Categories of an Electric

Material
 Categories of an Electric
Material
1. Conductor
2. Insulator
3. Semiconductor
CONDUCTOR
- is applied to any material that will
support or allow a generous flow of
charge when a voltage of limited
magnitude is applied across its
terminal.
- a wire, cable or other body or
medium that is suitable for carrying
electric current.
- a material that allows current to
flow easily.
Example:
 Copper - most widely applied conductor in
electronics. Printed circuits (PCB) use copper foil to
act as circuit conductors. Copper is a good
conductor, and it is easy to solder.
 Aluminum - good conductor, but not as good as
copper. It is used more in power transformers and
transmission lines than it is in electronics. It is less
expensive than copper, but it is difficult to solder and
tends to corrode rapidly when brought into contact
with other metals
 Gold - good conductor and very stable and does not
corrode as badly as copper and silver. Some moving
and sliding electronic contacts are gold-plated. This
makes the contact very reliable.
Conductors

Copper with insulation

Conductors

Silver Coaxial Pure Silver

Cable Cable
 Conductors

Pure Aluminum Silver conductor

Cable with insulation
Conductors
Solid Gold wires in a
dual configuration
(“Dual Connect”)
within a thin tubing of
PTFE (Teflon®)
insulation to optimize
linearity for audio
frequency signals.
INSULATOR
– is a material that offers a very low level of
conductivity under pressure from an
applied voltage source.

Example:
rubber, glass,
mica, plastic,
etc
INSULATOR

Rubber Rubber
insulation host Mounting
Structure of an atom

Atom is the smallest particle of an

element that retains the characteristics of
that same element. Each known elements
has atoms that are different from the
atoms of all other elements.
 Structure of a Copper Conductor

Small wire contains billions of atoms, each with one valence

electron (free electron). Conductors are said to have a positive temperature
coefficient, meaning that the relationship between temperature and resistance
is positive - that is, they increase together.
Free electron – an electron that is not
constrained to remain in a particular atom.
It is therefore able to move freely in a
matter or a vacuum, when acted on by
external electric or magnetic fields.
Table 1 Arrangement of Electrons in selected elements

Atomic Electrons in shell numbered

Element Symbol
Number n=1 n=2 n=3 n=4 n=5
5 Boron B 2 3
6 Carbon C 2 4
8 Oxygen O 2 6
10 Neon Ne 2 8
11 Sodium Na 2 8 1
13 Aluminum Al 2 8 3
14 Silicon Si 2 8 4
15 Phosphorus P 2 8 5
17 Chlorine Cl 2 8 7
18 Argon A 2 8 8
26 Iron Fe 2 8 14 2
28 Nickel Ni 2 8 16 2
29 Copper Cu 2 8 18 1
30 Zinc Zn 2 8 18 2
31 Gallium Ga 2 8 18 3
32 Germanium Ge 2 8 18 4
33 Arsenic As 2 8 18 5
47 Silver Ag 2 8 18 18 1
49 Indium In 2 8 18 18 3
50 Tin Sn 2 8 18 18 4
51 Antimony Sb 2 8 18 18 5
SEMICONDUCTOR

- a device which does not allow current to

flow easily as conductors do. Sometimes it
can conduct so poorly that they behave as
insulator. (Ex. Si & Ge)
Typical Resistivity of each category

Material Resistivity, ρ in Ω-cm

Conductor 1 x 10-6
Insulator 1 x 1012
Semiconductor Ge= 50
Si = 50 x 103

Resistivity is often used when comparing

the resistance levels of materials
 Tetravalent Atom – applied to both silicon and germanium
because they each have four valence electrons
 Crystal - Physical structure of semiconductor that result from
covalent bonding.
- a natural or synthetic Piezoelectric or semiconductor
material whose atoms are arranged with some degree of geometric
regularity.
 Silicon Crystal – combined Silicon atom, to form a solid, arranged
into an orderly pattern.
 Piezoelectric – having the ability to generate a voltage when
mechanical force is applied, or to produce a mechanical force when
a voltage is applied, as in a piezoelectric crystal.
 Covalent Bonding - sharing of valence electrons of one atom to
another.
 Ionic Bond - linking one atom to another atom.
 Annihilation - the conversion of matter into energy, especially the
mutual conversion of a particle and an antiparticle into
electromagnetic radiation.
 Covalent Bond in Silicon

Shared valence electrons from Bonding diagram

covalent bonds
Silicon Crystal Lattice
Net Charge of a Silicon Atom
If one of the four valence electron
loses, it becomes positive ion with a
charge of +1. If the Silicon atom
loses all four of its valence
electrons, it becomes a positive ion
with a charge of +4.
Intrinsic Semiconductor Material
 - a semiconductor whose electrical properties are
essentially characteristic of the pure ideal crystal.
Current flow is made up of both electrons (-) and holes
(+) in approximately equal numbers.

Extrinsic Semiconductor Material

 - a semiconductor whose electrical properties are
dependent on impurities (Pentavalent impurities;
Antimony, Arsenic and Phosphorus/Trivalent
impurities; Boron, Gallium and Indium) added to the
semiconductor crystal. Hence, the material is either
P- or N-type.
Impurity
 – an atom that is foreign to the crystal in
which it exists. In a semiconductor
crystal, an impurity can produce either
excess electrons or holes.

Intrinsic Carriers
-free electrons in the material due on natural
causes.
Intrinsic Ge - 2.5 x 1013 e- /cm3
Intrinsic Si - 1.5 x 1010 e- /cm3
Pure silicon or intrinsic silicon contains very few
free electrons to support the flow of current and
therefore, acts as an insulator.

Crystal of Pure Silicon (at room

temperature, pure Si is a very poor
conductor)
 Although the covalent bond will result in a stronger
bond between the valence electrons and their parent atom, it is
still possible for the valence electron to absorb sufficient
kinetic energy from natural causes to break the covalent bond.
(e.g. 1. light energy - in the form of photon 2. Thermal energy -
surrounding medium).

Heat is a form of energy and

one way to improve its
conduction is to heat it. The
high-energy electron has
broken its covalent bond and
it may be called a thermal
carrier.
Thermal carrier production