ECT 2440 Chapter Notes - Chapter 10: Perfect Conductor, Boltzmann Constant, Lincoln Near-Earth Asteroid Research
Document Summary
The diode is a basic but very important device that has two terminals, the anode and the cathode. In the characteristic that if the voltage vd applied to the diode is positive, relatively large amounts of current flow for small voltages. On the other hand, for moderate negative values of vd, the current id is very small in magnitude. If a sufficiently large reverse-bias voltage is applied to the diode, operation enters the reverse- breakdown region of the characteristic, and currents of large magnitude flow. The diodes that we consider consist of a junction between two types of semiconducting material (usually, silicon with carefully selected impurities). On one side of the junction, the impurities create n-type material, in which large numbers of electrons move freely. On the other side of the junction, different impurities are employed to create (in effect) positively charged particles known as holes. Semiconductor material in which holes predominate is called p-type material.
