Review of Semiconductor Materials (Pre-requisite)

Review of Semiconductor Materials (Pre-requisite)

Note : To understand the working of p-n junction diode it is necessary to know the basics of p-type and n-type materials. This chapter provides the basic concepts of p-type and n-type semiconductor materials.

Introduction

• The materials such as copper, aluminium etc. are good conductors of electricity. While the materials such as wood, glass, mica etc. are very bad conductors of electricity and are called insulators. There is another class of materials, whose conductivity i.e. ability to carry electricity, lies between that of conductors and insulators. Such materials are called semiconductors. Germanium (Ge) and Silicon (Si) are two well known semiconductor materials. To understand how diodes, transistors, thyristors and integrated circuits work, it is necessary to know the basic physics behind the behaviour of semiconductor materials.