INDEX

 Acknowledgement

 Certificate

 Conductors, Insulators and Semiconductors

 Band Theory of Solids

 Types of Semiconductors

 Uses of Semiconductors

 Basic Circuits
 Acknowledgement

I wish to express my deep gratitude and sincere

thanks to my physics teacher, Mr. Vikram Singh
for his constant encouragement and for all the
facilities that he provided for this project work. I
sincerely appreciate this magnanimity by taking
me into this fold for which I shall remain indebted
to him. I take this opportunity to express my deep
sense of gratitude for his invaluable guidance,
constant encouragement, constructive comments,
sympathetic attitude and immense motivation,
which has sustained my efforts at all stages of this
project work.

I can forget to offer my sincere thanks to my

classmates who helped me to carry out this
project work successfully and for their valuable
advices and support, which I received from them
time to time.
 Certificate

This is to certify that the project titled

“SEMICONDUCTORS – GENERAL
INTRODUCTION AND APPLICATION”
has been successfully and genuinely
completed by Parishrut of class XII-C
under the guidance of Mr. Vikram
Singh, at AHLCON INTERNATIONAL
SCHOOL, in the academic year of 2017-
2018.

Date Teacher’s Signature

CONDUCTOR, INSULATORS AND
SEMICONDUCTORS
Conductor
Conductor is an object or type of material that allow
the flow of electrical current in one or more directions.
A metal wire is a common electrical conductor. In
metals such as copper or aluminium, the mobile
charged particles are electrons.
Insulator
An electric insulator is a material whose internal
electric charges do not flow freely, and therefore make
it nearly impossible to conduct an electric current
under the influence of an electric field. Some examples
are plastic, rubber and wood etc.
Semiconductor
A semiconductor is a substance, usually a solid
chemical element or compound that can conduct
electricity under some conditions but not others,
making it a good medium for the control of electric
current. For example silicon and germanium.
BAND THEORY OF SOLIDS
The important difference between conductors,
semiconductors and insulators lies in the number of free
electrons present in the material. Perhaps the best way to
consider the differences between them is to use the band
theory of solids.

Types of Bands
In band theory the organised group of electrons
corresponding to the energy levels are called bands.

Conduction Band
A delocalized band of energy levels in a crystalline solid
which is partly filled with electrons. These electrons
have great mobility and are responsible for electrical
conductivity.
Valence Band
The valence band is the highest range of electron
energies in which electrons are normally present at
absolute zero tempreture.
Forbidden Energy Gap
The separation between valence band and
conduction band is called as forbidden energy gap. If
an electron is to be transferred from valence band to
conduction band, external energy is required, which is
equal to the forbidden energy gap.

Diagrammatic Representation

TYPES OF SEMICONDUCTORS
There are 2 types of semiconductors:

Intrinsic Semiconductors
Intrinsic semiconductors, also called an undoped
semiconductors or i-type semiconductor, are pure
semiconductor without any significant dopant species
present. The number of charge carriers is therefore
determined by the properties of the material itself
instead of the amount of impurities.
Conductivity of such semiconductors is poor.
Number of electrons in conduction band and holes in
valence band are approximately equal.
Extrinsic Semiconductors
These are impure semiconductors. When a small
quantity of impurity is mixed in a pure or intrinsic
conductor, conductivity of semiconductor increases.
Such an impure semiconductor is called as extrinsic
conductor.
Conductivity of such semiconductors is large.
If it is an n-type of electrons are in majority and if it is a
p-type holes are in majority.
P-TYPE Semiconductors
The addition of trivalent impurities such as boron,
aluminium or gallium to an intrinsic semiconductor
creates deficiencies of valence electrons, called
“holes.” It is typical to use B2H6 diborane gas to diffuse
boron into the silicon material.
N-TYPE Semiconductors
The addition of pentavalent impurities such as
antinomy, arsenic or phosphorous contributes free
electrons, greatly increasing the conductivity of the
intrinsic semiconductor. Phosphorous may be added by
diffusion of phosphine gas (PH3).
USES OF SEMICONDUCTOR
The properties of semiconductors are exploited widely
by the modern day electronic industry.
Semiconductor materials are useful because their
behaviour can be easily manipulated by the addition of
impurities, known as doping. Semiconductor
conductivity can be controlled by the introduction of
an electric or magnetic field, by exposure to light or
heat, or by the chemical deformation of a doped
monocrystalline grid; thus, semiconductors can make
excellent sensors.
Two of the most used semiconductor devices are:
Diode
A semiconductor diode is a device typically made from
a single p-n junction. At the junction of a p-type and n-
type semiconductor there forms a depletion region
where current conduction is inhibited by the lack of
mobile charge carriers. When the device is forward
biased (connected with the p-side at higher electric
potential than the n-side), this depletion region is
diminished, allowing for significant conduction, while
only very small current can be achieved when the
diode is reverse biased and thus the depletion region is
expanded.
Exposing a semiconductor to light can generate
electron-hole pairs, which increases the number of free
carriers and thereby the conductivity. Diodes
optimized to take advantage of this phenomenon are
known as photodiodes. Compound semiconductor
diodes can also be used to generate light, as in LED’s
and laser diodes.

Transistor
A transistor is a semiconductor device used to amplify
or switch electric signals and electrical power. It is
composed of semiconductor material usually with at
least 3 terminals for connection to an external circuit.
A voltage or current applied to one pair of the
transistor’s terminals changes the current through
another pair of terminals. Because the controlled
(output) power can be higher than the controlling
(input) power, a transistor can amplify a signal. Today,
some transistors are packaged individually, but many
more are found embedded in integrated circuits.
It is also the fundamental building block of modern
electric devices, and is ubiquitous in modern electronic
systems.

Light Emitting Diode (LED)

It is a two-lead semiconductor light source. It is a p-n
junction diode, which emits light when activated.
When a suitable voltage is applied to the leads,
electrons are able to recombine with electron holes
within the device, releasing energy in the form of
photons. This effect is called electroluminescence, and
the color of light is determined by the energy band gap
of the semiconductor.

Photo Diode
It is a semiconductor device that converts light into
current. The current is generated when photons are
absorbed in the photodiode. A small amount of current
is also produced when no light is present. They may
contain optical fibres, built-in lenses, and may have a
large or small surface areas. They usually have a slower
response time as their surface areas increases. The
common, traditional solar cell used to generate electric
solar power is a large area photodiode.
BASIC CIRCUITS
Basic circuits that can be made using semiconductor
devices such as transistor and diodes.

Joule Thief (Block Oscillator)

A joule thief is a minimalist Armstrong self-oscillating
voltage booster that is small, low-cost, and easy to
build, typically used for driving light loads,
It can use nearly all energy in a single cell electric
battery, even far below the voltage where other
circuits consider the battery fully discharged; hence the
name which suggests the notion that the circuit is
stealing energy or “joules” from the source. The term is
a pun on the expression “jewel thief.” One who steals
jewelry or gemstones.
The circuit is a variant of the blocking oscillator that
forms an unregulated voltage boost converter. The
output voltage is increased at the expense of higher
current draw on the input, but the integrated (average)
current of the output is lowered and brightness of a
luminescence decrease.
Esaki Effect Oscillator
Simple circuit recreation of tunnel Diode