How do germanium and silicon become semiconductor?

How do germanium and silicon become semiconductor?

Germanium atoms have one more shell than silicon atoms, but what makes for the interesting semiconductor properties is the fact that both have four electrons in the valence shell. As a consequence, both materials readily constitute themselves as crystal lattices. The process of adding these atoms is known as doping.

Why silicon and germanium are used in making semiconductors?

Both silicon and germanium are semiconductors and contains 4 valence electrons. This means that both of them exhibit properties of metals and non-metals. Silicon is cheaper and can be used at higher temperatures to conduct heat and electricity. On the other hand, germanium also has 4 valence electrons like silicon.

What makes silicon a semiconductor?

A silicon atom has 14 electrons around the nucleus, and of these, there are 4 valence electrons on the outermost orbital. When this is made into a single crystal, it can be used as a material for semiconductor products. When it crystalizes, the nuclei share electrons and they bond with 8 electrons around each nucleus.

Why silicon is preferred over germanium in VLSI?

There are several reasons Silicon has become the preferred semiconductor in the present, over Germanium. Silicon has large band gap (1.12eV) than germanium (0.7eV). So, at same temperature, the thermal pair generation in silicon is less than germanium.

Why band gap of silicon is more than Germanium?

The electrons in the silicon atoms are more tightly bound to the nucleus than the electrons of the germanium atom due to its small size. This is the reason why the band gap of silicon is more than that of germanium.

What is the reason for barrier voltage is more in silicon material?

Silicon has less electrons and hence it requires more voltage to separate.

What is the barrier voltage of silicon?

The barrier voltage for silicon diode is 0.7 volts and for germanium is 0.3 volts.

What is the breakdown voltage of germanium?

This is why many textbooks simply say the voltage drop across a conducting, semiconductor diode remains constant at 0.7 volts for silicon and 0.3 volts for germanium.