ECE 2100 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Cirrus Logic, List Of Semiconductor Materials, Direct And Indirect Band Gaps

• School: Cornell University
• Department: Electrical & Computer Engineering
• Course: ECE 2100
• Professor: Marcia Eames- Sheavly

Document Summary

Concepts: diodes and diode circuits, photo-diodes, light emitting diodes (leds), solar. Reading: shealy notes: diodes & simple diode circuits. The semiconductor diode has been around for over 70 years. There are many types of semiconductor diodes, but today the majority of semiconductor diodes are made with pn junctions in single crystal semiconductor materials. The term pn junctions refers to a two layer stack of a p-type semiconductor in contact with an n-type semiconductor. Semiconductor pn junction diodes are most commonly used for recti ers in dc power supplies, where the material of choice from a cost viewpoint is silicon. In addition, solar cells made with silicon pn junctions can be realized with e ciencies of over 15 % (less than 10 % for amorphous silicon pn junctions which are used in the lab). Silicon pn junction diodes can also be used as photo-detectors as will also be demonstrated in the lab.