing various functions
such as
• Rectification : Conversion of AC into DC –
Chargers and Adaptors
• Amplification : Strengthening a weak signal –
Amplifiers
• Conversion of Light into electricity and vice versa
• Conversion of DC into AC – Inverters.
• The above functions are a part of important
applications in today’s world of technology which
are directly or indirectly related to our daily life.
 Historical Perspective
• Electronics took birth in 1897 when J.A.Fleming
invented Vacuum Diode which was capable of
Rectification of Ac Signals
• Major breakthrough in the field of electronics
occurred in 1906 when Lee Dee Forest invented
Triode which could be used for amplification of
electrical signals .
Triode revolutionized information
processing
It enabled Communication, processing and storage of
information
NAND and NOR

Amplifier

NOR Latch acting as

memory element
 Although the seed of information revolution was there in
Triode itself, it was difficult to harness it
Integration level was limited

ENIAC: Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer

The ENIAC contained 17,468 vacuum
tubes, along with 70,000 resistors,
10,000 capacitors, 1,500 relays, 6,000
manual switches and 5 million
soldered joints
It weighed 30 tons, consumed 160 kilowatts of electrical power,
Records from 1952 show that approximately 19,000 vacuum tubes had to be replaced in
that year alone, which averages out to about 50 tubes a day!
 THE TRANSISTOR 1948
John Bardeen , Walter Brattain , William
Shockley

A Transistor could do most of what a

triode could do and it was smaller,
consumed less power and was more
reliable
 Integration level was better but still limited

The first Japanese all- transistorized desk calculator, 1964.

Sharp CS-10A, 1964
-530 germanium transistors and
2300 diodes.
-Size 420 x 440 x 250 mm (16.5" x
17.3" x 9.8"), 25Kg
-Cost 535 thousand yen (about
US$1,490)
-90 Watts of power
What occupied a room earlier, now occupied a table top
 Integrated Circuit : 1958

Robert Noyce

Jack Kilby

An integrated circuit or monolithic integrated circuit (also referred to as an IC,

a chip, or a microchip) is a set of electronic circuits on one small flat piece (or
"chip") of semiconductor material, normally silicon. The integration of large
numbers of tiny transistors into a small chip results in circuits that are orders of
magnitude smaller, cheaper, and faster than those constructed of
discrete electronic components
 Discrete Vs Monolithic(IC)
μA 741 OP AMP

What takes an area of 10 cm on bread board just for 9

transistors took just 1 cm on an IC
 IC Technology
• As technology advanced transistor got smaller and smaller
and it was possible to place many transistors and hence
develop many circuits within a small die area
• SSI: Small scale integration. 3 – 30 gates per chip.
• MSI: Medium scale integration. 30 – 300 gates per chip.
• LSI: Large scale integration. 300 – 3,000 gates per chip.
• VLSI: Very large scale integration. More than 3,000 gates
per chip.
• Our mobile phones and many of today's Electronic
Systems Like Computers Contains millions of transistors
which is a consequence of advancement in IC technology
• In Today’s Nano-technology the size of a transistor is of the
order of a size of an atom!!!!.
• Today’s Electronic terminals have millions of transistors
with size of each of them being 4 nm!!!
 INTEL 4004 – 1971
2300 Transistors
Size 12 mm2

This revolutionary microprocessor, measuring 1/8th by 1/6th of an

inch—the size of a fingernail—delivered the same computing power
as the first electronic computer, the ENIAC*, built in 1946, which
filled an entire room and used 18,000 vacuum tubes. It had 2300
transistors in it.
INTEL 10 CORE I7 – 2016
3.2 Billion Transistors !!!
Size 246 mm2
Evolution of Electronics
 Categories of Solids / Materials
There are three categories of solids, based on their conducting
properties:
conductors
semiconductors
insulators

semiconductors
Semiconductors
 Electrical Conductivities of Different
Materials
Semiconductors are materials whose electrical
properties lie between Conductors and
Insulators.
Difference in conductivity
 Why Semiconductors to make Electronic
Devices
Allows Controlled flow of electrons.
i.e unilateral Conduction.

Simple excitations like heat , light or applied

Voltage can change , in fact decrease its resistivity
and hence increase its conductivity remarkably
which is a useful property.
Why Semiconductors to make Electronic
Devices (Continued)
 Resistivity of Semiconductors decreases with
temperature in contrast to Conductors where resistivity
increase and insulators it remains constant till some
extent and then suddenly drops

Insulators
Semiconductors
Conductors
Why Semiconductors to make Electronic
Devices (Continued)
Resistivity of semiconductors varies in a non-
linear manner with electric field which is a useful
property in contrast to Resistor where the
relation is linear.
Resistor Diode
Why Semiconductors to make Electronic
Devices (Continued)
 Resistivity of a semiconductor also changes with addition of
impurity atoms to a pure silicon by a process called Doping
 OTHER ADVANTAGES
 Compact size
 Low cost
 Light weight
 Rugged construction
 More resistance to shocks and vibrations
 Low operating Voltages
 High Operating Efficiency
 Long Life
 No ageing effect
 Which Materials are suitable for
Making semiconductor Devices
• The above discussed advantages can be obtained from
elements of III,IV & V column of Periodic table

Semiconductor
materials
Possible Semiconductor Materials
 Advantages of Using Silicon Over
others as a Semiconductor Material
Among all Ge and Si are suitable , but among these 2 Si is
more Suitable
 Ge becomes less stable at higher Temperatures where as Si
does not get damaged by excess heat.
 Si is less sensitive to temperature than Ge
 Si is available abundant in nature in the form of SiO2 in Soil.
 It is possible to obtain highly efficient design strategies and
higher levels of performances
 Compounds Like GaAs are widely used in high-speed devices
and devices requiring the emission or absorption of light. But
is more difficult to manufacture , more expensive and has
little design support
 Semiconductor Materials
• Elemental semiconductors – Si and Ge (column
IV of periodic table) –compose of single species
of atoms
• Compound semiconductors – combinations of
atoms of column III and column V and some
atoms from column II and VI. (combination of
two atoms results in binary compounds) Gallium
Arsenide (GaAs) , Indium Phosphide(InP)
• There are also three-element (ternary)
compounds (GaAsP) and four-elements
(quaternary) compounds such as InGaAsP.
 Bond Model of Si

Silicon: our primary example and focus

Atomic no. 14
1S2 2S2 2P6 3S2 3P2 14 electrons in three shells 4 electrons in Valence shell
However, like all other elements
it would prefer to have 8
electrons in its outer shell
 Band Model of Si atom
• Band diagram is a graphical representation of energy
levels of an atom
• In order to account for decreasing resistivity with
increasing temperature as well as other properties of
semiconductors, a new theory known as the band theory
is introduced.
• Band diagram of Si atom

3S2 3P2
Energy Level

2S2 2P6
1S2

Distance from the nucleus

 Silicon crystal
• However, like all other elements it would prefer to have 8 electrons in its outer
shell
• So a Si crystal is formed by bringing isolated atoms together
• This results in the covalent bonding of Si atoms in the crystal matrix
 Band Model of Solid Crystal
• A solid will have millions of atoms close together in a
lattice so these energy levels will smear into bands each
separated by a gap.

Conduction band
Energy Level

3S2 3P2 Valence band 3S2 3P2

2S2 2P6
2S2 2P6
1S2

1S2
Distance from the nucleus

Energy band diagram of Si 2 atoms Energy band diagram of Si Crystal

Band Model of Solid Crystal (Continued)

Simplified Band Model

The 2 most important band are Valence and
Conduction bands as electrons in these 2
bands are the reason for current conduction
 Band Model of Solid Crystal
(Continued)
 Valence band
• Band of energy levels
associated with valence
electrons.
• Initially all energy states in
Valence band are Full. So
electrons have no space to
move . Thus there is no
conduction of current.
 Conduction band
• Band of energy levels
associated with free
electrons.
• Initially all energy states in
Conduction band are empty
of electrons. . Thus there is no
conduction of current.

For materials to conduct electrons must move from valence

band to conduction band
Forbidden Energy band
Band of energy levels where electrons cannot exist
 Band Model of Solid Crystal
(Continued)
Classification Of Solids based on Band theory

Eg : Forbidden Band Energy Gap : Energy needed for an electron to

jump from valence to conduction band
 Classification of Materials based on
Band theory
 Conductors : have an overlapped Valence
and conduction band.
 So even without any external energy like
heat , free electrons are available ready for
conduction
 Insulators : has a large gap between
valence and conduction band of the order
of 6 e.v. Valence band is completely filled
with electrons
 So a very large external energy like heat
would be needed for it for valence
electrons to jump and reach conduction
band and hence available as free electrons
ready for conduction. The material itself
gets damaged with heat, even before
electrons jump from valence to conduction
band . So theoretically Insulators cannot
conduct electric current. Here Valence
electron is fully filled where as conduction
band is empty.
 Classification of Materials based on
Band theory(Continued)
 Semiconductors : The band gap between Valence and
conduction band of order of 1-1.5 ev is acceptable ,
so that an electron in valence band can easily jump to
conduction band by acquiring a small amount of
energy in the form of heat.
 Effect of Temperature on
Semiconductors
• At 0K Valence band is completely filled with electrons . Electrons
not having space to move in valence band do not contribute for
conduction. So Semiconductors are insulators at 0K.

• At room temperature T = 300k Sufficient energy is acquired by

valence electrons and they successfully jump and reach
Conduction band , thus being available as free charge carriers ,
and hence can cause current conduction.

C.B

V.B
 Types of Semiconductors
 Semiconductors can be classified into 2 Types
 Intrinsic Semiconductor
 Extrinsic Semiconductor
 Intrinsic Semiconductors
• Intrinsic Semiconductors A perfect semiconductor
crystal with no impurities or lattice defects is called an
intrinsic semiconductor.
• At 0K Valence band is completely filled with electrons .
Electrons not having space to move in valence band do
not contribute for conduction. So Semiconductors are
insulators at 0K.
• At room temperature T = 300k Sufficient energy is
acquired by valence electrons and they successfully
jump and reach Conduction band , thus being available
as free charge carriers , and hence can cause current
conduction if electric field is applied . Therefore S.Cs are
Conductors at higher temperatures
 Intrinsic Semiconductors(Continued)
Once electrons leave valence band , they leave behind
empty space , called as holes which are positively
charged particles.
 In an intrinsic Semiconductor
No. of electrons = No. of holes
Let n be the concentration of electrons and p be the
Concentration of holes .This concentration is called as
Intrinsic Concentration and is denoted by ni
Then in an intrinsic S.C n = p = ni
• At Room Temperature the intrinsic concentration
can be found using the following expression.

• If Voltage is applied across the intrinsic S.C

electrons in conduction band and holes in
Valence band start moving and thus there is
conduction of electric current.
• No .of electrons is only 1010 /cm3
• No. of Si atoms = 1025 /cm3
• So the ratio of electrons is very less wrt atoms
and hence the conductivity of intrinsic S.C is
very less. Such little conductivity may not be
sufficient to make efficient use of electronic
devices