Digital devices occupy an increasingly important role in modern electronics. Devices that work on microcircuits have now penetrated virtually all areas of application - household and industrial appliances, children's toys, video-radio-television equipment and so on. However, there are still applications for analog discrete elements. Moreover, semiconductor devices are the very essence of modern microcircuits.
How do such devices work? Semiconductors are based on semiconductors. According to their electrical characteristics and properties, they occupy a place between dielectrics and conductors. Their distinguishing features are the dependence of electrical conductivity on external temperature, the characteristics of the effects of ionizing and light radiation, as well as the concentration of impurities. Semiconductors have approximately the same set of characteristics.
In the process of creating an electric current in any substance, only mobile charge carriers can participate. The more mobile carriers in a unit volume of a substance, the greater will be the electrical conductivity. In metals, virtually all electrons are free, and this leads to their high conductivity. In semiconductors and in dielectrics, carriers are much smaller, and therefore, resistivity is also higher .
Such electrical elements as semiconductor devices have a pronounced temperature dependence of resistivity. With increasing temperature, it usually decreases.
Thus, semiconductor devices are electronic devices whose operation is based on specific processes in substances called semiconductors. They have found the widest application. For example, in electronics and electrical engineering, semiconductor devices are used to convert various signals, their frequency, amplitude and other parameters. In the energy sector, such devices are used to convert energy.
Semiconductor devices can be classified in different ways. For example, there are known methods of classification according to the principle of action, according to purpose, by design, by production technology, by fields and fields of application, by types of materials.
However, there are so-called main classes according to which a semiconductor device is characterized. These classes include:
- electrical converting devices that convert some quantities to others;
- optoelectronic, which convert a light signal into an electric one and vice versa;
- solid state image converters;
- thermoelectric devices that convert thermal energy into electrical energy ;
- magnetoelectric and electromagnetic devices;
- piezoelectric and tensometric.
A separate class of devices such as semiconductor devices can be called integrated circuits, which are usually mixed, that is, they combine many characteristics in one device.
Typically, semiconductor devices are produced in ceramic or plastic cases, but there are also open-frame options.