Electronics & Semiconductors

Researchers develop stretchable quantum dot display

A team of South Korean scientists led by Professor KIM Dae-Hyeong of the Center for Nanoparticle Research within the Institute for Basic Science has pioneered a novel approach to stretchable displays. The team announced the ...

Engineering

New 3D printing method creates a steel-aluminum fusion hybrid

Steel and aluminum are key players in supporting economic growth, yet materials joining them remain unexplored due to their fusion zones' brittleness. A new 3D printing method's fix may be a step toward a steel-aluminum hybrid ...

Engineering

Researchers create new smart materials for wearable technology

Fitness trackers, smartwatches and other wearable devices are popular ways to monitor and manage personal health. Researchers at the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering are helping advance that technology by developing soft and ...

Hardware

Accelerating sustainable semiconductors with 'multielement ink'

Semiconductors are the heart of almost every electronic device. Without semiconductors, our computers would not be able to process and retain data; and LED (light-emitting diode) lightbulbs would lose their ability to shine.

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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