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I am reading the book Electrical Engineering 101. It's a book of basics for not-so-newbie.

It contains below description in Chapter 3:

A diode is made of two types of semiconductors pushed together. They are known as type P and type N. They are created by a process called doping...Some dopants will create a type N structure in which there are some extra electrons simply hanging out with nowhere to go. Other dopants will create a type P structure in which there are missing electrons, also called holes.

So, if I have a piece of P-type or N-type semiconductor in my hand, does it show any electrical effect? Say, electrostatic field?


And a similar question:

How is a semiconductor electrically neutral?

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  • \$\begingroup\$ n-type does not have any extra electrons. It has the same number of negative electrons as positive static atomic nuclei. What makes it "n-type" is that some electrons are not bound to static nuclei and thus can move freely (and thus, act as charge carriers and conduct current). The same logic applies to p-type as well. \$\endgroup\$
    – akhmed
    Commented Aug 19, 2016 at 0:43

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The section you cite is misleading. As Ignacio already said, the atoms in both P-type and N-type semiconductors are neutral. The difference lies in the distribution of electrons between valence band and conduction band.

In simple words: in N-type semiconductors there is an excess of electrons that are able to move relatively freely in the bulk of the crystal.

For P-type semiconductors the situation is reversed, there are less free electrons than in an intrinsic (i.e. undoped) crystal. This also enhances conduction, even if it seems counter-intuitive, since those "missing" electrons leave "holes" in valence band that can move as if they were positive charges.

To recap: doping enhances conductivity of the crystal by altering the equilibrium of free electrons with respect to the intrinsic crystal, not by putting more or less charges in the crystal itself.

Keep in mind that what I explained in basic terms is explained rigorously only by quantum physics applied to the crystal structure. Not an easy subject. I think even many undergraduate courses in electronics around the world don't delve into that subject too much. Even the concept of valence and conduction band cannot be explained quantitatively without formulas obtained from quantum physics.

I don't know your goals, but if you are an electronic enthusiast or an undergraduate student(*), usually you don't need to understand much more the subject to design electronic circuits and understand the external behavior of electronic components.

(*) unless you aim at becoming an IC designer, in that case you must know very well how the components behave "inside the chip".

BTW, prompted by your comments to Ignacio's answer, I'll add some extra points: semiconductors are called that way because the conductivity of the intrinsic crystals is intermediate between insulators and metals, but doped semiconductors can have very high conductivity (especially N-type ones).

As an example consider a power MOSFET in its ON state: it can reach a resistance between drain and source of few milliohm, just the kind of resistance level of a common relay's contacts, which are made of metal!

See, for instance, the datasheet of the IRF3709:

enter image description here

Moreover, free electrons are called that way because they are free as they are in a metal: they are in conduction band and that means that they can move freely across the entire crystal trellis, like in a metal. They are not bound to a specific atom.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ Thanks. I am a new embedded software engineer. Recently I am working on a project related to MCU, circuits, etc. So I am using the book I mentioned to refresh my knowledge about electrical engineering. \$\endgroup\$ Commented Jun 18, 2016 at 10:23
  • \$\begingroup\$ @smwikipedia Then definitely you don't need all that insight, unless you do it for curiosity. You should know how components behave at their terminals, because probably the firmware you are going to write will have to "know" how to drive circuits connected to the MCU pins. \$\endgroup\$ Commented Jun 18, 2016 at 10:48
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    \$\begingroup\$ @smwikipedia If you can afford it, I'll rather advice you to get a copy of The Art of Electronics. A big beast but really well-written, and you don't need to read it all, read just what you need. In particular, there is a nice chapter on digital interfacing (i.e. how to connect digital logic inputs/outputs to the rest of the world) that seems what you are looking for. \$\endgroup\$ Commented Jun 18, 2016 at 10:49
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    \$\begingroup\$ @smwikipedia Yes. Electrons in valence band are relatively strongly bound to specific atoms. Electrons in conduction band are not. But, as I said, you really don't need all of this to understand component behavior. It's too low level for your task (let me use an analogy: usually you don't need to know how a CPU pipeline is implemented to write a C plug-in for your favorite browser). \$\endgroup\$ Commented Jun 18, 2016 at 10:54
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    \$\begingroup\$ @Yep, sometimes college courses focus too much on the low-level details. Maybe this was ok 50 years ago, when BJTs were all the rage, and integrated circuits were a relatively young technology. Now technology has shifted too much. Not every circuit designer must be (and should be, IMO) an expert in microelectronics. It could also be misleading: it could give the false impression that to design, say, an industrial process control board you need to know much about P- and N-type semiconductors. \$\endgroup\$ Commented Jun 18, 2016 at 11:00
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Some dopants will create a type N structure in which there are some extra electrons simply hanging out with nowhere to go. Other dopants will create a type P structure in which there are missing electrons, also called holes.

A better way to state this is that an n-type semiconductor has extra mobile electrons, and a p-type semiconducor has a deficit of valence electrons. As the other answers point out, the structure as a whole (considering conduction band and valence band electrons, bound electrons in lower bands, nuclear protons, and ionized and unionized impurity sites) is electrically neutral.

Why a deficit of valence band electrons produces an effect identical to a positively-charged carrier called a hole is a bit of an involved topic. But as an analogy you can consider that when a bubble of air flows upwards in a pool of water, there is a corresponding net downward flow of water.

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No, since the atoms themselves in the material are neutral. The extra electrons or holes are carriers that allow a current to flow when a voltage is applied to the material.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ Thanks but I don't get it. If there're some extra electrons, how can the material be neutral? Or the whole material are still neutral? If so, what does the extra electron mean? \$\endgroup\$ Commented Jun 18, 2016 at 9:59
  • \$\begingroup\$ There are exactly as many electrons in the material as there are protons, but there are too many or too few to fill the valence shell of the atoms. \$\endgroup\$ Commented Jun 18, 2016 at 10:01
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    \$\begingroup\$ The number of protons and electrons is equal. The electrons are not really "extra", they are just "floating around" because they were forced into a higher energy level due to the bonds from the dopant. They still came from the original atoms \$\endgroup\$
    – BeB00
    Commented Jun 18, 2016 at 10:02
  • \$\begingroup\$ @BWalker Thanks. So for the extra electron scenario, I think what really happens is the doping process makes the atom structure less stable. Their electrons are kind of stimulated that they are more easily to go around. But they still cannot be called free electrons literally because they are cannot move around freely like in metal. So I guess that's why they are called semi-conductor. Hope I get your point correctly. \$\endgroup\$ Commented Jun 18, 2016 at 10:12
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    \$\begingroup\$ @smwikipedia: A hole is just a space in the valence shell that can temporarily hold an electron as it passes through the material. \$\endgroup\$ Commented Jun 18, 2016 at 10:22

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