Solid‐State Electronics
Charles L. Joseph, S. Bernal · 2016
This chapter explores physics of conductor, semiconductor, and insulating crystals along with the requirements for impurity dopants. Solid-state conductors, semiconductors, and insulators are formed from either single crystal or polycrystalline materials. The chapter discusses passive components of an electronic circuit, including resistors, capacitors, and inductors. Diodes and transistors are active components in solid-state circuitry, providing the nonlinear performance necessary for amplification or switching. Transistors are used in solid-state circuitry for a wide variety of purposes, but primarily as either an amplifier or a switch. The most common subgroups are solid-state semiconductors, such as FET and MOS, leading to hybrid acronyms such as nMOS, pMOS, CMOS, JFET, and MOSFET. An FET is an efficient design to turn on and off the flow of current rapidly, making it an excellent digital switch for computers, logic circuits, and solid-state data storage devices among others.