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Stabistor
The stabistor (also called a ''forward reference diode'') is the technical term used to designate a special type of semiconductor silicon diode featuring extremely stable forward voltage characteristics. These devices are specially designed for low-voltage stabilization applications requiring a guaranteed voltage over a wide current range and highly stable over temperature. In these applications, stabistors offer improved dynamic impedance (voltage change vs. current) than low voltage zener diodes where tunneling instead of avalanche current is dominant. Other typical applications include bias stabilization in class-AB output stages, clipping, clamping, meter protection, etc. Production Stabistors are manufactured using planar epitaxial technology and a typical device is the BAS17, manufactured by several semiconductor companies. Devices are also available with multiple diodes connected in series inside a single package offering higher forward voltages than a single device but lo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Diode
A diode is a two- terminal electronic component that conducts current primarily in one direction (asymmetric conductance); it has low (ideally zero) resistance in one direction, and high (ideally infinite) resistance in the other. A diode vacuum tube or thermionic diode is a vacuum tube with two electrodes, a heated cathode and a plate, in which electrons can flow in only one direction, from cathode to plate. A semiconductor diode, the most commonly used type today, is a crystalline piece of semiconductor material with a p–n junction connected to two electrical terminals. Semiconductor diodes were the first semiconductor electronic devices. The discovery of asymmetric electrical conduction across the contact between a crystalline mineral and a metal was made by German physicist Ferdinand Braun in 1874. Today, most diodes are made of silicon, but other semiconducting materials such as gallium arsenide and germanium are also used. Among many uses, diodes are found ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Semiconductor
A semiconductor is a material which has an electrical conductivity value falling between that of a conductor, such as copper, and an insulator, such as glass. Its resistivity falls as its temperature rises; metals behave in the opposite way. Its conducting properties may be altered in useful ways by introducing impurities ("doping") into the crystal structure. When two differently doped regions exist in the same crystal, a semiconductor junction is created. The behavior of charge carriers, which include electrons, ions, and electron holes, at these junctions is the basis of diodes, transistors, and most modern electronics. Some examples of semiconductors are silicon, germanium, gallium arsenide, and elements near the so-called "metalloid staircase" on the periodic table. After silicon, gallium arsenide is the second-most common semiconductor and is used in laser diodes, solar cells, microwave-frequency integrated circuits, and others. Silicon is a critical element for ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
P–n Junction
A p–n junction is a boundary or interface between two types of semiconductor materials, p-type and n-type, inside a single crystal of semiconductor. The "p" (positive) side contains an excess of holes, while the "n" (negative) side contains an excess of electrons in the outer shells of the electrically neutral atoms there. This allows electrical current to pass through the junction only in one direction. The p-n junction is created by doping, for example by ion implantation, diffusion of dopants, or by epitaxy (growing a layer of crystal doped with one type of dopant on top of a layer of crystal doped with another type of dopant). If two separate pieces of material were used, this would introduce a grain boundary between the semiconductors that would severely inhibit its utility by scattering the electrons and holes. p–n junctions are elementary "building blocks" of semiconductor electronic devices such as diodes, transistors, solar cells, light-emitting diodes ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Avalanche Breakdown
Avalanche breakdown (or avalanche effect) is a phenomenon that can occur in both insulating and semiconducting materials. It is a form of electric current multiplication that can allow very large currents within materials which are otherwise good insulators. It is a type of electron avalanche. The avalanche process occurs when carriers in the transition region are accelerated by the electric field to energies sufficient to create mobile or free electron-hole pairs via collisions with bound electrons. Explanation Materials conduct electricity if they contain mobile charge carriers. There are two types of charge carriers in a semiconductor: free electrons (mobile electrons) and electron holes (mobile holes which are missing electrons from the normally occupied electron states). A normally bound electron (e.g., in a bond) in a reverse-biased diode may break loose due to a thermal fluctuation or excitation, creating a mobile electron-hole pair. If there is a voltage gradient ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Electronic Amplifier
An amplifier, electronic amplifier or (informally) amp is an electronic device that can increase the magnitude of a signal (a time-varying voltage or current). It may increase the power significantly, or its main effect may be to boost the voltage or current ( power, voltage or current amplifier). It is a two-port electronic circuit that uses electric power from a power supply to increase the amplitude of a signal applied to its input terminals, producing a greater amplitude signal at its output. The ratio of output to input voltage, current, or power is termed gain (voltage, current, or power gain). An amplifier, by definition has gain greater than unity (if the gain is less than unity, the device is an attenuator). An amplifier can either be a separate piece of equipment or an electrical circuit contained within another device. Amplification is fundamental to modern electronics, and amplifiers are widely used in almost all electronic equipment. Amplifiers can be categ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Clipper (electronics)
In electronics, a clipper is a circuit designed to prevent a signal from exceeding a predetermined reference voltage level. A clipper does not distort the remaining part of the applied waveform. Clipping circuits are used to select, for purposes of transmission, that part of a signal waveform which lies above or below the predetermined reference voltage level. Clipping may be achieved either at one level or two levels. A clipper circuit can remove certain portions of an arbitrary waveform near the positive or negative peaks or both. Clipping changes the shape of the waveform and alters its spectral components. A clipping circuit consists of linear elements like resistors and non-linear elements like diodes or transistors, but it does not contain energy-storage elements like capacitors. Clipping circuits are also called ''slicers'' or ''amplitude selectors''. Types Diode clipper A simple diode clipper can be made with a diode and a resistor. This will remove either the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Clamper (electronics)
A clamper (or clamping circuit or clamp) is an electronic circuit that fixes either the positive or the negative peak excursions of a signal to a defined voltage by adding a variable positive or negative DC voltage to it. The clamper does not restrict the peak-to-peak excursion of the signal (clipping); it moves the whole signal up or down so as to place its peaks at the reference level. A diode clamp (a simple, common type) consists of a diode, which conducts electric current in only one direction and prevents the signal exceeding the reference value; and a capacitor, which provides a DC offset from the stored charge. The capacitor forms a time constant with a resistor load, which determines the range of frequencies over which the clamper will be effective. General function A clamper will bind the upper or lower extreme of a waveform to a fixed DC voltage level. These circuits are also known as DC voltage restorers. Clampers can be constructed in both positive and negative po ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Zener Diode
A Zener diode is a special type of diode designed to reliably allow current to flow "backwards" (inverted polarity) when a certain set reverse voltage, known as the ''Zener voltage'', is reached. Zener diodes are manufactured with a great variety of Zener voltages and some are even variable. Some Zener diodes have a sharp, highly doped p–n junction with a low Zener voltage, in which case the reverse conduction occurs due to electron quantum tunnelling in the short space between p and n regions − this is known as the Zener effect, after Clarence Zener. Diodes with a higher Zener voltage have a more gradual junction and their mode of operation also involves avalanche breakdown. Both breakdown types are present in Zener diodes with the Zener effect predominating at lower voltages and avalanche breakdown at higher voltages. They are used to generate low-power stabilized supply rails from a higher voltage and to provide reference voltages for circuits, especially stabilized ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Avalanche Diode
In electronics, an avalanche diode is a diode (made from silicon or other semiconductor) that is designed to experience avalanche breakdown at a specified reverse bias voltage. The junction of an avalanche diode is designed to prevent current concentration and resulting hot spots, so that the diode is undamaged by the breakdown. The avalanche breakdown is due to minority carriers accelerated enough to create ionization in the crystal lattice, producing more carriers, which in turn create more ionization. Because the avalanche breakdown is uniform across the whole junction, the breakdown voltage is nearly constant with changing current when compared to a non-avalanche diode. The Zener diode exhibits an apparently similar effect in addition to Zener breakdown. Both effects are present in any such diode, but one usually dominates the other. Avalanche diodes are optimized for avalanche effect, so they exhibit small but significant voltage drop under breakdown conditions, unlike Zen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Voltage Regulator
A voltage regulator is a system designed to automatically maintain a constant voltage. A voltage regulator may use a simple feed-forward design or may include negative feedback. It may use an electromechanical mechanism, or electronic components. Depending on the design, it may be used to regulate one or more Alternating current, AC or Direct current, DC voltages. Electronic voltage regulators are found in devices such as Power supply unit (computer), computer power supplies where they stabilize the DC voltages used by the processor and other elements. In Alternator (automotive), automobile alternators and central power station generator plants, voltage regulators control the output of the plant. In an electric power distribution system, voltage regulators may be installed at a substation or along distribution lines so that all customers receive steady voltage independent of how much power is drawn from the line. Electronic voltage regulators A simple voltage/current regulator c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Semiconductor Devices
A semiconductor device is an electronic component that relies on the electronic properties of a semiconductor material (primarily silicon, germanium, and gallium arsenide, as well as organic semiconductors) for its function. Its conductivity lies between conductors and insulators. Semiconductor devices have replaced vacuum tubes in most applications. They conduct electric current in the solid state, rather than as free electrons across a vacuum (typically liberated by thermionic emission) or as free electrons and ions through an ionized gas. Semiconductor devices are manufactured both as single discrete devices and as integrated circuit (IC) chips, which consist of two or more devices—which can number from the hundreds to the billions—manufactured and interconnected on a single semiconductor wafer (also called a substrate). Semiconductor materials are useful because their behavior can be easily manipulated by the deliberate addition of impurities, known as doping. Semi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
