Questions tagged [semiconductors]
Most generally a class of materials that are neither insulators or conductors in their natural state but which can be manipulated via doping or electric fields to change the conduction state. Silicon, Germanium, GaAs are some usual materials. The term is also used to speak about devices that are made from such materials. For example a processor from Intel can be called a semiconductor.
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Question about transitor NPN [ALFA;Strange configuration;Exit characteristic]
first of all thanks for read and for your time, I have a few questions about transistor:
1)
I can't understand why my book say:
Ic=Icb0+alfa*Ie
and not ...
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3answers
78 views
Is there a way to experimentally separate the effects of gate voltage?
I'm currently doing experiments on new kind of semiconductors. These devices have a body (source, drain) and a top gate.
These devices show a response to gate voltage. The conductance changes with ...
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1answer
49 views
Problems with doping semiconductor materials in 7nm technology
As you know, semiconductor technology is going to reach 7nm lithographic precision soon. Which means that the smallest segment length on a semiconductor die can be as short as 7nm. After making some ...
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1answer
75 views
Why are we going from DUV straight to EUV lithography?
The current lithography machines use 193 nm light, and for the past 10 years we've been waiting for extreme ultraviolet machines, that emit 13.5nm light.
It's pretty obvious that the this challange ...
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1answer
32 views
Total Power Dissipation - Design Margin
It is good practice to ensure some design margin for the electronic circuit in terms of absolute maximum ratings.
What is the proper way of selecting such a margin for Total Power Dissipation?
Let's ...
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2answers
100 views
Forward voltage across the diode
If the diode's dynamic resistance was zero , will not we be able to increase the voltage across the diode above 0.7 v ?
(I am assuming forward bias )
I am asking this question because my book ( ...
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1answer
44 views
In this semi-ideal photodiode, what would be the physical interpretation of this current?
A real photodiode can be expressed as a circuit made of several ideal components, it looks something like this:
simulate this circuit – Schematic created using CircuitLab
I copied it from here ...
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1answer
21 views
Excess Carrier Generation and Recombination
Excess Carrier Generation and Recombination :
The net rate of change in electron concentration is given by:
\$ \frac{dn(t)}{dt}=\$ Thermal generaton rate-Recombination Rate
\$ \frac{dn(t)}{dt}=\...
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54 views
Single Crystal Growing and Orientation (Silicon) using Czochralski Process
I'm working on small bibliographic research on photovoltaic panels, and I have chemistry background. I have confusion on crystallization (Czochralski method) imposed by the seed and following specific ...
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24 views
Temperature-dependent leakage current in IGBTs
On one hand, the leakage current of power electronics modules such as IGBTs depends on the temperature. On the other hand, the temperature distribution on the IGBT chips is significantly non-uniform ...
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0answers
55 views
Design a DC motor with a transistor
I am trying to design a DC motor with transistor. Following image shows the exact way I am trying to do so.
How would I go about doing so, I am not so familiar with transistors, but something that ...
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3answers
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BJT Active mode - How does it work
I am finding it difficult to understand how exactly this works and would appreciate any help.
From my understanding:
The emitter base junction has to be in forward bias meaning that Vb is more ...
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3answers
77 views
Understand of Unijunction Transistor
Unijunction transistor is a semiconductor device that can be represented as shown:
It forms a voltage divider with a diode pointing towards middle of divider marked as \$\eta V_{BB}\$ (where \$\eta\$ ...
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2answers
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Designing a circuit that opens when less than 12 volts are applied and closes when more than 12 are applied
I'm looking to build a circuit where current only flows when there is a potential difference across the entire circuit of more than 12 volts (+- 0.1 V). I also need there to be only a small amount of ...
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1answer
52 views
Estimate temperature for silicon (p-n junction)
I need to estimate the temperature at which p-n junction made of silicon lose it rectifying characteristics. (\$N_A=N_D=10^{15}\,cm^{-3}\$)
\$E_G\$ is independent of the temperature and are 1.12 eV ...
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2answers
101 views
Cause of triode mode in MOSFET
My reference text introduces the MOFSET as follows:
The text says the induced channel has uniform width as long as \$v_{DS}\$ is small, because in that case \$v_{GD} = v_{GS} - v_{DS} \approx v_{GS}\$...
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0answers
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What are all the different diode current regions in the forward bias operation?
I know there is the usual drift-diffusion current, the Sah-Noyce-Schockley current and the Mott-Gurney high injection region; all these region governed by their own separate regions. I was wondering ...
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3answers
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Latch-Up in CMOS-Devices
I recently read something about the latch-up effect in CMOS-Structures but I don't understand why are MOSFETs affected by this effect. I understand that high currents through the source-drain path ...
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1answer
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Majority Carrier Devices
Why majority carrier devices have higher ON state resistance compared to the ON state resistances of minority carrier devices?
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Why is Ic constant in the plot of Vce vs Ic in a common emitter NPN transistor (in active region)?
In this plot, when \$V_{ce}\$ increases in the active region, shouldn't \$I_c\$ also increase as more electrons are getting diffused into the collector?
Then, why is it that for a large range of \$V_{...
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1answer
32 views
TVS diode with 10 - 15 V forward voltage
I came across this TVS diode: https://m.littelfuse.com/~/media/electronics/datasheets/tvs_diodes/littelfuse_tvs_diode_smf3_3_datasheet.pdf.pdf
It has a forward voltage drop of 10 to 15 V.
Why? How?
...
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1answer
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MOSFET: How can I find conduction parameter and transconductance based on graphs?
So I have my graphs (below) with various MOSFET characteristics. I don't know device dimensions or geometry, therefore I can't solve for the 2 directly with an equation. Otherwise I would just do that....
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2answers
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What happens to the semiconductor in an LED when it is given voltage that it cannot handle?
Let us suppose we have an LED with the allowed voltage range of 1.5V to 4.5V and we gave it somewhat 12V. Now we know that the LED will instantly stop forever. But I want to know what will happen to ...
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1answer
87 views
Are there semiconductor materials with hole mobility greater than electron mobility?
Every material I've ever seen has a hole mobility much less than its electron mobility. For silicon, it's by a factor of two or three; for gallium arsenide it's more like twenty. But are there any ...
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0answers
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High frequency switching applications
I was reading that for high frequency switching applications with
semiconductors, the ratio of the electron to hole mobility should be high.
Why is it so? Is it a necessary condition always? Or ...
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1answer
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Identity and advice on replacement of SM diode
I have a Sonos Play:3, which is past its warranty. I dismantled it to find it has the well documented fault with a blown capacitor. However, there is also damage also to one of the surface mount ...
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0answers
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Photo-conductivity of n and p type semiconductors
Both n-type and p-type semiconductors are available to fabricate a
photoconductive devices. To achieve the highest photoconductivity, do
you want to use n-type or p-type? Why?
$$σ_{ph}=q(μ_n ∆n+...
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Diodes when voltage is applied
Does the hole injection take place from p semiconductor to n semiconductor in a pn junction diode? Or it takes place only in the case of a transistor?
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0answers
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How does a MOSFET conduct in saturation region?
It is a simple question but I could not find a straightforward answer.
When a MOSFET enters saturation region, the channel length starts to decrease, and the channel width is the smallest near the ...
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2answers
69 views
Is the resistance between collector and emitter is lower that of the path between collector and base? [closed]
If no, pls tell me why. And if yes, my question is how can the path C-B-E be have lower resistance than that of B-E? Shouldn't the resistances of BE and CB add up cause they're in series?
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2answers
203 views
Why can't a combination of two diodes connected back to back act like transistor? [duplicate]
I saw an explanation of the transistor working here by Bill Beaty. I absolutely loved it. But I'm not entirely sure why the action cannot be achieved by two diodes connected back to back by a metal ...
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1answer
86 views
The forward voltage Vf of a diode
I want to know about the forward voltage \$V_{f}\$ parameter of a diode device, given an I-V charateristic curve and in ambient temperature. What is the criteria to define the \$V_{f}\$ for any diode? ...
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1answer
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How deep does the depletion region in power diode penetrate the lightly doped n- layer under no bias?
I could find references for describing the depletion layer in a power diode under reverse bias and the consequent classification of Non-punch through and Punch-through diodes. But I couldn't find a ...
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1answer
643 views
Why do power diodes have a p+ n- n+ construction and why not p+ p- n+?
I've been learning about power diodes and how they differ from low power diodes with the addition of a lightly doped n-type layer.
This n-type layer improves the breakdown voltage rating of the ...
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1answer
40 views
Ic and Vce equations of IGBT
I know in IGBTs while operating, parameters Ic (collector current) and Vce (collector-emitter voltage) are Tj (junction temperature) and Vge (gate-emitter voltage) dependent. Is there anything else ...
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1answer
44 views
Calculation of Vce from Ic-Vge Characteristic
We have found the Ic-Vge (collector current vs gate-emitter voltage) characteristic of an IGBT device as shown below at a high Vce (collector-emitter voltage) value (here 20V) from the datasheet (...
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2answers
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Are some CPUs implemented in standard cells and are others customized?
Explaining the question more, I see some die pictures which are implementing a Cortex-M0, with Bluetooth LE and so on, depending on the chip functionality, and are appearing like this (nRF51822):
...
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2answers
51 views
Ic-Vge IGBT Curve
In the figure below, presented in the manufacturer datasheet, you can see the Ic-Vge curve of an IGBT device. As mentioned, it has been drawn at Vce=20V. What does this equality mean? Can we have such ...
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1answer
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Are both electrons and holes responsible for conductivity in an extrinsic semiconductor (both n-type and p-type)? [closed]
In a semiconductor, the drift velocity Vd and E(electric field intensity) are directly proportional to each other.. with the proportionality constant as mobility of charge carriers.. in the formula I ...
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1answer
63 views
Can really small transistors be modeled as in undergrad textbooks?
Most undergrad textbooks on microelectronics (those covering semiconductors, diodes, BJT's, FET's, etc.) that I have laid my hands on discuss semiconductor concepts such as charge carries, drift, ...
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2answers
293 views
What do we mean by “gate plateau voltage”?
While reading some semiconductors datasheets, I've found something called "gate plateau".
What do we mean by this term ?
Reference:
AND8029 application note page 2, from ON Semiconductor written by ...
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1answer
162 views
Large SiGe ASICs for digital logic
I am trying to understand if digital ASICs with tens of millions of silicon-germanium gates exist. A comment in another post states (emphasis mine) "SiGe can hit 5 GHz pretty easily even with half a ...
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4answers
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Exotic semiconductors for fast digital ASIC
I am researching exotic semiconductors for a digital ASIC with a few million logic gates which should run as fast as possible within a $30 million budget. (Specifically, I need to do a single fully-...
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1answer
63 views
How could the Gate-Source potential difference be neglected?
I’ve been reading the book
Electronic Principles by Malvino
In the Voltage-Divider bias section of JFET, if gate current is negligible then how did Gate Voltage attain a negative value, given Vdd ...
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1answer
386 views
MOSFET common source amplifier output impedance calculation
What I've read in microelectronic texts like Prof's Razavi's Fundamentals of Microelectronics is that for calculating output impedance, one has to make all independent sources 0, i.e., short all ...
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2answers
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Why conductivity increases in semiconductor when doped?
I know it depends upon the concentration of electrons and holes . So if we add donor atoms, even though electron concentration in conduction band increases , hole concentration decreases due to more ...
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1answer
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Why in semiconductor studies, we are only concerned with reduced zone representation of e-k diagram?
Does electron transition from conduction band to valence band takes place only in first Brillouin zone? Or can it happen in any other Brillouin zone?
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1answer
351 views
Diode current components
I have the following two questions in the derivation of current in a diode.
1) In forward bias, an assumption "abrupt junction" is made and field is equal to 0 is also made. But then we still use ...
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2answers
84 views
Measuring junction temperature of LED tape?
My boss at work wants me to figure out a method of measuring the junction temperature of an LED that is part of a reel of tape. Unfortunately, there is no datasheet for the LED modules themselves, ...
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1answer
60 views
Simple diode question
I have the following doubts about a p-n junction diode:
1) If we short the diode ( connect it's terminals together without any power source) then how is the Kirchoff's law across the loop satisfied?
...
