Chapter 14 - Semiconductor Electronics: Materials, Devices and Simple Circuits

In this chapter, you’ll study semiconductor electronics in detail. What are semiconductors all about? Semiconductors are materials whose conductivity lies between a conductor having full conductivity and an insulator having negative conductivity. Day to day applications of semiconductors range from transistors, solar cells, microchips, LED displays, bar code readers, fibres optic communication devices and more. In this chapter, you’ll study about classification of metals, conductors and semiconductors, what are intrinsic and extrinsic semiconductors, the formation of p-n junction, semiconductor devices such as diode, a junction diodes (a 2-electrode device) and bipolar junction transistor (a 3-electrode device) and finally about what digital electronics and logic gates are.

Thus, an in-depth study of Class 12 Physics NCERT Solutions Chapter 14 will give you a good understanding of significant aspects of Semiconductor Electronics: Materials, Devices and Simple Circuits.

Let’s take a look at topics and sub-topics of Class 12 Physics Chapter 14 -Semiconductor Electronics: Materials, Devices and Simple Circuits

14.1 Introduction

14.2 Classification of Metals, Conductors and Semiconductors

14.3 Intrinsic Semiconductor

14.4 Extrinsic Semiconductor

14.5 p-n Junction

14.5.1 p-n junction formation

14.6 Semiconductor Diode

14.6.1 p-n junction diode under forward bias

14.6.2 p-n junction diode under reverse bias

14.7 Application of Junction Diode as a Rectifier

14.8 Special Purpose p-n Junction Diodes

14.8.1 Zener diode

14.8.2 Optoelectronic junction devices

14.9 Digital Electronics and Logic Gates

14.9.1 Logic gates

In Class 12 Physics Chapter 14, you will learn – 

Section 14.2 – In this section, you will study the classification of metals, conductors and semiconductors on the basis of conductivity and energy bands. You’ll also learn new terms like valence band, conduction band, energy band gap and the diagram showing the difference between energy bands of metals, insulators and semiconductors.

Section 14.3 – In this section, you’ll acquire knowledge about intrinsic semiconductors, how do they behave, the unique property of semiconductors and diagram showing three-dimensional diamond-like crystal structure for Carbon, Silicon or Germanium.

Section 14.4 – In this section, you’ll learn about extrinsic semiconductors, also known as impurity semiconductors or doped semiconductors, two types of dopants used in doping the tetravalent Si or Ge and semiconductors given by pentavalent and trivalent dopants in Si or Ge.

Section 14.5 – In this section, you will study about p-n junction which helps in analysing the working of other semiconductor devices, the formation of the p-n junction and two important processes that occur during the formation of a p-n junction.

Section 14.6 – In this section, you’ll learn what a semiconductor diode is¸ p-n junction diode under forward bias and p-n junction diode under reverse bias. You’ll also acquire knowledge about saturation current and dynamic resistance.

Section 14.7 – In this section, you’ll acquire knowledge about the application of junction diode as a rectifier. You’ll also learn what is a rectifier, half-wave rectifier, full-wave rectifier, centre-tap transformer and time constant.

Section 14.8 – In this section, you’ll learn about those devices that are actually junction diodes but are developed for other uses. You’ll study about Zener diode (a special purpose semiconductor diode) and also optoelectronic junction devices. You’ll learn about the functioning of optoelectronic devices such as Photodiode¸ Light-emitting diodes (LED) and Photovoltaic devices (solar cells and advantages of LEDs over conventional low power lamps.

Section 14.9 – In this section, you’ll learn what Digital Electronics and Logic Gates are. You’ll study about continuous or analog signals and what are Digital Signals. You’ll also come across the diagram showing analog and digital signals. You’ll acquire knowledge about true tables and types of logic gates such as NOT gate, OR gate, AND gate, NAND gate, and NOR gate.

In this chapter, you are provided with several examples with their solutions for clear understanding about Semiconductor Electronics: Materials, Devices and Simple Circuits. To know more about NCERT Solutions for Class 12 Physics Chapter 14, you should explore the exercises mentioned in this chapter. You can also download the NCERT Solutions for Class 12 Physics Chapter 14 PDF, solved by our science experts.