Advantages and Disadvantages of Semiconductor Devices :
The following are the advantages of semi conductor devices:
(a) Semiconductor devices are very compact and portable. Physical size of these is very small as compared to that of electron tubes and the circuit using semi conductors are portable.
(b) These devices are operated with relatively very low voltages, therefore the power consumption is less and battery may be used for biasing.
(c) In semiconductor device there is no warm up time No heating is required to produce carrier current. Therefore these are set into operation as soon as the circuit is switched on.
(d) These devices have unlimited life unless they are subjected to wrong voltage.
(e) 'Transistors can withstand mechanical shocks as compared to electron tube.
(f) In transistors there is no vacuum deterioration trouble as no vacuum has to be created in transistors.
The following are the disadvantages of semi conductor devices:
(a) These devices are temperature sensitive. Their characteristics change considerably above the permissible ambient temperature of about 50°C. This is due to breaking of more covalent bonds which increases the percentage of minority carriers.
(b) These devices give excessive reverse current and consequently noise level will increase.
(c) The power output is relatively low.
(d) There is less uniformity in characteristics among the individuals of the same type.
Applications of Semi Conductors :
Some of the effects of semi conductors and their application are given in Table below.
Effects and Application of Semi Conductors
No | Effects | Applications |
1 | Photo conductive | Detector |
2 | Photo voltaic | Detector, Solar Cells |
3 | Electro-luminance | Light emitter |
4 | See back | TE Generator |
5 | Hall | Magnetometer |
6 | Piezoelectric | Transducer |
7 | Acoustoelectric | Amplifier |
Semi conductor have a very wide application electrical and electronics. Some of the applications are :
 |
| Semiconductor Devices |
(a) Rectifiers
(b) Thermistors
(d) Photo voltaic cells
(e) Varistors
(f) Transistors
(g) Strain gauges: Most of the semi conductors are sensitive to mechanical forces besides heat, light, voltage and magnetic fields. If a long thin rod of silicon is pulled from end to end, its resistance increases considerably because the mechanical forces pulls each silicon atom, slightly away from its adjacent atom. This increases the width of forbidden band and hence resistivity increases, The property is made use off in strain gauges which are used to measure small changes in the length of solid objects.
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Basic Electronics