Semiconductor Devices

Semiconductor devices are electronic components that make use of semiconductor materials’ electronic properties. In addition to organic semiconductors, these materials include silicon, germanium, and gallium arsenide.

In many applications, these devices have replaced vacuum tubes. Instead of thermionic emission in a high vacuum, they use electronic conduction in the solid state.

These devices are made for both discrete devices and integrated circuits, which are made up of thousands to billions of devices manufactured and interconnected on a single semiconductor substrate or wafer.

Furthermore, a semiconductor material is a device that allows electric current to pass through it. As an example, consider the device’s CPU. It is made up of a large number of transistors.

Similarly, these transistors are made of semiconductor material, which allows current to pass through and is controlled by a switch. The passage of electric current in a transistor is controlled by actions based on the state of the switch, which is either on or off.

What are Semiconductor Devices?

Semiconductor devices are electronic components that are designed, developed, and manufactured using Semiconductor materials such as Silicon (Si), Germanium (Ge), and Gallium Arsenide (GaAs).

Since their introduction in the late 1940s (or early 1950s), semiconductors have been the primary material used in the production of electronics and its variants such as optoelectronics and thermoelectrics.

Vacuum tubes were used to design electronic components prior to the use of semiconductor materials in electronic devices. The primary distinction between vacuum tubes and semiconductor devices is that in vacuum tubes, electron conduction occurs in a gaseous state, whereas in semiconductor devices, it occurs in a “solid state.”

Semiconductor devices are available in both discrete component devices and integrated circuits.

Why are Semiconductors?

The ability to easily manipulate the conductivity of charge carriers, i.e. electrons and holes, is the main reason for using Semiconductor Devices (and thus the underlying Semiconductor Materials) in the manufacturing of electronics devices and components.

As previously stated, the electrical conductivity of semiconductor materials is intermediate between that of conductors and that of insulators. External or internal factors such as electric field, magnetic field, light, temperature, and mechanical distortion can all influence conductivity.

Ignoring external factors such as temperature and light for the time being, a process known as Doping is commonly applied to semiconductor materials, in which an impurity is introduced into the structure to change the structural as well as electrical properties.

A pure semiconductor is referred to as an Intrinsic Semiconductor, whereas an impure or doped semiconductor is referred to as an Extrinsic Semiconductor.

Semiconductor Devices Materials

Silicon (Si) is the most common material used in semiconductor devices. It has a lower cost of raw materials and a relatively simple process. Because of its useful temperature range, it is currently the best compromise among competing materials. Currently, silicon used in semiconductor device manufacturing is fabricated into bowls large enough in diameter to allow the fabrication of 300 mm (12 in.) wafers.

Nowadays, germanium is frequently alloyed with (Si) silicon for use in ultra-high-speed SiGe devices; IBM is a major manufacturer of such devices.

Gallium arsenide (GaAs) is also widely used in high-speed devices, but it has been difficult to form large-diameter bowls of this material in the past, limiting wafer diameter sizes significantly smaller than silicon wafers, making mass production of Gallium arsenide (GaAs) devices significantly more expensive than silicon.

Application of Semiconductor Devices

As previously stated, semiconductor devices are the foundation of almost all electronic devices. Semiconductor devices are used in a variety of applications, including:

Transistors are key components in many integrated circuits, such as microprocessors.

In fact, they are the primary building blocks of logic gates and other digital circuits.

Transistors can also be found in analogue circuits such as amplifiers and oscillators.

Types of Semiconductor Devices:

We categorise these devices according to whether they are 

• two-terminal 
• three-terminal
• terminal devices.

Diode, Zener diode, Phototransistor, Schottky diode, Light-emitting diode (LED), Laser diode, Photocell, Solar cell, and other two-terminal devices are examples.

Bipolar transistors, IGBTs, TRIACs, Field-effect transistors, Silicon-controlled rectifiers, Thyristors, and other three-terminal semiconductor devices are examples.

Examples of Semiconductor Devices:

Because these devices are neither good insulators nor good conductors, we will look at semiconductor devices such as op-amps, resistors, capacitors, diodes, and transistors.

These devices provide themselves in the integration of complex and easily manufacturable microelectronic circuits. Furthermore, these devices have a promising future.

Major components for the majority of electrical and electronic instruments and systems in a variety of fields, including communications, data processing, consumer, and industrial control equipment.

Conclusion

Semiconductor devices are electronic components that make use of semiconductor materials’ electronic properties. These devices are made for both discrete devices and integrated circuits, which are made up of thousands to billions of devices manufactured and interconnected on a single semiconductor substrate or wafer. Semiconductor devices are electronic components that are designed, developed, and manufactured using Semiconductor materials such as Silicon , Germanium , and Gallium Arsenide. Vacuum tubes were used to design electronic components prior to the use of semiconductor materials in electronic devices. The primary distinction between vacuum tubes and semiconductor devices is that in vacuum tubes, electron conduction occurs in a gaseous state, whereas in semiconductor devices, it occurs in a “solid state”.