USES Semiconductors are widely used to make electronic devices.

They are the material s that allow conductivity between metals and insulators. Mostly used in diodes and transistor s. Some of the most important semiconductor devices are diodes, transistors, and th yristors. These semiconductor devices have changed the face of electronics today. Transistors have virtually r eplaced vacuum tubes and the valves. Semiconductors find wide applications because of their compactness, reliability, and low cost. They can handle a wide range of current and voltage. One of the most important reasons of choosing transistors, thyristors or any other semiconductor device is their ability to be integrated into complex but readily manufactured modules. IGBT modules, thyristor and diode modules are today the preferred choice for many OEM and repl acement market. BENEFITS o Glass vacuum tubes, the predecessors of semiconductors, were at one time used to direct electrical current through electronic devices, such as radios. Vacuum tub es were large, fragile and unwieldy, compared to semiconductors, according to FactsonFile.com. The electrical properties of semiconductors were first observed in the 1870s and are the basis of the integrated circuit, which is also known as a computer chip. Chips are much smaller than vacuum tubes and can perform many more functions while using much less power.

ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES Different semiconductor materials differ in their properties. Thus, in compariso n with silicon, compound semiconductors have both advantages and disadvantages. For example, gal lium arsenide (GaAs) has six times higher electron mobility than silicon, which allow s faster operation; wider band gap, which allows operation of power devices at higher tem peratures, and gives lower thermal noise to low power devices at room temperature; its direct b and gap gives it more favorable optoelectronic properties than the indirect band gap of silicon; it can be alloyed to ternary and quaternary compositions, with adjustable band gap width, allowing light emission at chosen wavelengths, and allowing e.g. matching to wavelengths with lowest los ses in optical fibers. GaAs can be also grown in a semi-insulating form, which is suitable as a lattice-matching insulating substrate for GaAs devices. Conversely, silicon is robust, cheap, and easy to process, whereas GaAs is brittle and expensive, and insulation layers can not be created

by just growing an oxide layer; GaAs is therefore used only where silicon is not sufficient.[1] By alloying multiple compounds, some semiconductor materials are tunable, e.g., in band gap or lattice constant. The result is ternary, quaternary, or even quinary composition s. Ternary compositions allow adjusting the band gap within the range of the involved binar y compounds; however, in case of combination of direct and indirect band gap materials there is a ratio where indirect band gap prevails, limiting the range usable for optoelectronics; e.g. AlGaAs LEDs are limited to 660 nm by this. Lattice constants of the compounds also tend to be di fferent, and the lattice mismatch against the substrate, dependent on the mixing ratio, causes de fects in amounts dependent on the mismatch magnitude; this influences the ratio of achievable radiative/nonradiative recombinations and determines the luminous efficiency of the device. Quaternary and higher compositions allow adjusting simultaneously the band gap a nd the lattice

constant, allowing increasing radiant efficiency at wider range of wavelengths; for example AlGaInP is used for LEDs . Materials transparent to the generated wavelength of light are advantageous, as this allows more efficient extraction of photons from the bulk of the material. That is, in such transparent materials, light production is not limited to just the surface. Index of refraction is also composition-dependent and influences the extraction efficienc y of photons from the material