1.

8 An electron is moving in a piece of lightly doped silicon under an applied field at 27oC so
that its drift velocity is one-tenth of the thermal velocity. Calculate the average number of
collisions it will experience in traversing by drift a region 1 m wide. What is the voltage
applied across this region?
The drift velocity is obtained by calculating the thermal velocity using the effective mass for
conductivity calculations:
v
1 3kT
1 3 1.38 10 23 300
= 22.9 km/s
v d = th =
=
10 10 me*
10
0.26 9.1 10 31
The transist time is obtained from the length of the region divided by the drift velocity
L
10 6
= 43.7 ns
tr =
=
v d 22.9 10 3
The collision time is obtained from the mobility
m * 0.1414 0.26 9.1 10 31
= 0.21 ps
c = n e =
q
1.6 10 19
The number of collisions is therefore tr/c = 209
The electric field equals:
22.9 10 3
=162 kV/m
n
0.1414
and the applied voltage equals E x L = 0.162 V
E=

vd

1.10The electron concentration in a piece of uniform, lightly doped, n-type silicon at room
temperature varies linearly from 1017 cm-3 at x = 0 to 6 x 1016 cm-3 at x = 2 m. Electrons are
supplied to keep this concentration constant with time. Calculate the electron current density
in the silicon if no electric field is present. Assume n = 1000 cm2/V-s and T = 300 K.

dn
= 1.6 10 19 25.9 ( ) 2 10 20 = -828 A/cm2
dx
1.12(Dielectric relaxation in solids) Consider an homogenous one-carrier conductor of
conductivity and permittivity . Imagine a given distribution of the mobile charge density
(x, y, z; t = 0) in space at t = 0. We know the following facts from electro-magnetism,
provided we neglect diffusion current:
J = q n nE + qD n

r
r r
r rr
rr
d
D = , D = E , J = E , J =
dt

a) Show from these facts that (x, y, z; t) = (x, y, z; t = 0) e-t/(/). This result shows that
uncompensated charge cannot remain in a uniform conducting material, but must
accumulate at discontinuous surfaces or other places of non-uniformity.

Combining the equations yields:

rr
rr rr
d
J = E = D = =

dt
solving the resulting differential equation yields (x, y, z; t) = (x, y, z; t = 0) e-t/(/)
b) Compute the value of the dielectric relaxation time / for intrinsic silicon; for silicon
doped with 1016 donors cm-3; and for thermal SiO2 with = 10-16 (-cm)-1.
Intrinsic silicon:
= q ( n ni + p ni ) = 1.6 10 19 1.45 1010 (1414 + 470.5) = 4.37 x 10-6 (-cm)-1
the dielectric relaxation time equals / = (11.9 x 8.854 x 10-14)/ 4.37 x 10-6 = 2.41 ns
Doped silicon:
= q n N d = 1.6 10 19 1181 1016 = 1.89 (-cm)-1
the dielectric relaxation time equals / = (11.9 x 8.854 x 10-14)/ 1.89 = 0.56 ps
SiO2
the dielectric relaxation time equals / = (3.9 x 8.854 x 10-14)/ 10-16 = 3,453 s
1.18 The values in Tables 1.3 and 1.4 are not entirely consistent. To see that this is the case,
a) Calculate Eg(T = 300 K) using the equation in Table 1.4 and compare the result with Eg in
Table 1.3
7.02 10 4 T 3 / 2
= 1.157
E g ,1 (T ) = 1.16
T + 1108
Eg,2 (Table 1.3) = 1.124 eV
b) Use both values of Eg to calculate ni from Equation 1.1.25 with Nc and Nv as given in
Table 1.3
E g ,1
ni ,1 = N c N v exp(
) = 3.21 x 109 cm-3
2kT
E g ,2
ni , 2 = N c N v exp(
) = 6.13 x 109 cm-3
2kT
c) Calculate ni at 300 K using the temperature-variation formula in Table 1.4.
7014
) = 1.41 x 1010 cm-3
ni ,3 = 3.87 1016 T 3 / 2 exp(
T