Electronics & Semiconductors

Highspeed visible light communication based on micro LEDs

The evolution of next-generation cellular networks is aimed at creating faster, more reliable solutions. Both the next-generation 6G network and the metaverse require high transmission speeds. Visible light communication ...

Energy & Green Tech

Generating electricity from store-bought, double-sided tape

Along with bitterly cold temperatures, winter usually brings dry air and the occasional zap of static electricity. Those shocks might be annoying, but researchers are working to harness that otherwise wasted energy with triboelectric ...

Engineering

New material will make locally flexible diodes possible

Diodes allow directed flows of current. Without them, modern electronics would be inconceivable. Until now, they had to be made out of two materials with different characteristics. A research team at the Technical University ...

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Diode

In electronics, a diode is a two-terminal device (thermionic diodes may also have one or two ancillary terminals for a heater).

Diodes have two active electrodes between which the signal of interest may flow, and most are used for their unidirectional electric current property. The varicap diode is used as an electrically adjustable capacitor.

The unidirectionality most diodes exhibit is sometimes generically called the rectifying property. The most common function of a diode is to allow an electric current in one direction (called the forward biased condition) and to block the current in the opposite direction (the reverse biased condition). Thus, the diode can be thought of as an electronic version of a check valve.

Real diodes do not display such a perfect on-off directionality but have a more complex non-linear electrical characteristic, which depends on the particular type of diode technology. Diodes also have many other functions in which they are not designed to operate in this on-off manner.

Early diodes included “cat’s whisker” crystals and vacuum tube devices (also called thermionic valves). Today most diodes are made of silicon, but other semiconductors such a germanium are sometimes used.

This text uses material from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA