Semiconductor
A semiconductor is a substance that does not conduct electricity well. We use Silicon as our semiconductors to manufacture Integrated Circuits.
We say the “semiconductor” industry.
Right now, we are in a chip shortage, because there is not enough Silicon.
Great explanation video of Semiconductors by Ben Eater:
So we dope the semiconductor so it gets those interesting properties of a Transistor.
Resources
- There is this really cool training series https://techdiplomacy.org/training/, NVIDIA, Google, Intel, all talks from these folks
Concepts
In silicon doping, there are two types of impurities:
- n-type (negatively charged)
- p-type (positively charged)
See more in Doping (Semiconductor).
Holes and Electrons
Holes and electrons are the foundation of how electricity works.
So on the left, we have n-type semiconductor, whereas on the right, we have
In the middle (called the P-n Junction), we have what is called a depletion region.
- This sort of reminds me of Capacitor plates? And when you put something between the capacitor plates. YES Dielectrics
pn junction will allow current to flow in one direction, but not the other. This is exactly how a Diode works!!
- Make sure you understand this part
How do electric fields affect this?
See P-n Junction. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5qLpyraT9M&ab_channel=JordanEdmunds