semiconductor

Chemistry

(noun)

a substance with electrical properties between those of a good conductor and those of a good insulator

Related Terms

  • doped
  • conductor
Physics

(noun)

A substance with electrical properties intermediate between a good conductor and a good insulator.

Related Terms

  • temperature coefficient of resistivity
  • diode
  • scintillator
  • resistivity

Examples of semiconductor in the following topics:

  • Semiconductors

    • Semiconductors fall into two broad categories:
    • These are also called "undoped semiconductors" or "i-type semiconductors. "
    • While insulating materials may be doped to become semiconductors, intrinsic semiconductors can also be doped, resulting in an extrinsic semiconductor.
    • The impurities depend on the type of semiconductor.
    • When a semiconductor is doped to such a high level that it acts more like a conductor than a semiconductor, it is referred to as degenerate.
  • Doping: Connectivity of Semiconductors

    • There are two general categories of semiconductors: intrinsic semiconductors, which are composed of only one material, and extrinsic semiconductors, which have had other substances added to them to alter their properties.
    • In semiconductor production, the process of creating extrinsic semiconductors by adding substances to a pure semiconductor for the purposes of modulating its electrical properties is known as doping.
    • The newly created semiconductor is better able to conduct current than the pure semiconductor.
    • While semiconductors doped with either n-type dopants or p-type dopants are better conductors than intrinsic semiconductors, interesting properties emerge when p- and n-type semiconductors are combined to form a p-n junction.
    • The free electrons from the n-type semiconductor combine with the holes in the p-type semiconductor near the junction.
  • Radiation Detection

    • Different types of radiation detectors exist ; gaseous ionization detectors, semiconductor detectors, and scintillation detectors are the most common.
    • A semiconductor detector uses a semiconductor (usually silicon or germanium) to detect traversing charged particles or the absorption of photons.
    • When these detectors' sensitive structures are based on single diodes, they are called semiconductor diode detectors.
    • When they contain many diodes with different functions, the more general term "semiconductor detector" is used.
    • Semiconductor detectors have had various applications in recent decades, in particular in gamma and x-ray spectrometry and as particle detectors.
  • Dependence of Resistance on Temperature

    • Note also that α is negative for semiconductors, meaning that their resistivity decreases with increasing temperature.
    • This property of decreasing ρ with temperature is also related to the type and amount of impurities present in the semiconductors.
    • One of the most common is the thermistor, a semiconductor crystal with a strong temperature dependence, the resistance of which is measured to obtain its temperature.
  • Lasers

    • Gas and semiconductors are commonly used gain media.
  • Implications of Quantum Mechanics

    • The study of semiconductors led to the invention of the diode and the transistor, which are indispensable parts of modern electronic systems and devices.
  • Electrolytic Cells

    • Electrodes of metal, graphite, and semiconductor material are widely used.
  • The Hall Effect

    • The Hall effect is a rather ubiquitous phenomenon in physics, and appears not only in conductors, but semiconductors, ionized gases, and in quantum spin among other applications.
  • Ecological rucksack

    • Of course, the waste estimation of a product is dependent upon how far back its materials can be traced, which makes any waste study highly subjective; however, reasonable estimates claim that a semiconductor chip can leave behind 100,000 times its weight in waste during the manufacturing process and the making of a laptop computer produces 4,000 times its weight in waste.
  • Sulfur Compounds

    • These materials tend to be dark-colored semiconductors that are not readily attacked by water or even many acids.
    • The mineral galena (PbS) was the first demonstrated semiconductor.
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