Types of materials

• Depending on the conductivity, materials can be

classified as
– Conductors
– Semiconductors
– Insulators
• Every solid has its own characteristic energy
band structure.
• Variation in band structure is responsible for the
electrical properties observed in materials.
 Energy band structure
• Energy band structure consist of three bands
– Valence band
– Conduction band
– Forbidden energy gap
• Valence band  outermost shell in an atom is
called valence shell.
– Electrons present in an valence shell are called
valence electron and is called as valence band.
– Eight electrons in the valence shell make the atom
stable.
 Conductors
• Good conductor of electricity
• Conduction and valence bands overlap each
other.
• Overlapping indicates large number of
electrons are available for conduction.
• Hence application of a small amount of
voltage results in a large amount of current.
 Insulators
• Poor conductor of electricity.
• Conduction and valence bands are separated by a
wide gap.
• Wide gap means, a large amount of energy is
required to free the electrons from the valence
band to conduction band.
• At room temperature, valence electrons do not
have enough energy to jump into the conduction
band.
• Hence insulators do not have the ability to
conduct current.
 Semiconductors
• Has its conductivity lying between conductors
and insulators.
• Conduction and valence bands are separated
by a small energy gap.
• Hence small amount of energy is required to
free the electrons by moving the electrons
from valence band into the conduction band.
 Semiconductors – cont..
• Covalent bond
– Number of valence electrons present is four.
– Hence to make the valence shell stable (to make
8), each atom will share its valence electron
with its neighbour.
– The bond formed by sharing of electrons
between two atoms is called Covalent bond.
– Example: Silicon (Si), Germanium (G)
 Classification of semiconductors
• Can be classified as
– Intrinsic (Pure) semiconductors
– Extrinsic (Impure) semiconductors
• N- Type
• P-Type
 Intrinsic semiconductors
• Pure semiconductor
• Even at room temperature, some valence
electrons may acquire sufficient energy
to enter the conduction band to form
free electrons.
• These electrons constitute electric current.
• Missing electron in the valence band leaves
a vacant space, known as hole.
• Holes also contribute to electric current.
 Extrinsic semiconductor
• Impure semiconductor.
• Current conduction is increased by adding
a small amount of impurity to intrinsic
(pure) semiconductor.
• Process of adding impurity is called as doping.
 N-type semiconductor
• Pentavalent (five valence electrons) impurity
such as, arsenic, antimony or phosphorous is
added.
• Four electrons form covalent bond and one
electron is free.
• Pentavalent impurities are called as donar
because it donates one free electron.
• Number of free electrons exceeds the number of
holes.
• Electrons are the majority carriers and holes are
the minority carriers.
 P-Type semiconductor
• Trivalent (three valence electrons) impurities
such as aluminium or boron is added.
• Three valence electrons form covalent bond and
there is one free space which gives rise to a hole.
• These are called acceptors because, the free
space can accept one electron.
• Number of holes is greater than the number of
free electrons.
• Hence holes are majority carriers and electrons
are minority carriers.
 PN junction diode
• In a piece of semiconductor, if one half is
doped with P-type and the other half is doped
with N-type impurity, a PN junction is formed.
• Plane dividing the two zones is called as PN
junction.
 PN junction diode-working principle
• N-type has high concentration of electrons.
• P-type has high concentration of holes.
• Hence at the junction, there is a tendency for free electrons
to diffuse over to the P-side and holes to the N-side.
• This process is called as diffusion.

P N
 PN junction – cont…
• Due to diffusion,
– At the N-side of the junction, it losses its electron
(Electrons are attracted by the p-side) and hence the
donar ions become positively charged.
– Hence a positive charge is created at the N-side of the
junction.
– At the P-side of the junction, it accepts an electron
(Electrons are attracted by the p-side) and hence the
acceptor ions become negatively charged.
– Hence a negative charge is created at the P-side of the
junction.
 PN junction – cont…
• The net negative charge on the P-side prevents further
diffusion of electrons into the P-side.
• The net positive charge on the N-side prevents further
diffusion of holes into the N-side.
• Thus a barrier is set up at the junction which stops
further diffusion and this barrier is called as junction
barrier.
• This junction barrier region is depleted of mobile charge
carriers and hence it is called as depletion region.
• An electrostatic potential difference is established
between P and N regions of the depletion region and is
called as the potential barrier, junction barrier diffusion
potential or contact potential (V0).
 Biasing
• Applying external voltage.
– Types
• Forward biasing
– Positive terminal of the battery is connected with P-type
and negative terminal of the battery is connected with N-
type.
• Reverse biasing
– Positive terminal of the battery is connected with N-type
and negative terminal of the battery is connected with P-
type.
PN junction diode under forward bias
 Applied positive potential repels holes in P region and the holes move
towards the junction.
 Applied negative potential repels electrons in the N region and the
electrons move towards the junction.
 As the forward voltage (VF) is less than the barrier voltage (V 0) ie.
VF<V0, the forward current is almost zero This is because the potential
barrier prevents the charge carriers to cross the junction.
 For VF>V0, the potential barrier at the junction completely disappears
and hence the charge carriers cross the junction resulting in relatively
large current flow in the external circuit.
 The voltage at which the diode starts conducting is called cut-in
voltage.
 It is 0.3 for Germanium and 0.7 for Silicon.
PN junction diode under Reverse bias
 Holes from the P-side move towards the negative terminal of the battery and electrons of the N-
side move towards the positive terminal of the battery.
 Hence the depletion region increases and the resultant potential barrier increases.
 This prevents the flow of majority carriers in both directions.
 Electrons forming covalent bonds may absorb sufficient energy from heat and light to cause
breaking of some covalent bonds.
 Hence electron-hole pairs are continually produced in both regions.
 These thermally generated holes in the P-region are attracted towards the negative terminal of
the battery and the electrons in the N-region are attracted toward the positive terminal of the
battery.
 For large applied reverse bias, the free electrons from the N-type moving towards the positive
terminal of the battery acquire sufficient energy to move with high velocity to dislodge valence
electrons form semiconductor atoms.
 These newly liberated electrons in turn acquire sufficient energy to dislodge other parent
electrons.
 Thus a large number of free electrons are formed, which is called as an Avalanche of free
electrons.
 This leads to breakdown of the junction leading to very large reverse current.
 The reverse voltage at which the junction breakdown occurs is known as breakdown voltage.
 in a reverse-biased diode, some current flows through the depletion region. This current is
called leakage current. Leakage current is dependent on minority current carriers
 Rectifiers
• A rectifier is a device that converts an
oscillating two-directional alternating current
(AC) into a single-directional direct current
(DC).
 Half wave Rectifier
• A half wave rectifier is defined as a type
of rectifier that only allows one half-cycle of
an AC voltage waveform to pass, blocking the
other half-cycle.
 Working – Half Wave Rectifier
• A high AC voltage is applied to the primary side of
the step-down transformer. The obtained
secondary low voltage is applied to the diode.
• The diode is forward biased during the positive
half cycle of the AC voltage and reverse biased
during the negative half cycle.
 Ripple Factor
• The rectifier output mainly includes the AC component
as well as the DC component.
• The ripple can be defined as the AC component within
the resolved output.
• The A.C component within the output is unwanted.
• Here the ripple voltage is the AC component within
o/p of the rectifier. Ripple factor can be quantified
using the following formula:

• The ripple factor of a halfwave rectifier is 1.21.

 Efficiency
• The efficiency of a halfwave rectifier is the
ratio of output DC power to the input AC
power.
• The efficiency formula for halfwave rectifier is
given as follows;

• Efficiency – 40.6%
 Full Wave Rectifier
• A full wave rectifier is defined as a rectifier
that converts the complete cycle of
alternating current into pulsating DC.
 Working Principle
• The input AC supplied to the full wave rectifier is very high.
• The step-down transformer in the rectifier circuit converts the high
voltage AC into low voltage AC.
• The anode of the centre tapped diodes is connected to the
transformer’s secondary winding and connected to the load resistor.
• During the positive half cycle of the alternating current, the top half of
the secondary winding becomes positive while the second half of the
secondary winding becomes negative.
• During the positive half cycle, diode D1 is forward biased as it is
connected to the top of the secondary winding while diode D2 is
reverse biased as it is connected to the bottom of the secondary
winding.
• Due to this, diode D1 will conduct acting as a short circuit and D2 will
not conduct acting as an open circuit.
• During the negative half cycle, the diode D1 is reverse biased and the
diode D2 is forward biased because the top half of the secondary circuit
becomes negative and the bottom half of the circuit becomes positive.
• Thus in a full wave rectifiers, DC voltage is obtained for both positive
and negative half cycle.
 Ripple Factor – Full Wave Rectifier
• Ripple factor can be quantified using the
following formula:

• The ripple factor of a halfwave rectifier is 0.48.

• Efficiency – 81.2%
 Zener diode
• When reverse voltage reaches breakdown
voltage in PN junction diode, the current
through the junction and the power dissipated
will be high.
• This will damage the diode.
• A diode designed with adequate power
dissipation capability is the Zener diode.
 Zener diode – cont…..
• Zener diode is heavily doped.
• Operation of Zener diode under forward and
reverse bias condition is same as ordinary PN
junction diode.
• Breakdown voltage depends on the amount of
doping.
• Since heavily doped, the breakdown occurs at
lower reverse voltage.
• Hence Zener breakdown occurs for lower
breakdown voltage and Avalanche breakdown
occurs for higher breakdown voltage.
 Bipolar Junction Transistor (BJT)
• Three terminal semiconductor device.
• Operation depends on the interaction of both
majority and minority carriers (Hence the name
Bipolar).
• Types
– NPN transistor
• Thin layer of P-type semiconductor is sandwiched between
two layers of N-type semiconductor.
– PNP transistor
• Thin layer of N-type semiconductor is sandwiched between
two layers of P-type semiconductor.
 BJT – cont…
• Three portions
– Emitter
• Heavily doped so that it can emit large number of
majority carriers in to the base.
– Base
• Lightly doped. It passes most of the injected charge
carriers from emitter into the collector.
– Collector
• Moderately doped. It collects the majority carriers
emitted by the emitter.
 Transistor operation (NPN)
• Biasing
– Emitter-Base junction is forward biased.
– Collector-Base junction is reverse biased.
• Forward bias applied to the emitter-base junction causes lot of
electrons from the emitter(N-type) to crossover the base region.
• As the base (P-type) is lightly doped, number of holes in the base is
small and hence small number of electrons combine with holes,
which constitute a base current IB.
• The remaining electrons enter the collector region to constitute the
collector current IC.
• Thus the base current IB and the collector current IC summed up
gives the emitter current IE.
IE=IB+IC.
 Transistor configurations
• A transistor when connected in a circuit, one terminal is used as
input, one terminal as output and one as common.
• Depending on the input, output and common terminals, a transistor
can be connected in three configurations
– Common-Emitter configuration
– Common-Base configuration
– Common-Collector configuration
• Each configuration has two characteristics.
• Input characteristics
– Plot between input voltage and input current by keeping output
voltage as constant.
• Output characteristics
– Plot between output voltage and output current by keeping input
current as constant.
 Common – Base configuration
• Also called as grounded base configuration.
• Base is the common terminal.
• Emitter is the input terminal and collector is
the output terminal.
– Input current – IE (Emitter current)
– Output current – IC (Collector current)
– Input voltage – VEB (between emitter and base)
– Output voltage – VCB (between collector and base)
 CB – Input characteristics
 Collector- base voltage (VCB) is
kept constant.
 Emitter current IE is increased
from zero in suitable equal steps
by increasing VEB.
 Repeat this for higher values
of VCB.
 A curve is drawn between IE
and VEB at constant VCB.
 CB – Output characteristics
 Emitter current IE is kept constant at a suitable value by
adjusting the emitter-base voltage VEB.
 VCB is increased in suitable equal steps and the collector current
IC is noted for each value of VCB.
 This is repeated for different fixed values of IE.
 The characteristic curves, IC versus VCB are plotted for different
constant values of IE.
 Common – Emitter configuration
• Also called as grounded emitter configuration.
• Emitter is the common terminal, base is the
input terminal, collector is the output
terminal.
– Input current – IB (Base current)
– Output current – IC (Collector current)
– Input voltage – VBE (between base and emitter)
– Output voltage – VCE (between collector and emitter)
 CE – Input characteristics
 Collector- emitter voltage (VCE)
is kept constant.
 Base current IB is increased
from zero in suitable equal steps
by increasing VBE.
 Repeat this for higher values
of VCE.
 A curve is drawn between IB
and VBE at constant VCE.
 CE – Output characteristics
 Base current IB is kept constant at a suitable value by
adjusting the emitter-base voltage VBE.
 VCE is increased in suitable equal steps and the collector
current IC is noted for each value of VCE.
 This is repeated for different fixed values of IB.
 The characteristic curves, IC versus VCE are plotted for
different constant values of IB.
Common – Collector configuration
• Also called as grounded collector
configuration.
• Collector is the common terminal.
• Base is the input terminal and emitter is the
output terminal.
– Input current – IB (Base current)
– Output current – IC (Collector current)
– Input voltage – VBC (between base and collector)
– Output voltage – VEC (between emitter and collector)
 CC – Input characteristics
 Emitter- collector voltage (VEC)
is kept constant.
 Base current IB is increased
from zero in suitable equal steps
by increasing VBC.
 Repeat this for higher values
of VEC.
 A curve is drawn between IB
and VBC at constant VEC.
 CC – Output characteristics
 Base current IB is kept
constant at a suitable value by
adjusting the base-collector
voltage VBC.
 VCE is increased in suitable
equal steps and the emitter
current IE is noted for each
value of VCE.
 This is repeated for different
fixed values of IB.
 The characteristic curves, IE
versus VCE are plotted for
different constant values of IB.