Semi On Duc Tors

A semiconductor is a solid material that has electrical conductivity in between a conductor and an insulator; it can vary over that wide range either permanently or dynamically.[1] Semiconductors are important in electronic technology. Semiconductor devices, electronic components made of semiconductor materials, are essential in modern consumer electronics, including computers, mobile phones, and digital audio players. Silicon is used to create most semiconductors commercially, but dozens of other materials are used as well. Semiconductors have had a monumental impact on our society. You find semiconductors at the heart of microprocessor chips as well as transistors. Anything that's computerized or uses radio waves depends on semiconductors. Today, most semiconductor chips and transistors are created with silicon. You may have heard expressions like "Silicon Valley" and the "silicon economy," and that's why -- silicon is the heart of any electronic device.

Clockwise from top: A chip, an LED and a transistor are all made from semiconductor material. A diode is the simplest possible semiconductor device, and is therefore an excellent beginning point if you want to understand how semiconductors work. In this article, you'll learn what a semiconductor is, how doping works and how a diode can be created using semiconductors. But first, let's take a close look at silicon.

Silicon is a very common element -for example, it is the main element in sand and quartz. If you look "silicon" up in the periodic table,

you will find that it sits next to aluminum, below carbon and above germanium. Future Trends Since the late 1950's, the discovery and invention of new electronic semiconductor materials and the drastic reduction in the size of electronic devices has moved at a rapid pace. As a result, the speed of electronic devices (particularly electron device production, his predictions have been met or exceeded. The push for smaller dimensions, which allow for increased functionality and faster devices, also creates problems of long term reliability and heat dissipation. New device designs, new materials, and lower voltages are being employed to make the next generation of devices. One extremely important area of semiconductor technology is the field of telecommunications. The new "Information Super Highway" requires technology which can transmit and receive information at high rates. One approach which is already being applied to this area is optoelectronics or the use of light to transmit information. Electrons are used to transfer information within computers, but most information sent over long distances uses light pulses traveling through fiber optic cables. The laser diodes which create these pulses and semiconductor receivers that detect the pulses are areas of intensive research. It is clear that semiconductor technology has and will continue to play a major role in the development of the information age.