Semiconductor materials are a class of electronic materials that have semiconductor properties and the conductivity at room temperature is between conductive materials and insulating materials, they can be used to make semiconductor devices and integrated circuits.
Common semiconductor material characteristics:
Conductivity between conductors and insulators
When stimulated by external light and heat, its electrical conductivity will change significantly.
In a pure semiconductor, adding a small amount of impurities will sharply enhance its conductivity.
First Generation Semiconductor Materials:
Silicon (Si) and Germanium (Ge). Mainly used in various discrete devices, integrated circuits, new energy and chip manufacturing.
Second-generation semiconductor materials:
Mainly refers to compound semiconductor materials, such as gallium arsenide (GaAs), indium antimonide (InSb); ternary compound semiconductors, such as GaAsAl, GaAsP; and some solid solution semiconductors, such as Ge-Si, GaAs-GaP; glass semiconductors ( Also known as amorphous semiconductors), such as amorphous silicon, glassy oxide semiconductors; organic semiconductors, such as phthalocyanine, copper phthalocyanine, polyacrylonitrile, etc. It is mainly used to make high-speed, high-frequency, high-power and light-emitting electronic devices, and is an excellent material for making high-performance microwave, millimeter-wave devices and light-emitting devices. Due to the rise of the information superhighway and the Internet, it is also widely used in satellite communications, mobile communications, optical communications and GPS navigation.
Third-generation semiconductor materials:
Wide bandgap (Eg>2.3eV) semiconductor materials mainly represented by silicon carbide (SiC), gallium nitride (GaN), zinc oxide (ZnO), diamond, and aluminum nitride (AlN). The main applications are semiconductor lighting, power devices, microwave devices, lasers and detectors.
Components and integrated circuits made of semiconductor materials are important basic products of the electronics industry and have been widely used in various aspects of electronic technology. The production and scientific research of semiconductor materials, devices and integrated circuits have become an important part of the electronics industry. In terms of new product development and new technology development, the application areas are mainly Integrated Circuits, Microwave Devices and Optoelectronic Devices.