Lecture

PN Junction: Depletion Area and Barrier Potential

Graph Chat

Chat with Graph Search

Ask any question about EPFL courses, lectures, exercises, research, news, etc. or try the example questions below.

DISCLAIMER: The Graph Chatbot is not programmed to provide explicit or categorical answers to your questions. Rather, it transforms your questions into API requests that are distributed across the various IT services officially administered by EPFL. Its purpose is solely to collect and recommend relevant references to content that you can explore to help you answer your questions.

In course

EE-203: Electronics II

Ce cours introduit les composants à semiconducteurs électroniques de base : diodes à jonction PN, transistors bipolaires et MOS. Leurs modes de fonctionnement en DC et AC sont étudiés. Les circuits élémentaires à base de transistors bipolaires sont prése ...

Description

This lecture covers the concepts of depletion area and barrier potential in a PN junction, including the calculation of threshold voltage, carrier densities, and junction capacitance. It also discusses the behavior of the junction under forward and reverse bias conditions, as well as the impact of donors and electrons on the polarization and conduction currents.

This video is available exclusively on Mediaspace for a restricted audience. Please log in to MediaSpace to access it if you have the necessary permissions.

Watch on Mediaspace

Instructors (3)

Stéphanie Lacour

Stéphanie P. Lacour holds the Bertarelli Foundation Chair in Neuroprosthetic Technology in the School of Engineering at EPFL and leads the Laboratory for Soft Bioelectronic Interfaces. She received her PhD in Electrical Engineering from INSA de Lyon, France, and completed postdoctoral research at Princeton University and the University of Cambridge. She is the recipient of the 2006 MIT TR35, a University Research Fellowship of the Royal Society, European Research Council ERC Starting and POC Grants, and a SNSF-ERC Consolidator Grant. She was elected a 2015 Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum.

Adil Koukab

Cédric Meinen

Teaching & PhD Courses Electrical systems and electronics I EE-295 The course has the aim to provide the fundamental knowledge and experiences to understand basic electrical systems. Electrical systems and electronics II EE-296 The basic concepts enabling to understand and analysis the electronic systems dedicated to signals acquisition and processing (e.g. biosensors, physiological signals, ECG) are addressed. This includes the acquisition, amplification and filtering. El

Official source

Ontological neighbourhood

Physics

Condensed matter physics: Solid-state physics

Related concepts (32)

P–n junction

A p–n junction is a boundary or interface between two types of semiconductor materials, p-type and n-type, inside a single crystal of semiconductor. The "p" (positive) side contains an excess of holes, while the "n" (negative) side contains an excess of electrons in the outer shells of the electrically neutral atoms there. This allows electric current to pass through the junction only in one direction.

Depletion region

In semiconductor physics, the depletion region, also called depletion layer, depletion zone, junction region, space charge region or space charge layer, is an insulating region within a conductive, doped semiconductor material where the mobile charge carriers have been diffused away, or have been forced away by an electric field. The only elements left in the depletion region are ionized donor or acceptor impurities. This region of uncovered positive and negative ions is called the depletion region due to the depletion of carriers in this region, leaving none to carry a current.

Semiconductor

A semiconductor is a material which has an electrical conductivity value falling between that of a conductor, such as copper, and an insulator, such as glass. Its resistivity falls as its temperature rises; metals behave in the opposite way. Its conducting properties may be altered in useful ways by introducing impurities ("doping") into the crystal structure. When two differently doped regions exist in the same crystal, a semiconductor junction is created.

Electric field

An electric field (sometimes E-field) is the physical field that surrounds electrically charged particles and exerts force on all other charged particles in the field, either attracting or repelling them. It also refers to the physical field for a system of charged particles. Electric fields originate from electric charges and time-varying electric currents. Electric fields and magnetic fields are both manifestations of the electromagnetic field, one of the four fundamental interactions (also called forces) of nature.

Ohmic contact

An ohmic contact is a non-rectifying electrical junction: a junction between two conductors that has a linear current–voltage (I–V) curve as with Ohm's law. Low-resistance ohmic contacts are used to allow charge to flow easily in both directions between the two conductors, without blocking due to rectification or excess power dissipation due to voltage thresholds. By contrast, a junction or contact that does not demonstrate a linear I–V curve is called non-ohmic.

Related lectures (64)

PN Junction: Carrier Densities

Discusses carrier densities and electric fields in a PN junction at equilibrium.

Semiconductor Components: N+/N Junction Analysis

Covers the analysis of N+/N junctions in semiconductor components, focusing on diffusion and drift currents and their equilibrium.

Semiconductor Physics: Transistors and Diodes

Explores semiconductor physics, emphasizing transistors and diodes' behavior and operation.

Formation of PN Junction

Explains the formation of a PN junction in semiconductor devices and its characteristics, including current-voltage behavior and temperature effects.

Semiconductor Behavior