Metal-semiconductor contact

As a metal-semiconductor junction in which is semiconductor physics and technology in general, a contact between metals and semiconductors , respectively. Metal-semiconductor junctions occur when contacting semiconducting materials and are therefore one of the most important elements in semiconductor components and microelectronic circuits. However, they can also represent independent components, such as the Schottky diode .

These transitions generally occur in two forms, on the one hand as polarity-independent contacts with a linear current-voltage characteristic, so-called ohmic contacts , on the other hand, strongly polarity-dependent contacts with the current-voltage characteristic of a diode, so-called Schottky contacts . Which shape develops at the contact point of a metal and a semiconductor depends primarily on the position of the Fermi energy in the metal and the semiconductor, and is therefore also dependent on the doping of the semiconductor. Detailed descriptions of this can be found in the articles for the two types of contact.

literature

• Rolf Sauer: Semiconductor physics: textbook for physicists and engineers . Oldenbourg Verlag, 2009, ISBN 978-3-486-58863-7 , pp. 177-181 .
• Ingolf Ruge, Hermann Mader: Semiconductor technology . Gabler Wissenschaftsverlage, 1991, ISBN 978-3-540-53873-8 , p. 124-137 .
• J. Auth: Metal-semiconductor contact . In: Manfred von Ardenne (ed.): Effects of physics and their applications . Harri Deutsch Verlag, 2005, ISBN 3-8171-1682-9 , p. 439-442 .