EEE101-UNIT4

EEE101-Basic Electrical and Electronics Engineering UNIT 4

Power Semiconductor Devices

1. PN Junction diode 2. Zener diode 3. Bipolar Junction Transistors - BJTs 4. Metal Oxide Semiconductor Field Effect Transistors - MOSFETs 5. Insulated Gate Bi-polar Transistors - IGBTs

Power Semiconductor Devices

Semiconductor theory
Introduction: Depending on their conductivity, materials can be classified into three types as conductors, semiconductors and insulators. Conductor is a good conductor of electricity. Insulator is a poor conductor of electricity. Semiconductor has its conductivity lying between these two extremes. A comparatively smaller electric field is required to push the electrons to make it conduct. At low temperature virtually semiconductor behaves as an insulator. However at room temperature some electrons move giving conductivity to the semiconductor. AS temperature increases its conductivity increases hence it has negative temperature co-efficient. Classification: Intrinsic semiconductor: A pure semiconductor is called intrinsic semiconductor where even at room temperature electron-hole pairs are created. Under the influence of electric field, total current through the semiconductor is the sum of currents due to free electrons and holes. Extrinsic semiconductor: Current conduction is increased by adding a small amount of impurity to intrinsic semiconductors, so it becomes extrinsic semiconductors

PN Junction Diode
In a piece of semiconductor material, if one half is doped by P-type and the other half is doped by Ntype impurity, a PN junction is formed. The plane dividing the two halves or zones is called PN junction. The N-type has high concentration of free electrons while P-type has high concentration of holes. Therefore at the junction there is a tendency for the free electrons to diffuse over to the P-side and holes to the N-side (process called diffusion). The net opposite charge in each layer prevents further diffusion into that layer. Thus a barrier is set up near the junction which prevents further movement of charge carriers. This is called as potential barrier (0.3V or germanium and 0.7 for silicon). Under forward bias condition: When positive terminal of battery is connected to the P-type and negative terminal to the N-type of the PN junction diode, the bias applied is known as forward bias. The applied positive potential repels the holes in the P-type region so that the holes move towards the junction and the applied negative potential repels the electrons in the N-type region and the electrons move towards the junction(When applied voltage VF is less than V0) and hence the forward current IF is almost zero. Eventually when the applied potential is more than the internal barrier potential the barrier will disappear and hence the holes cross the junction from P-type to N-type and the electrons crss the junction in the opposite direction resulting in relatively large current flow in the external circuit. A P N C C Forward bias Reverse bias A RL RL

Reverse bias region VR

IF(mA)

Forward bias region VF

Reverse Breakdown voltage

Knee voltage or cut-in voltage IR(A)

Under reverse bias condition: When the negative terminal of the battery is connected to the P-type and positive terminal is connected to N-type of the PN junction, the bias applied is known as reverse bias. Under this condition, holes form the majority carriers of P-side move towards the negative terminal of the battery and electrons which form the majority carriers of the N-side are attracted towards the positive terminal of the battery. Hence the width of the depletion region which is depleted of mobile carriers increases. Thus the electric filed produced by applied reverse bias is in the same direction of electric field and hence the barrier is increased. Therefore, theoretically no current should flow in the external circuit. But in practice very small reverse current in the order of microamperes flows under bias. This current is called as reverse saturation current. The magnitude of reverse saturation current mainly depends upon junction temperature because the major source of minority carriers is thermally broken covalent bonds. For large reverse bias is applied, 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 from semiconductor atom in the crystal. Thus large number of free electrons are formed which is commonly called as avalanche of free electrons. This leads to the breakdown of junction leading to very large reverse current. The reverse voltage at which the junction breakdown is known as breakdown voltage.

Zener diode
When reverse voltage reaches breakdown voltage in a PN diode, the current through the junction and power dissipated at the junction will be high. Such an operation is destructive and the diode gets damaged. However, diodes can be designed with adequate power dissipation capability to operate in the breakdown region. One such diode is Zener diode which is heavily doped than the ordinary diode. The forward bias condition is same as the ordinary PN diode, but under reverse bias condition, breakdown of the junction occurs and the breakdown voltage depends upon the amount of doping. If the diode is heavily doped, depletion layer will be thin and consequently breakdown occurs at lower reverse voltage, besides the breakdown voltage being sharp. Thus the breakdown voltage can be selected with the amount of doping. When the reverse bias field across the junction is sufficiently high, it may exert a strong force on bound electrons to tear them out from a covalent bond. Thus a large number of electron hole pairs will be generated through a direct rupture of the covalent bond thereby resulting in large reverse current at the breakdown voltage. Though Zener breakdown occurs for lower breakdown voltage and avalanche breakdown occurs for higher breakdown voltage, such diodes are normally called Zener diode A V VZ RL Vo VZ VR Reverse bias region Application From the zener diode characteristics, under the reverse bias condition, the voltage across the diode remains almost constant although the current through the diode increases. Thus the voltage across the zener diode serves as a reference voltage. Hence the diode can be used as a voltage regulator. The arrangement shown is useful when it is required to provide a constant voltage across a load resistance RL where as the input voltage may be varying over a range. As shown, the zener diode is reverse biased and as long as the input voltage does not fall below Vz, the voltage across the diode will be constant and hence the load voltage will also be constant. Reverse Breakdown I (A) R voltage VF IF (mA)

Power Transistors
The transistors which are used as switching elements are operated in the saturation region resulting in a low on state voltage drop. The switching speed of modern transistors is much high. They are extensively employed in dc dc and dc ac converters with inverse parallel-connected diodes to provide bidirectional current flow. Transistors are normally used in low to medium power applications. The power transistors can be classified broadly into five categories 1. Bipolar junction transistor (BJT) 2. Metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistor (MOSFET) 3. Insulated gate bipolar transistors (IGBT) 4. Static induction transistor (SIT) 5. COOLMOS We will see the first three in brief

Bipolar Junction Transistor (BJT)

A bipolar transistor is formed by adding a second p or n region to a pn junction diode. With two n regions and one p region, two junctions are formed and it is known as an NPN-transistor. With two p regions and one n region, it is called as PNP-transistor. The three terminals are named as collector, emitter and base. A bipolar transistor has two junctions, collector-base junction(CBJ) and base-emitter junction(BEJ). For an NPN type, the emitter side n layer is made wide, the p base is narrow and the collector side n layer is narrow and heavily doped. For a PNP type, the emitter side p layer is made wide, the n base is narrow, and the collector side p layer is narrow and heavily doped. Collector Collector C iC iB B iE E Base C iC iB B iE E

n
Base p

p
n

n
Emitter

p
Emitter

(a) NPN Transistor

(b) PNP Transistor

The transfer characteristics of a transistor is as shown There are three operating regions of a transistor: cutoff, active and saturation. Active IC RC + VCE IE VCE VCE VCC Cutoff Saturation

RB

IB + VBE

VB

IB In the cut-off region, the transistor is off or the base current is not enough to turn it on and both junctions are reverse biased In the active region, the transistor acts as an amplifier, where the base current is amplified by a gain and the collector emitter voltage decreases with base current. The CBJ is reverse biased and the BEJ is forward biased. In the saturation region, the based current is sufficiently high so that the collector emitter voltage is low, and the transistor acts as a switch. Both the junctions are forward biased. Applying Kirchhoffs law we get

i E = iC + i B
(This equation is true regardless of the bias conditions of the junctions) We define the parameter as the ratio of the collector current to the emitter current

iC iE

or

i E = iC

Value of ranges from 0.9 to 0.999. Combining the above equations we get

i B = (1 )i E
We define another parameter as the ratio of the collector current to the base current.

iC = iB 1

Value of ranges from 10 to 1000. We can also rewrite the above equation as

iC = i B
Note that since is usually very large compared to unity, the collector current is an amplified version of the base current. The input and output characteristics of transistor is as shown IB IC VCE1 VcE2 VCE2> VCE1 Saturation region Cutoff region (b) Output Characteristics Active region IBn

IB2 IB1

IBn>IB1> IB0

IB0=0 VCE

VBE (a) Input characteristics

MOSFET (Metal Oxide Semiconductor Field Effect Transistor or Insulated Gate Field Effect Transistor)
The MOSFET is a voltage controlled device that works on the depletion capacitor concept. In this a layer of silicon dioxide is grown on the surface, which act as a dielectric media between gate and the channel. Based on the channel created between the, the MOSFET is broadly divided as shown. MOSFET Depletion type P - Channel N - Channel P - Channel Enhancement type N - Channel

It has got three terminals, Gate, Drain and source N-channel MOSFET consists of highly doped P type substrate into which two highly doped N regions are diffused. These N regions act as source and drain. A thin layer of insulating silicon dioxide (SiO2) is grown over the surface of structure and free electrons are cut into the oxide layer, allowing to move Gate between source and drain Source Drain Aluminium layer ++++++ Silicon layer ----------- -n+ n+

P - Substrate

Induced n-channel

The metal area is overlaid on the entire oxide layer and metal contacts are made to source and drain. The SiO2 layer insulates the gate from the channel due to which a negligible gate current flows even if the biasing is applied to gate. So no PN junction is existing in MOSFET and hence known as Insulated Gate Field Effect Transistor. Depletion Type: The depletion type MOSFET can be operated in two different modes: enhancement mode Circuit symbol and Circuit Drain Gate Substrate Source N - Channel Gate Drain Substrate Source P - Channel VGS S SiO2 Layer G a. depletion mode b. D N P VDS

The device operates in this depletion mode, when the gate voltage is negative.

When VGS = 0, a significant current flows for a given VDS When negative voltage is applied to gate, electrons accumulate on it. If one plate of capacitor (gate) is negatively charged, induces a positive charge on the other plate. Because of this, free electrons in vicinity of positive charge area repelled away in the channel As a result of this, the channel is depleted of free electrons passing through the channel thus the conduction between source to drain is reduced. Thus as the value of VGs is increased, the value of ID decreases The device operated in enhancement mode when the gate voltage is positive When VGS > 0, the positive gate voltage increases the number of free electrons passing through the channel. The greater the gate voltage, the greater is the number of free electrons passing through the channel. This increases ie. Enhances the conduction of channel, this positive gate voltage operation of MOSFET is called enhancement mode of MOSFET Drain Characteristics of Depletion type MOSFET
Depletion mode Enhancement mode

ID(mA)

ID(mA) C VGS= 1V EnhanceVGS= 0V ment mode IDSS VGS= 1V Depletion B VGS= 2V mode VGS(OFF) VGS(V) VDS(V) A Transfer Characteristics Drain Characteristics When VDS = 0, no conduction takes place between source to drain. If VGS < 0, and VDS > 0, then drain current increases upto a point of time when the drain current reaches saturation called pinch off point. If VDS is increases above this, ID remains constant. For further increase in VDS, avalanche breakdown occurs in pinch off region and the Drain current increases rapidly When VGS > 0, the gate induces more electrons in channel side, it is added with the free electron generated by source. Again the potential applied to gate determines the channel width and maintains constant current flow in pinch off region as shown Transfer Characteristics of Depletion type MOSFET If VGS = 0, the device has a drain current equal to IDSS. Due to this fact only it is called normally ON MOSFET In depletion mode, when VGS = 0, maximum current will flow between source to drain thus ID = IDSS. When VGS is increased in negative side, after a certain extend the positive charges induced by gate completely depletes the channel thus no drain current flows(point A)

In enhancement mode when VGS is increased in positive side, more free electrons are induced in channel, thus it enhances the electron resulting in increase of ID Enhancement Type: Circuit symbol and Circuit Drain Gate Substrate Source N Channel Gate SiO2 Layer Drain Substrate Source P Channel VGS S G D N P N VDS

The device operates in this mode, when the gate voltage is positive. The enhancement type MOSFET has no depletion mode and it operates only in enhancement mode. If differs in construction from the depletion mode MOSFET in the sense that it has no physical channel. It may be noted that the P type substrate extends the silicon dioxide layer completely as shown. The MOSFET is always operated with the positive gate to source voltage. When the VGS = 0, the VDS supply tries to force free electrons from source to drain. But the presence of P region does not permit the electrons to pass through it. Thus there is no drain current for VGS = 0. Due to this fact the Enhancement type MOSFET is called Normally OFF MOSFET If some positive voltage is applied to the gate, it induces a negative charge in the P type substrate just adjacent to the silicon dioxide layer. The induced negative charge produced which would be attracting the free electrons from the source. When the gate is positive enough it can attract more number of free electrons. This forms a thin layer of electrons, which stretches form source to drain. This effect if equivalent to producing a thin layer of N type channel in the P type substrate. This layer of free electrons is called N type inversion layer. The minimum gate to source voltage which produces invertion layer is called Threshold voltage. When VGS is less than threshold voltage no current flows form drain to source. However if VGS is greater than threshold voltage, inversion layer connects the drain and source and we get significant values of current Drain characteristics of Enhancement type MOSFET ID(mA) ID(mA) VGS> Vm VGS=Vm VDS(V) Drain Characteristics ID(ON)

VGS(th) Transfer Characteristics

VGS(V)

When VDs = 0, ID = 0. The value of drain current increases with increase in gate to Drain to source voltage upto saturation value (provided VGS > threshold voltage) after which drain current remains almost constant value

Transfer characteristics of Enhancement Type MOSFET When VGS < threshold voltage, there is no drain current. However in actual practice, an extremely small value of drain current flows through MOSFET. This current flow is due to the presence of thermally generated electrons in the P type substrate. When the value of VGs is kept above VGS(th) a significant drain current flows as shown in figure. Power MOSFET find increasing applications in low-power high-frequency converters.

IGBT (Insulated-gate bipolar transistors)

An IGBT combines the advantages of BJT and MOSFETs. An IGBT is a voltage controlled device that has high input impedance like MOSFETs and low on state conduction losses like BJTs. However the performance of an IGBT is closer to that of a BJT than an MOSFET. This is due to the p+ substrate, which is responsible for the minority carrier injection into the n region. IC C G RS G VCC E VG RBE E C RD

The symbol and circuit of an IGBT switch is as shown. The three terminals are gate, collector and emitter instead of gate, drain and source for an MOSFET. Like MOSFET, when the gate is positive with respect to the emitter for turn on, n carriers are drawn into the p-channel near the gate region. This results in a forward bias of the base of the npn transistor, which there by turns on. An IGBT this is turned on by just applying a positive gate voltage to open the channel for n carriers and is turned off by removing the gate voltage to close the channel. Typical output characteristic and transfer characteristic are as shown VGE7 IC IC VGE6 VGE5 VGE3 VGE2 VGE1 VGE7> VGE6> VGE5

VCE

(a) Output Characteristics

VGE (b) Transfer Characteristics

IGBT is finding increasing application in medium power applications such as DC and AC motor drives, power supplies, solid state relays and contractors