Diodes Fill in the blanks with the words below check valve, conductance, convert, crystalline, impurities, infinite, galena, p–n junction, rectifying, resistance, selenium, semiconductor, switching circuits, tailored, temperature, threshold, two-terminal, unidirectional A diode is a 1 ………………… electronic component that conducts current primarily in one direction (asymmetric 2 ………………..); it has low (ideally zero) 3 ……………… in one direction, and high (ideally 4 ………………..) resistance in the other. A 5 ………….. diode, the most common type today, is a 6 ……….. piece of semiconductor material with a 7 ………………. connected to two electrical terminals. A vacuum tube diode has two electrodes, a plate (anode) and a heated cathode. Semiconductor diodes were the first semiconductor electronic devices. The discovery of crystals' 8 ……………… abilities was made by German physicist Ferdinand Braun in 1874. The first semiconductor diodes, developed
Diodes
Fill in the blanks with the words below
check valve, conductance, convert, crystalline, impurities, infinite, galena, p–n junction, rectifying,
resistance, selenium, semiconductor, switching circuits, tailored, temperature, threshold, two-terminal,
unidirectional
A diode is a 1 ………………… electronic component that conducts current primarily in one direction
(asymmetric 2 ………………..); it has low (ideally zero) 3 ……………… in one direction, and high (ideally
4 ………………..) resistance in the other. A 5 ………….. diode, the most common type today, is a 6
……….. piece of semiconductor material with a 7 ………………. connected to two electrical terminals. A
vacuum tube diode has two electrodes, a plate (anode) and a heated cathode. Semiconductor diodes were the
first semiconductor electronic devices. The discovery of crystals' 8 ……………… abilities was made by
German physicist Ferdinand Braun in 1874. The first semiconductor diodes, developed around 1906, were
made of mineral crystals such as 9 ……………….. . Today, most diodes are made of silicon, but other
materials such as 10 ……………… and germanium are sometimes used.
Main functions
The most common function of a diode is to allow an electric current to pass in one direction (called the
diode's forward direction), while blocking it in the opposite direction (the reverse direction). As such, the
diode can be viewed as an electronic version of a 11 ……………….. This 12 ……………. behavior is
called rectification, and is used to 13 ……………..alternating current (AC) to direct current (DC). Forms
of rectifiers, diodes can be used for such tasks as extracting modulation from radio signals in radio
receivers.
However, diodes can have more complicated behavior than this simple on–off action, because of their
nonlinear current-voltage characteristics. Semiconductor diodes begin conducting electricity only if a
certain 14 …………….. voltage or cut-in voltage is present in the forward direction (a state in which the
diode is said to be forward-biased). The voltage drop across a forward-biased diode varies only a little
with the current, and is a function of 15 ………………; this effect can be used as a temperature sensor.
A semiconductor diode's current–voltage characteristic can be 16 ……….. by selecting the semiconductor
materials and the doping17 …………. introduced into the materials during manufacture. These
techniques are used to create special-purpose diodes that perform many different functions. For example,
diodes are used to regulate voltage ( Zener diodes ), to protect circuits from high voltage surges (avalanche
diodes), to electronically tune radio and TV receivers ( varactor diodes ), to generate radio-frequency
oscillations (tunnel diodes, Gunn diodes, IMPATT diodes), and to produce light (light-emitting diodes).
Tunnel, Gunn and IMPATT diodes exhibit negative resistance, which is useful in microwave and 18
……………...
Step by step
Solved in 2 steps
