Metals
Good conductors of electricity
Have free electrons that can move easily between atoms
Low resistance
Insulators
Poor conductors of electricity
Few free electrons to move about.
High resistance
Semiconductors
Electrical conductivity that is between that of a conductor and an insulator.
Resistance of semiconductors is between that of conductors and insulators.
At 0 Kelvin it behaves as an insulator.
When the temperature increases, the conductivity of the electricity will increase
E.g. : Silicon and Germanium
Covalent Bond
Pure Semiconductor at 0K
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As the temperature of pure silicon crystal increases, the energy of the vibrating atoms in
the silicon crystal causes some electrons to break free.
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Doping
Doping process is the addition of a small quantity of foreign objects into a semiconductor
to increase its conductivity.
The atom size of the foreign object has to be about the same size as the atom size of
the semiconductor
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Semiconductor Diode
A diode is a component (device) that allows electric current to flow in one direction only.
A diode acts like a one-way valve to electric current.
How does the p-n junction diode work?
When p-type semiconductor material in contact with n-type semiconductor material, a
layer called the depletion layer is formed in the middle.
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At this junction, electrons from n-type material drift across the junction to fill in the holes
in p-type.
The holes from p-type material drift in the opposite direction to unite with free electrons
in the n-type material.
As a result a depletion layer is a very narrow region which has lost all its available free
electrons and holes and thus behaves almost like pure silicon,i.e with high resistivity.
Any further movement of charges across the boundry in the depletion layer will be
repelled by the charges in the layer.
The layer of the negative charge in the p-type region will prevent the majority charge
carriers from the n-type region(the electrons) from crossing the boundary.
Similarly, the positive charge layer in the n-type region will prevent the majority charge
carriers from the p-type region(the holes) from crossing the boundry in the opposite
direction.
Thus, a potential difference, known as the junction voltage. In its normal state a p-n
junction delivers no current since the charges are in equilibrium.
The effect of this junction voltage is to prevent charge carriers from drifting across the
junction.
The junction voltages for germanium and silicon are approximately 0.1 V and 0.6 V
respectively.
In order for electric current to flow through the diode, the voltage applied across the
diode must exceed the junction voltage.
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When the in forward-biased arrangement, the cell voltage greater than the junction
voltage.
The depletion layer is narrow , and the resistance of diode decreases.
Hence a large current flows through the diode.
When the in reverse-biased arrangement, the cell voltage lower than the junction
voltage.
The depletion layer is wide , and the resistance of diode increases.
Hence only a very small current (leakage current) flows through the diode.
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Diode as a Rectifier
A diode can act as a rectifier because it can convert alternating current(a.c.) into direct
current(d.c).
The process of converting a.c. to d.c. is called rectification.
There are two types of rectification process :
(1) Half -wave rectification
(2) Full – wave rectification
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Half- wave rectification
Full-wave rectification
Capacitor
A capacitor is device which can
(1) store electric charge
(2) smooth out waveform in the rectified output
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Smoothing output wave by a capacitor
By connecting a capacitor parallel to the resistance, the half-wave and the full-wave
rectified waveform could be partially smoothed out
For half of the cycle, the capacitor is charged up. Energy is stored in the capacitor.
For the other half cycle, the capacitor releases its charge (discharges)
So the capacitor can produced a steady output or output is stabilised.
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Transistor
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Logic gates
- Security lamps, alarm systems, and washing machines can make some simple decisions
- The switching on and off operations are controlled by electronic switches made up of
logic gates.
- Logic gates work using tiny transistors as switches. They are manufactured as
integrated circuit (IC), with each chip holding several gates.
- A logic gate is a circuit that has one or more input signals but only one output signal
- For each gate, the input or inputs are on the left of the symbol. The output is on the right
- Each input and output can be either high (logic 1) or low (logic 0).
- A binary “0” represents 0 V, and a binary “1” represents a non zero voltage.
Truth table
- A table which lists all possible situations for input and output through logic gates
- The number of possible combinations N for n input variables:
N = 2n
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Tutorial
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