LECTURE 1

INTRODUCTION TO
ELECTRONICS 1
Rio Aguilar, ECE

General Information Regarding the Field of

Electronics
Brief History of Electronics
Atomic Structure of Materials
Semiconductors, Insulators and Conductors

General Information
Regarding the Field of
Electronics

PENTIUM MICROPROCESSOR

Feature

size: 45nm
Operating speed: up to 3 GHz
# of transistors: 141-230 million
http://www.intel.com/pressroom/kits/quickreffam.htm

Note: 1 micron = 10-6 meter;

width of human hair = 100
microns

I7 MICROPROCESSOR

Feature

size: 22nm
Operating speed: up to 4 GHz
# of transistors: 730 million
http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/processors/c
ore/core-i7-processor.html

Note: 1 micron = 10-6 meter;

width of human hair = 100
microns

CELL PHONES
Microprocessor
overall control
DSP/ADC/DAC
process audio and
baseband signals
ROM and flash memory
programs and user info
(directory,etc.)
RF (GSM, WCDMA)
Power management
Liquid crystal display
WLAN/BT
2MP camera

www.appleinsider.com/article.php?id=2365

CELL PHONES
Microprocessor
64-bit A9 chip
DSP/ADC/DAC
process audio and
baseband signals
ROM and flash memory
programs and user info
(directory,etc.)
RF (GSM,WCDMA,LTE)
Power management
Retina HD Display with 3D touch
https://www.apple.com/iphone-6s/
WLAN/BT
8MP Camera, 1.2MP front CAM
touch focus, geo-tagging, face detection, HDR panorama,
HDR photo. Touch ID

TECHNOLOGY METRICS
Density
Speed
Power consumption
Power rating
Noise

DENSITY: MOORES LAW

Density of transistors in chip doubles about
every 18 months (1965, Gordon Moore: Intel
co-founder)

Moore's original statement that transistor counts had doubled every year can be found in his
publication "Cramming more components onto integrated circuits", Electronics Magazine 19
April 1965

HIGHER DENSITY =SMALLER

FEATURE SIZES

www.intel.com/update/archive/issue2/pix/foc_fig3.jpg

SPEED

Factors: size, material, design

Actual speed data from

www.dell.com/us/en/esg/topics/power_ps3q02-intelgb.htm.
Speed projections from R. Pierret, Semiconductor Device
Fundamentals, Addison-Wesley, 1996

SEMICON IN RP
Electronics equipment production amounted to $26.64 billion
dollars in 2004 and constituted the largest export from the
Philippines accounting for almost 70 percent of all exports from
the Philippines
Design and assembly at both system
(e.g. disk drives) and component (e.g. IC) level
Semiconductor and Electronics Industries in the Phils (SEIPI)
254 member companies as of October 2013
Bulk of local semicon: package and test
Push towards more design and test capability
Greater profit margin than in packaging and manufacturing
http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTPHILIPPINES/Resources/Agarwalla-word.pdf

WITHIN FIELD OF ELECTRONICS YOU CAN

SPECIALIZE IN MANY DIFFERENT AREAS.
THESE INCLUDE:
Computers

Communications
Consumer

Electronics
Medical Electronics
Aerospace Electronics
Marine Electronics
Automotive Electronics
Industrial Electronics

3 Broad Categories of Work in this field:

Technicians- install, adjust, troubleshoot, repair
and maintain a wide variety of electronic
equipment and systems
Technologists- assist in design, development, and
testing of electronic equipment and systems.

Engineers- design electronic equipment and

systems, may also be involved as customer
engineers. These engineers serve in a technical
service role for industry, providing expertise in
making correct choices of equipment or systems
for specific applications.

BRIEF HISTORY

HISTORY
An excellent multimedia tour is at:
www.pbs.org/transistor/
and
http://www.eta-i.org/History%20of
%20Electronics%20%20electricity.pdf
www.bellsystemmemorial.com/belllabs_transistor.html

VACUUM TUBES
1883:

Edison effect electrons travel through a

vacuum to form current
1904: John Fleming
invents Fleming valve uses Edison effect to
rectify AC current
1906: Lee De Forest
invents Audion vacuum
tube capable of
amplification
Short component life
Warm-up time

www.electron-valve.com/history/history.html
www.cedmagic.com/history/deforest-audion.html

SEMICONDUCTORS
Early 1900s: galena
(crystalline lead sulfide)
used as radio detectors
(rectifying AC current)
Point contact rectifier:
had to probe crystal
surface w/ catwhiskers
to locate active
surfaces.
1940: Russell Ohl
discovers silicon p-n
Junction

Electro Galena Detector 1914

www.sparkmuseum.com/DETECTOR.HTM

http://www.computerhistory.org/semiconductor/timeline/1940-Discovery.html

tparca.org/bellringers/quiz/DavesXtalRadio.html

TRANSISTOR
December 1947: Shockley,
Bardeen,& Brattain invent
Transistor at Bell Labs
(won Nobel prize in 1956)
Point contact transistor
using germanium
Today, silicon transistors
more popular because of
excellent chemical
properties (easier to work
with)

http://www.porticus.org/bell/belllabs_transistor.html

INTEGRATED CIRCUITS
1958: Jack Kilby (TI) and Robert
Noyce (Fairchild) invent the integrated
circuit -- squeezing several
components on a single chip
of silicon
www.icknowledge.com/history/First_IC.jpg
A simple oscillator IC with
five integrated components
Early technology difficult to
scale
1959: invention of planar IC
technology (still used today
in VLSI)
www.icknowledge.com/history/Noyce_IC.jpg

VLSI

Very Large Scale Integration

www.nobel.se/physics/educational/poster/2000/kilby.html

ATOMIC STRUCTURE OF
MATERIALS

MATTER
-anything that has weight and occupies space
-basic building block of matter is atom
Physical States of Matter
-solid
-liquid
-gas

CHEMICAL STATES OF MATTER

Elements- substance that cannot be chemically
broken into simpler substances, has only one
kind of atom
(e.g. Gold, iron, copper, silicon and oxygen)
Compounds- formed by combination of two or
more elements, built with 2 or more atoms that
combine into molecules (e.g. Water a combination
of water and hydrogen)

Mixtures- combination of substances where the

individual elements possess the same properties
as when they are alone. Mixing gold dust and
sand would not yield a new compound.

COMPOSITION OF MATTER
Atoms combine chemically to form molecules
All matter is composed of atoms and molecules
The smallest particle into which a compound can
be divided but retain its physical property is the
molecule
The smallest particle into which an element can
be divided but retain its physical properties is
the atom

STRUCTURE OF THE ATOM

To understand the electron theory students
should familiarized with the electron, proton and
neutron.
Danish scientist, Niels Bohr, developed a model
of atomic structure that explains the electron
theory.

BOHRS MODEL OF THE ATOM

The atom consists of a nucleus in the center of the

atom with electrons orbiting the nucleus.
The nucleus has two types of particles:

Protons-electrically

positive in charge
Neutrons-neutral in electrical charge

Electrons are negatively charged particles

The net charge of the atom is neutral because the
orbiting electrons total negative charge equals the
total positive charge strength of protons in the nucleus.

CHARACTERISTICS OF 3 ATOMIC
PARTICLES

Electron

Negative

electrical charge
Has small mass or weight (9X10-28 grams)
travels in orbits outside the nucleus
Rates of speed ( trillions of orbits per second)

Protons
Has

positive electrical charge

1,836 times heavier than an electron

 Located

in the nucleus
Equal in number of atoms electrons

Neutrons
No

charge
Similar in mass/weight to proton
Located in the nucleus

ATOMIC NUMBER AND WEIGHT

Atomic number of element is determined by the
number of protons in each of its atoms
Atomic weight of element is considered to be the
average mass of the atom of an element as
compared with an atom of carbon:12
Carbon has 12 atomic mass unit
Example: hydrogen has 1.007 atomic mass units
and coppers atomic weight is 63.54

CONCEPT OF ATOMIC SHELLS

All electrons travelling around the nucleus of the
atom do not travel in the same path or at the
same distance from the nucleus. Electrons align
themselves in a structured manner
Each ring or shell, of orbiting electrons has a
maximum number of electrons that can locate
themselves within that shell if the atom is stable.

the closest shell to the nucleus is called the

"1shell" (also called "K shell"), followed by the
"2shell" (or "L shell"), then the "3shell" (or "M
shell"), and so on farther and farther from the
nucleus. The shells correspond with theprincipal
quantum numbers(n= 1, 2, 3, 4...) or are
labeled alphabetically with letters used in the Xray notation(K, L, M,).

Each shell can contain only a fixed number of

electrons: The 1st shell can hold up to two
electrons, the 2nd shell can hold up to eight (2 +
6) electrons, the 3rd shell can hold up to 18 (2 + 6
+ 10) and so on.
The general formula is that thenth shell can in
principle hold up to 2n2electrons.

Energy Level increases as the distance from the

nucleus increases
Electrons that are in orbits farther from the
nucleus have higher energy and are less tightly
bound to atom than those closer to the nucleus
Electrons with the highest energy exist in the
outer most shell and is known as the Valence
electrons

Valence Electrons contribute to chemical

reactions and bonding within the structure of a
material and determine its electrical
properties.

IONIZATION
When an atoms absorb an energy from an
external source, the energies of the electrons are
raised
If valence electrons acquires a sufficient amount
of energy, it can actually escape from the outer
shell and the atoms influence.
The process of losing a valence electron is known
as ionization.
The escaped electron is called free electron.

An atom with more protons than electrons is

called a positive ion.
An atom with more electrons than protons is
called a negative ion.

THE ENERGY ASSOCIATED WITH EACH

ELECTRON IS MEASURED IN
ELECTRON VOLTS
W is work or energy
Q is unit of charge moved
V is electrical potential
Substituting the charge of an electron and a potential difference of 1 volt
Will result in an energy level referred to as 1 electron volt. The charge of
one electron is 1.6x10-19 coulomb

ENERGY GAP/BAND GAP

-This is equivalent to the energy required to

free an outer shell electron from its orbit
about the nucleus to become a
mobile charge carrier, able to move freely
within the solid material, so the band gap is
a major factor determining the electrical
conductivity of a solid.

SEMICONDUCTORS,
CONDUCTORS AND
INSULATORS

CONDUCTORS
-material that easily conducts electrical current
-best conductors are single-element materials such
as copper, silver, gold and aluminum.
-characterized by atoms with only one valence
electron very loosely bound to atom.
-conductive materials have many free electrons

INSULATORS
-

Material that does not conduct electrical current

under normal conditions
Good insulators are compounds rather than
single-element materials.
Valence electrons are tightly bound to the atoms;
therefore, there are very few free electrons in an
insulator.

SEMICONDUCTORS
-

Material that is between conductors and

insulators in its ability to conduct electrical
current
It is neither a good insulator nor a good
conductor
Most common are germanium, silicon and carbon

ENERGY DIAGRAM FOR THE 3

TYPES OF MATERIALS

COMPARISON OF A
SEMICONDUCTOR ATOM TO A
CONDUCTOR ATOM

Core of Silicon atom has a net charge of +4 (14 protons10electrons),Core of Copper atom has a net charge of +1
(29 protons-28 electrons)
Copper has 1 valence electron, silicon has 4 valence
electrons
Copper valence electron is in 4th shell, silicons valence
electrons are in 3rd shell
Valence electron on the copper has more energy than and
can easily acquire enough energy to escape from their
atoms.

SILICON AND GERMANIUM

Silicon is the most widely used in semiconductor devices

Both Ge and Si have 4 valence electron

The valence electrons of Ge are in 4 th shell while Si are

in 3rd shell, this means that Ge Valence electrons at
higher energy levels than those in Si and therefore
requires a smaller amount of additional energy to escape
from atom
This property makes Ge more unstable at high
temperatures

REFERENCE
Electronics Devices, Thomas Floyd, 6th ed., New
Jersey, Prentice Hall, 2002
An Introduction to Electronic Devices and Circuit
Theory, Robert Boylestad et al., 9th ed., New
Jersey, Prentice Hall, 2006

ASSIGNMENT
1.
2.
3.
4.

What is covalent bonding?

Describe how current is produced in a
semiconductor.
Describe properties of p-type and n-type
materials
Define Doping