Unit Five -144- Chapter Fifteen

Introduction to Modern Physics

Modern Electronics
Overview:

There is no single field in all walks of life where electronics has no part.

States of electrons:

There are three states of electrons:

• Free electrons: such as electrons at CRT is subject to classical physics.

• Bound Electrons: which may bind within atom, molecule or the bulk of

matter.

• Electrons inside semiconductor crystal: which consider as free electrons

because it is not bounded to the atom, and consider as bounded because it

can’t leave the crystal of the semiconductor.

Classification of matter:

According to state:

• Solid, Liquid or Gas; where the distance between molecules controls the

state.

• The molecular distance is controlled by the attraction force and electric

force, and that distance is the balanced point between the two forces.

According to electric conductivity:

• Conductors: which are good conductor to electricity and heat (e.g.:

metals). Electrons are responsible for electrical conductivity.

• Insulators: which are bad conductor to electricity and heat (e.g.: wood

and plastics).

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• Semiconductors: which are insulators theoretically at zero degree Kelvin,

while their conductivity increase by increase the temperature (e.g.:

Silicon).

Pure semiconductor:

• Silicon is an element from the forth group,

therefore it has four electrons at its outer shell

• Crystal of silicon consists of silicon atoms

bound together in four covalent bonds.

• At low temperature (0ºK) all bonds in the

crystal are intact (unbroken), therefore it

consider as good insulator.

• By increase the temperature

some of the bonds are broken;

therefore, electrons freed and

leave positive holes in their

place.

• Both of electrons and positive holes in case of random motion, electrons

fill the holes and other bonds break to create more of free electrons and

positive holes.

• By increase the temperature the number of broken bonds increases tell a

certain value where the rate of break the bonds equal to the rate of filling

holes and this case called thermal equilibrium.

Doping:

• It is the adding of impurity of a three valance element or five valance

elements, to replace silicon atom.

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n-type:

• By adding of pentavalent element Phosphorus (P) or Antimony (Sb) it

replace silicon atom.

• Since the pentavalnet element has five electrons at the outer shell

therefore it use only four electrons to form four covalent ponds with the

neighboring Silicon, while there is a free electron act as charge carrier.

• The total electric charge of the crystal is neutral where the total number

of negative charges equal to the total number of positive charge.

• Since the pentavalent element act as new source of free electrons

therefore it called Donor atom. (ND)

• The number of free electrons (n) becomes greater than that of positive

holes (p). by the concentration of pentavalent element.

n=p+ND
p-type:

• By adding of trivalent element Aluminum (Al) or Boron (B) it replace

silicon atom.

• Since the trivalent element has three electrons at the outer shell therefore

it form only three covalent ponds with the neighboring Silicon, while the

fourth bond has lack of electron, which called positive hole, that positive

hold consider as charge carrier.

• The total electric charge of the crystal is neutral where the total number

of negative charges equal to the total number of positive charge.

• Since the trivalent element act as source of holes therefore it called

Acceptor atom. (NA)

• The number of free electrons (n) becomes smaller than that of positive

holes (p). by the concentration of trivalent element.

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p=n+NA
Item n-Type p-Type

Valence of doping material Pentavalent Tribalent

Doping material Phosphorus (P) or Aluminum (Al) or

Antimony (Sb) Boron (B)

Charge carrier Electrons Positive holes

Charge of the crystal Neutral Neutral

Relation between free (e) n=p+ND p=n+NA

and Holes
Generally:

pn=ni2
Where:

• ni2: is the electron or hole concentration in pure silicon.

• This law is called mass action law.

In case of n-type:

n=ND
ni2
p=
ND
In case of p-type:

p=NA
ni2
n=
NA

Electronic Components and Devices:

• It is the building blocks for all electronic systems.

• Some of it is simple: e.g.: Resistors, inductor and capacitors.

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• Others are complex: e.g.: pn junction (diode), transistor and integrated

circuits IC.

• It made of semiconductors, and that semiconductors are sensitive to

environmental condition such as light and heat, therefore it is used as

sensors to measure the external stimuli, e.g.: intensity of light,

Pn-junction (diode):

• It is consists of a single crystal of

semi-conducting material, which

contains two adjacent regions one of

n-type and the other is p-type.

• Some electrons from the negative region move

across the junction towards the p-type, and

some holes move across the junction towards

the n-type.

• As a result the middle area contains no charge carrier (nether electrons

nor holes), this area is called transition region or

depletion region.

• Due to the potential difference between the two

regions, electric field is created from p-type to n-type

causing back current to pass which called drift

current, opposite in direction to the diffusion current.

• At equilibrium the back current (drift current) is equal

in magnitude and opposite in direction to the forward current (diffusion

current), and the net current is equal to zero.

Types of connection:
There are two types of connection with the electric source, forward bias
connection and backward bias connection.

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Forward connection:

• The positive pole of the battery is connected N P

to the P-type, while the negative pole is

connected to the N-type.

• Holes move away from the positive electrode of the battery and electrons

move away from the negative electrode of the battery decreasing the

transition area.

• The electric field due to the battery will be in the same direction to the

electric field due to pn-junction.

• High current passes through the junction.

Backward connection:

• The positive pole of the battery is

P N
connected to the N-type, while the

negative pole is connected to the P-type.

• Holes move towards the negative electrode of the battery and electrons

move towards the positive electrode of the battery increasing the

transition area.

• The electric field due to the battery will be in opposite direction to the

field due to pn-junction.

• No current passes through the

junction.
Usage of the N-P junction:

• It used to rectify the AC, passing

half cycles only of the current.

• In the half cycle when connection is

forward the current pass through the

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junction, while in the other half the connection will be backward and a

very weak current pass.

• It is used also to convert the AC current into DC current.

Transistor:

• It consists of three regions, the middle one

is thin and made of a type (base) and the

other two regions form the other type

(emitter and collector). It means that there

are two kids of transistors P-N-P and N-

P-N, both give the same functions.

• It is connected to the power bubbly

making two circuits, emitter circuit and

collector circuit.

• The emitter circuit connects in forward

direction, and the collector circuit connects in backward.

P N P
• The current passes from the emitter

to the collector through the base,

and because of the small thickness

of the base most of the current pass from the emitter to the collector.

• Since the base contains holes therefore some of current electrons is used

to fill that holes which lead to small portion of lost to recombination (αe).
Where:
(αe): is the ratio between current of collector to current of emitter.

• The collector current can be calculated from the relation:

IC = α e IE
• The base current can be calculated from the relation:

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IB = IE – IC
IB = IE – α e IE
IB = (1 - α e) IE
• The ratio between collector current to the base current (βe), which called

current gain can be calculated from the relation:

IC
βe =
IB
αeIE
βe =
(1 − α e ) I E
αe
βe =
(1 − α e )

• Since the base is very thin therefore the recombination value (αe) is very

small, and that lead to current Gain (βe) is very large.

• This leads the transistor to act as current amplifier which called transistor

action.
Transistor as a switch:

• The voltage of battery is equal to

the summation of voltage of the

circuit components.
Vcc = VcE + VR
Vcc = VCE + IC RC
• From the equation by increasing

the collector current, then the

potential difference between emitter

and collector decrease (it reaches 0.2

V), and vice versa.

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Switch on:

• By connecting high signal (positive signal) to the base, the

collector current will increase.

• Therefore ICRC will increase, which consider as switching on

• and VCE will decrease.

• By considering Base as input, collector as output, and the

emitter as ground, therefore increase the input voltage leads

to decrease the output voltage.

• It means that the transistor act as inverter.

Switch off:

• By connecting low signal (negative signal) to the base, the

collector current will decrease.

• Therefore ICRC will decrease, which consider as switching

off

• and VCE will increase.

• By considering Base as input, collector as output, and the

emitter as ground, therefore decrease the input voltage leads

to increase the output voltage.

• It means that the transistor act as inverter.

Analog and digital electronics:

Analog Digital

Transmitted continuously Transmitted in form of codes

Included the electric noise Does not include the electric

noise

Work directly with sender Analog digital converter is

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and receiver devices used at sender device.

Digital Analog converter is

used at receiver device

Dismal system:

Deal with 10 digits: 0, 1, 2….. , 9

Base and power 103 102 101 100

Value of column 1 10 10 1

000 0

Number 0 2 5 7

The number can be calculated as:

Digit Column value Value

7 1 7

5 10 50

2 100 200

Therefore the total value of the number is 7+50+200 = 257

Binary system:

Deal with 2 digits: 0 and 1

Base and power 23 22 21 20

Value of column 8 4 2 1

Number 0 1 1 0

The number can be calculated as:

Digit Column value Value

0 1 0

1 2 2

1 4 4

0 8 0

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Therefore the total value of the number is 0+2+4 = 6

Convert from binary to dismal:
Convert (47)10 into binary

0 1 2 5 11 2 47

1 0 1 1 1 1

Therefore (47)10 = (101111)2

Logic Gates:
1. Inverter (Not gate):

• Consists of transistor act as inverter.

• Contain one input and one output.

• Its symbol as in figure:

• Its equivalent circuit as in figure:

• Its truth table is:

Input Output

1 0

0 1

2. AND gate:

• Consists of a transistors with

more than emitter, act as a

switch.

• Contain two inputs (A, B) and one output.

• Its symbol as in figure:

• Its equivalent circuit as

in figure:

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• Its truth table is:

Input
Output
A B

0 0 0

0 1 0

1 0 0

1 1 1

3. OR gate:

• Consists two transistors connected

in parallel, act as a switch.

• Contain two inputs (A, B) and one

output.

• Its symbol as in figure:

• Its equivalent circuit as

in figure:

• Its truth table is:

Input
Output
A B

0 0 0

0 1 1

1 0 1

1 1 1

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Electronic circuits:

It is number of electronic components connected tighter in a closed path.

The electronic circuits classified into:

1. Discrete circuits: where it consists of separate components and

soldered together.

2. Integrated circuits: where the components are placed in a silicon

wafer.

The electronic components classified into:

1. Passive components: (e.g: resistors, inductors, capacitors and

diodes)

2. Active components: (e.g.: transistors)

Moor’s law:

Capacity and speed of electronic devices are double every 18

months.
Electronic chips can be classified into:

1. Small scale integration (SSI): each chip contains 100

transistors.

2. Medium Scale integration (MSI): each chip contains

1000 transistors.

3. Large Scale integration (LSI): each chip contains

10000 transistors.

4. Very Large Scale integration (VLSI): each chip

contains 100000 transistors.

5. Ultra large scale integration (ULSI): each chip

contains more than 1000 transistors.

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