Semiconductor why silicon

A single crystal is a crystal lattice in an orderly, continuous arrangement. A Silicon crystal lattice has a diamond cubic crystal structure in a repeating pattern of eight atoms. Each Silicon atom is combined with four neighboring silicon atoms by four bonds.

Silicon, a very common element, is used as the raw material of semiconductors because of its stable structure. Purification of Silicon consumes large amounts of power.

Semiconductors have had a monumental impact on our society. You find semiconductors at the heart of microprocessor chips as well as transistors. Anything that's computerized or uses radio waves depends on semiconductors. Today, most semiconductor chips and transistors are created with silicon. You may have heard expressions like "Silicon Valley" and the "silicon economy," and that's why -- silicon is the heart of any electronic device.

A diode is the simplest possible semiconductor device, and is therefore an excellent beginning point if you want to understand how semiconductors work. In this article, you'll learn what a semiconductor is, how doping works and how a diode can be created using semiconductors.

But first, let's take a close look at silicon. Silicon is a very common element -- for example, it is the main element in sand and quartz. If you look "silicon" up in the periodic table , you will find that it sits next to aluminum, below carbon and above germanium. Carbon, silicon and germanium germanium, like silicon, is also a semiconductor have a unique property in their electron structure -- each has four electrons in its outer orbital.

This allows them to form nice crystals. The four electrons form perfect covalent bonds with four neighboring atoms , creating a lattice. In carbon, we know the crystalline form as diamond. In silicon, the crystalline form is a silvery, metallic-looking substance.

While silicon crystals look metallic, they are not, in fact, metals. All of the outer electrons in a silicon crystal are involved in perfect covalent bonds , so they can't move around. A pure silicon crystal is nearly an insulator -- very little electricity will flow through it.

You can change the behavior of silicon and turn it into a conductor by doping it. In doping, you mix a small amount of an impurity into the silicon crystal. A minute amount of either N-type or P-type doping turns a silicon crystal from a good insulator into a viable but not great conductor -- hence the name "semiconductor. N-type and P-type silicon are not that amazing by themselves; but when you put them together, you get some very interesting behavior at the junction. That's what happens in a diode.

A diode is the simplest possible semiconductor device. A diode allows current to flow in one direction but not the other. You may have seen turnstiles at a stadium or a subway station that let people go through in only one direction. Semiconductors usually have a band gap energy required for electrons to break free from covalent bond between insulators maximum band gap and conductors minimum band gap. The conduction or flow of charge in semiconductors is due to the movement of free electrons or holes.

If you are familiar with the periodic table, you must be aware of the groups in a periodic table. Semiconductor materials are usually present in the group 4 of periodic table or also present as a combination of group 3 and group 6, or as a combination of group 2 and group 4 as well.

The most widely used semiconductors are Silicon, Germanium and Gallium-Arsenide. So, what makes Silicon as the most preferred semiconductor material in electronics? It is widely available in the form of sand silica , and quartz. The silicon wafers that are used for the production of ICs and electronic components are manufactured using effective and economical techniques. Electricity for the most part does not conduct in this pure monocrystalline silicon state.

Doping silicon with other impurities changes it so it is conductive. The semiconductor is categorized as a p-type or n-type depending on the type of impurities that are doped. Junctions based on the p-types and n-types are integrated into one chip in order to use it as an electronic component.

This is a free electron.