Hardware
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.
Sep 28, 2023
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47
Engineering
Chances are, the screen you're reading from glows thanks to light-emitting diodes—commonly known as LEDs. This widespread technology provides energy-efficient indoor lighting and increasingly illuminates our computer monitors, ...
Aug 2, 2023
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59
Electronics & Semiconductors
Next-generation electronics will feature smaller and more powerful components that require new solutions for cooling. A new thermoelectric cooler developed by Penn State scientists greatly improves the cooling power and efficiency ...
Jul 14, 2023
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240
Electronics & Semiconductors
Researchers have developed next-generation smart textiles—incorporating LEDs, sensors, energy harvesting, and storage—that can be produced inexpensively, in any shape or size, using the same machines used to make the ...
Apr 21, 2023
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134
Electronics & Semiconductors
Imagine a thin, digital display so flexible that you can wrap it around your wrist, fold it in any direction, or curve it over your car's steering wheel. Researchers at the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering (PME) at ...
Apr 13, 2023
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90
Internet
When it comes to efficiency and quality, light-emitting diodes (LED) are the MVP of today's lighting technology. A team of Chinese researchers are using recent LED improvements as a springboard to launch a more interconnected ...
Jan 13, 2023
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58
Engineering
If you are reading this article on your computer or phone, it is in part thanks to diodes. Diodes—typically rigid electrical components that easily conduct electric current in one direction—are used for a variety of critical ...
Dec 1, 2022
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128
Energy & Green Tech
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 ...
Nov 21, 2022
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38
Engineering
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 ...
Nov 3, 2022
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220
Engineering
Engineering researchers have created new high-power electronic devices that are more energy efficient than previous technologies. The devices are made possible by a unique technique for "doping" gallium nitride (GaN) in a ...
Sep 6, 2022
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232
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
