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One of the crucial keys to solid state electronics is the nature of the P-N
junction. When p-type and n-type materials are placed in contact with
each other, the junction behaves very differently than either type of
material alone. Specifically, current will flow readily in one direction
(forward biased) but not in the other (reverse biased), creating the
basicdiode. This non-reversing behavior arises from the nature of the
charge transport process in the two types of materials.
Index
Semiconductor
concepts
Semiconductors
for electronics
The open circles on the left side of the junction above represent "holes"
or deficiencies of electrons in the lattice which can act like positive
charge carriers. The solid circles on the right of the junction represent
the available electrons from the n-type dopant. Near the junction,
electrons diffuse across to combine with holes, creating a "depletion
region". The energy level sketch above right is a way to visualize
theequilibrium condition of the P-N junction. The upward direction in
the diagram represents increasing electron energy.
Electron and hole conduction
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Depletion Region
When a p-n junction is formed, some of the free electrons in the n-region
diffuse across the junction and combine with holes to form negative
ions. In so doing they leave behind positive ions at the
donor impurity sites.
Index
Semiconductor
concepts
Semiconductor
s for
electronics
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Index
Semiconductor
concepts
Semiconductors
for electronics
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Reverse bias
An applied voltage with the
indicated polarity further
impedes the flow of
electrons across the
junction. For conduction in
the device, electrons from
the N region must move to
the junction and combine
with holes in the P region. A
reverse voltage drives the
electrons away from the
junction, preventing
conduction.
Forward bias
An applied voltage in the
forward direction as
indicated assists electrons in
overcoming the coulomb
barrier of the space charge
in depletion region.
Electrons will flow with
very small resistance in the
forward direction.
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__________________________________________________________________
Electric Current
Electric current is the rate of charge flow past a given point in an electric
circuit, measured in Coulombs/second which is named Amperes. In mostDC
electric circuits, it can be assumed that the resistance to current flow is a
constant so that the current in the circuit is related to voltage and resistance
by Ohm's law. The standard abbreviations for the units are 1 A = 1C/s.
Index
Electric
Circuits
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Index
Electric Charge
Coulomb's Law
Electromagnetic
The unit of electric charge is the Coulomb (abbreviated C). Ordinary
force
matter is made up of atoms which have positively charged nuclei and
negatively charged electrons surrounding them. Charge is quantized as
a multiple of the electron or proton charge:
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Index
Electric
Circuits
thus has some appeal in its parallel to the flow of water from high pressure to
low (see water analogy).
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http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/electric/elecur.html
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Electric current
Physics
Written by: The Editors of Encyclopdia Britannica
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Electric current, any movement of electric charge carriers, such as subatomic charged
particles (e.g., electrons having negative charge, protons having positive charge), ions
(atoms that have lost or gained one or more electrons), or holes (electron deficiencies
that may be thought of as positive particles).
Electric current in a wire, where the charge carriers are electrons, is a measure of the
quantity of charge passing any point of the wire per unit of time. In alternating
current (q.v.) the motion of the electric charges is periodically reversed; indirect
current (q.v.) it is not. In many contexts the direction of the current in electric circuits is
taken as the direction of positive charge flow, the direction opposite to the
actual electron drift. When so defined the current is called conventional current.
Current in gases and liquids generally consists of a flow of positive ions in one direction
together with a flow of negative ions in the opposite direction. To treat the overall effect
of the current, its direction is usually taken to be that of the positive charge carrier. A
current of negative charge moving in the opposite direction is equivalent to a positive
charge of the same magnitude moving in the conventional direction and must be
included as a contribution to the total current. Current in semiconductors consists of the
motion of holes in the conventional direction and electrons in the opposite direction.
Currents of many other kinds exist, such as beams of protons, positrons, or charged
pions and muons in particle accelerators.
Electric current generates an accompanying magnetic field, as in electromagnets. When
an electric current flows in an external magnetic field, it experiences a magnetic force,
as in electric motors. The heat loss, or energy dissipated, by electric current in a
conductor is proportional to the square of the current.
A common unit of electric current is the ampere, a flow of one coulomb of charge
per second, or 6.2 1018 electrons per second. The centimetregramsecond units of
current are either the electrostatic unit of charge (esu) per second or the absolute
electromagnetic unit (abamp). One abamp equals 10 amps; 1 amp equals 3 10 9 esu
per second.
Commercial power lines make available about 100 amps to a typical home; a lightbulb
pulls about 1 amp of current and a one-room air conditioner about 15 amps.
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Discussion
definitions
Electric current is defined as the rate at which charge flows through a surface
(the cross section of a wire, for example). Despite referring to many different
things, the word current is often used by itself instead of the longer, more
formal "electric current". The adjective "electrical" is implied by the context
of the situation being described. The phrase "current through a toaster"
surely refers to the flow of electrons through the heating element and not the
flow of slices of bread through the slots.
As with all quantities defined as a rate, there are two ways to write the
definition of electric current average current for those who claim ignorance
of calculus
q
I I=
dq
=
t 0
dt
The unit of current is the ampre [A], which is named for the French
scientist Andr-Marie Ampre(17751836). In written languages without
accented letters (namely English) it has become customary to write the unit
as ampere and, in informal communication, to shorten the word to amp. I
have no problem with either of these spellings. Just don't use a capital "A" at
the beginning. The word Ampre refers to a physicist, while ampre (or
ampere or amp) refers to a unit.
Since charge is measured in coulombs and time is measured in seconds, an
ampre is the same as a coulomb per second.
A=
C
s
placed one meter apart in vacuum, would produce between these conductors
a force equal to 2 107 newton per meter of length.
This means that the coulomb is defined as the amount of charge that passes
through a surface when a current of one ampre flows for one second.
[C = As]
When I visualize current, I see things moving. I see them moving in a
direction. I see a vector. I see the wrong thing. Current is not a vector
quantity, despite my well-developed sense of scientific intuition. Current is a
scalar. And the reason is because it is.
But wait, it gets weirder. The ratio of current to area for a given surface is
known as the current density.
I
J=
A
The unit of current density is the ampre per square meter, which has no
special name.
A
A
=
m2
m2
Despite being the ratio of two scalar quantities, current density is a vector.
And the reason is, because it is.
Well actually, it's because current density is defined as the product of
charge density and velocity for any location in space
J = v
The two equations are equivalent in magnitude as shown below.
J=
ds
dt
J=
dq
sA
dt
1
=
I
A
I
J=
A
V = Ad = Avt
q
nqAvt
I=
=
t
I = nqAv
A similar expression can be written for current density. The derivation starts
off in scalar form, but the final expression
I
J=
nqAv
=
J = nqv
solids
conduction vs. valence electrons, conductors vs. insulators
Drift motion superimposed on thermal motion
Bridge text.
The thermal speed of the electrons in a wire is quite high and varies
randomly due to atomic collisions. Since the changes are chaotic the velocity
averages out to zero.
When a wire is placed in an electric field, the free electrons accelerate
uniformly in the intervals between collisions. These periods of acceleration
raise the average velocity above zero. (The effect has been greatly
exaggerated in this diagram.)
thermal velocity of an electron in copper at room temperature (classical
approximation)
vrms =
3kT
me
3(1.38 1023 J/K)(300 K)
vrms =
vrms
vfermi
1
v =
me
a =
2
vdrift =
2dme
(1.60 1019 C)(12 V)(3 1014 s)
2(10 m)(9.11 1031 kg)
vdrift
eE
me
eV
vdrift =
3 mm/s
The thermal velocity is several orders of magnitude greater than the drift
velocity in a typical wire. Time to complete the circuit is about an hour.
liquids
ions, electrolytes
gases
ions, plasma
historical junk
Why I for current? Why not c for current or f for flow?
The word "ion" is ancient Greek for "going" and was coined
by Michael Faraday (17911867) England to designate those electrically
charged particles that migrate to one or another pole when an electric field
is set up in a solution. The ion that moves "uphill" (e.g., chlorine, nitrogen) to
the positive electrode he called anion ( = up) and the ion that moves
"downhill" (e.g., hydrogen, zinc) the cation ( = down). He called the
locations where the electrically charged ions "exit" electrodes ( = path,
street, way; compare to = way out, exit, exodus).
go.] Name given by Faraday to either of the constituents which pass to the
"poles" or electrodes in electrolysis: the general term including anion and
cation. In modern use, any individual atom, molecule, or group having a net
electric charge (either positive or negative), whether in an electrolytic solution
or not.
1834. William Whewell. Letter to Michael Faraday 5 May in I. Todhunter,
William Whewell (1876) II. 182 For the two together you might use the term
ions.
1834 Michael Faraday in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal
From Aqua: Ion was the son of Creusa by either Apollo (the god of prophecy,
the arts and archery) or Xuthus. There are different stories about his origin, but
the one that's most relevant to the meaning of his name goes like this: Apollo
raped Creusa when she was already Xuthus's wife, and Hermes (the messenger
god) was appointed by Apollo to bring his son to the Oracle of Delphi to work
under the priests for him. Many years later, Xuthus and Creusa consulted the
Oracle because they couldn't have children, and Xuthus was told that the first
man that he met leaving the temple would be his son. Not surprisingly, it was
Ion that he met first, and he gave him this name because he met him "on the
way."
"I was coming" continuous past tense of ? The modern Greek word is
.
Literally, the travellers, the things which are going. Michael Faraday, His Life
and Work By Silvanus Phillips Thompson
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Electric Current
Power: Putting Charges to Work
Common Misconceptions Regarding Electric Circuits
If the two requirements of an electric circuit are met, then charge will flow
through the external circuit. It is said that there is a current - a flow of
charge. Using the word current in this context is to simply use it to say that
something is happening in the wires - charge is moving. Yet current is a
physical quantity that can be measured and expressed numerically. As a
physical quantity, current is the rate at which charge flows past a point on a
circuit. As depicted in the diagram below, the current in a circuit can be
determined if the quantity of charge Q passing through a cross section of a
wire in a time t can be measured. The current is simply the ratio of the
quantity of charge and time.
Current is a rate quantity. There are several rate quantities in physics. For
instance, velocity is a rate quantity - the rate at which an object changes its
position. Mathematically, velocity is the position change per time
ratio. Acceleration is a rate quantity - the rate at which an object changes its
velocity. Mathematically, acceleration is the velocity change per time ratio.
And power is a rate quantity - the rate at which work is done on an object.
Mathematically, power is the work per time ratio. In every case of a rate
quantity, the mathematical equation involves some quantity over time. Thus,
current as a rate quantity would be expressed mathematically as
Note that the equation above uses the symbol I to represent the quantity
current.
To test your understanding, determine the current for the following two
situations. Note that some extraneous information is given in each situation.
Click the Check Answer button to see if you are correct.
A 2 mm long cross section of wire is A 1 mm long cross section of wire is
isolated and 20 C of charge is
isolated and 2 C of charge is
determined to pass through it in 40 s. determined to pass through it in 0.5
s.
I = _____ Ampere
I = _____ Ampere
Check Answer
Check Answer
Ben Franklin, who conducted extensive scientific studies in both static and
current electricity, envisioned positive charges as the carriers of charge. As
such, an early convention for the direction of an electric current was
established to be in the direction that positive charges would move. The
convention has stuck and is still used today. The direction of an electric
current is by convention the direction in which a positive charge would
move. Thus, the current in the external circuit is directed away from the
positive terminal and toward the negative terminal of the battery. Electrons
would actually move through the wires in the opposite direction. Knowing
that the actual charge carriers in wires are negatively charged electrons may
make this convention seem a bit odd and outdated. Nonetheless, it is the
convention that is used worldwide and one that a student of physics can
easily become accustomed to.
carriers moving at once throughout the whole length of the circuit. Current is
the rate at which charge crosses a point on a circuit. A high current is the
result of several coulombs of charge crossing over a cross section of a wire
on a circuit. If the charge carriers are densely packed into the wire, then
there does not have to be a high speed to have a high current. That is, the
charge carriers do not have to travel a long distance in a second, there just
has to be a lot of them passing through the cross section. Current does not
have to do with how far charges move in a second but rather with how many
charges pass through a cross section of wire on a
circuit.
To illustrate how densely packed the charge carriers
are, we will consider a typical wire found in household
lighting circuits - a 14-gauge copper wire. In a 0.01 cmlong (very thin) cross-sectional slice of this wire, there
would be as many as 3.51 x 1020 copper atoms. Each
copper atom has 29 electrons; it would be unlikely that even the 11 valence
electrons would be in motion as charge carriers at once. If we assume that
each copper atom contributes just a single electron, then there would be as
much as 56 coulombs of charge within a thin 0.01-cm length of the wire.
With that much mobile charge within such a small space, a small drift speed
could lead to a very large current.
To further illustrate this distinction between drift speed and current, consider
this racing analogy. Suppose that there was a very large turtle race with
millions and millions of turtles on a very wide race track. Turtles do not move
very fast - they have a very low drift speed. Suppose that the race was
rather short - say 1 meter in length - and that a large percentage of the
turtles reached the finish line at the same time - 30 minutes after the start of
the race. In such a case, the current would be very large - with millions of
turtles passing a point in a short amount of time. In this analogy, speed has
to do with how far the turtles move in a certain amount of time; and current
has to do with how many turtles cross the finish line in a certain amount of
time.