Preview

What are conductors

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
729 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
What are conductors
SEMICONDUCTOR a solid substance that has a conductivity between that of an insulator and that of most metals, either due to the addition of an impurity or because of temperature effects. Devices made of semiconductors, notably silicon, are essential components of most electronic circuits.
1. A semiconductor is a material which has electrical conductivitybetween that of a conductor such as copper and that of an insulatorsuch as glass. semiconductor is a material whose electrical conductivity is between that of a conductor and an insulator. The elements most commonly used in semiconducting devices aresilicon and germanium.
A semiconductor is a solid substance that can conduct between an insulator and most forms of metal. There are not very many substances that can serve as semiconductors, but the semiconductor itself is a major player in most fields including computing. The major reason for the smaller size of computers (as compared to the behemoths that took all the space in a large room) is the use of semiconductors. semiconductor, any of a class of crystalline solids intermediate in electrical conductivity between a conductor and an insulator. Semiconductors are employed in the manufacture of various kinds of electronic devices, including diodes, transistors, and integrated circuits. Such devices have found wide application because of their compactness, reliability, power efficiency, and low cost.
INSULATOR:
insulator, any of various substances that block or retard the flow of electrical or thermal currents.
Although an electrical insulator is ordinarily thought of as a nonconducting material, it is in fact better described as a poor conductor or a substance of high resistance to the flow of electric current. Different insulating and conducting materials are compared with each other in this regard by means of a material constant known as resistivity.
Examples of insulators are plastics, styrofoam, paper, rubber, glass and dry air among others. These are

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    It Ethics Study Guide

    • 429 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Semiconductor containing transistors, capacitors, and resistors. Invented at Fairchild Semiconductor and Texas Instruments. Smaller, faster, more reliable, and less expensive.…

    • 429 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    ← A semimetal used mainly in the manufacture of semiconductors for transistors and similar electronic…

    • 3348 Words
    • 14 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Ip1 Sci210

    • 951 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The reason for silicon is that silicon has a wonderful property of forming a high quality oxide when exposed to oxygen at high temperatures. This oxide forms insulating films and allows many devices to be built together on the same substrate, which leads to dramatically lower cost per device. Other semiconductors lack this property and therefore have never replaced silicon. This is how silicone conductors revolutionized semiconductors in computers and changed society forever.…

    • 951 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Pacemaker Research Paper

    • 1103 Words
    • 5 Pages

    semiconductors which when combined using a method known as hybridisation will form a single complex circuit. First, resistors are mostly made of carbon because it is usually available in local markets at a very low cost and they are very durable. Second, capacitors are commonly made of metal foil because it has high reliability, extreme pulse currents, high AC Voltage and much more. Third, diodes are mostly made of silicon because it is the most abundant element on Earth which means it is cheap to acquire along with being a semiconducting material that requires very little effort to convert. Lastly, semiconductors can be made out of silicon and germanium, but silicon is used more commonly than germanium because it is an easy semiconductor to fabricate at low costs, whilst germanium requires a high purity in fabrication. These components are very important to the circuitry as all of them completes each other and will be able to work properly when they are correctly put in place on the…

    • 1103 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    -Metalloids- a semiconductor (conduct electricity better than non-metals but not as good as metals), some characteristics of metals but more like nonmetals…

    • 1215 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Eece 352notes

    • 2179 Words
    • 9 Pages

    The total current carried in a semiconductor is the sum of diffusion and drift currents for both electrons and holes:…

    • 2179 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Year 10 physics summary

    • 1236 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Solids are good conductors because the particles are closer together and so the particles collide more frequently. Good…

    • 1236 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Btec L3 Essay Example

    • 1693 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Ans: Electricity is the movement of electrons. As long as electrons in an atom are balance and revolve precisely in orbit around their sun or atom nucleus there is no electron flow or electric current in a wire. These atoms are the smallest particle into which an element can be divided without losing its property. A single atom consists of three basic components: a Proton, a Neutron and an Electron. An atom is similar to a small solar system, so is the nucleus in the centre of an atom. Protons and neutrons are contained within the nucleus. Electrons orbit around the nucleus which could be similar to planets orbiting around the sun. As an electrician I will also be dealing with insulators. An insulator is any material that stops the flow of electrons examples are rubber, glass and plastic. Conductors are the opposite of and insulator they are material that easily allows electrons to flow, like cooper, gold and silver. A material that has high resistance has low conductivity, this means that it doesn’t conduct current easily; likewise a material that has high resistance has high conductivity. Resistance is measured in units called Ohms. There are types of electricity, one is static electricity. Static electricity is the charges that are fixed in place unlike electrons in wires with voltages potential with no electron flow. Opposite electrical charges always attract each other, so these particles with opposite charges will tend to move towards each other. Like electrical charges always repel.…

    • 1693 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Phase 1 Ip

    • 1003 Words
    • 5 Pages

    After I research silicon, I began to realize how semiconductors revolutionized a computer that is because silicone semi-conductors have the capability to transfer so easy into the firm component it is highly effective compared to the copper made conductors. Silicones made conductors develop holes that make and block a space constantly, so electrons hop from one atom to another. Silicon is transformed in a procedure called doping which simply cleanses the impurity and it contains phosphorus or aluminum then the process is successful. Once phosphorus is included into silicon, it converts into an (n) type known as a negative semiconductor. After aluminum is mixed into silicon, it develops into a (p) type referred to as semiconductors. Aluminum and phosphorus are both important for certain parts to operate successfully in electrical devices such as microchips which are useful inside of computers. (Ramsook, 2011)…

    • 1003 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    1.) The two major tasks performed by an ignition system ate to ____ and to _____.…

    • 565 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Electric Charge Lab

    • 612 Words
    • 3 Pages

    A charged object is any object that has an excess of negative or positive charge. Most objects are neutrally charged and we don’t normally experience their charge properties. Rubbing objects together and transferring some charge from one to the other is one way to create charged objects. Like charges repel each other and unlike charges attract each other. The charge in a conductor is free to move around, while the charge in an insulator stays where it is. When two conductors come in contact, they share their charge with each other.…

    • 612 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Loft Insulation Research

    • 789 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Conduction is by where heat is lost by each molecule passing heat on to another molecule through a substance, these molecules are in direct contact with each other. You see this clearly when you look at a thermal imaging picture of a wall. You can see this heat loss is higher where the cavity wall insulation has slumped or not been correctly filled. [4]…

    • 789 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Conduction is the transfer of thermal energy between regions of matter due to a temperature gradient.…

    • 648 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Ohms Law Investigation

    • 1405 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Free electrons tend to move through conductors with some degree of friction, or opposition to motion. This opposition to motion is more properly called resistance. The amount of current in a circuit depends on the amount of voltage available to motivate the electrons, and also the amount of resistance in the circuit to oppose electron flow. Just like voltage, resistance is a quantity relative between two points. For this reason, the quantities of voltage and resistance are often stated as being "between" or "across" two points in a circuit.…

    • 1405 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    research on insulation

    • 1556 Words
    • 7 Pages

    An insulator is something that slows down the rate of heat transfer. The amount of thermal energy escaping from a house can be reduced by using domestic insulation systems that work by reducing the effects of thermal conduction, convection and radiation. Heat insulation can take different forms depending on the type of heat transfer involved. The question arises as to which solid material is good for heat insulation. Non- metals are good heat insulators. Examples of non- metals used as insulators include wood, glass and plastics. Gases are good insulators if you can stop them moving. This prevents them from transferring heat by convection. An example of trapped gases used as insulators is a layer of air trapped by our clothing to keep us warm. The trapped air slows down the rate of heat loss from our bodies by conduction. Materials that trap air can be used in various ways to insulate buildings. . Examples are loft insulation, hot water tank, cavity insulation, double glazing etc.…

    • 1556 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays