Semiconductors are materials that are solids where electrical conductivity is changed in a reversible fashion. Semiconductors are used to make devices. These devices made by semiconductors include control systems in cars, cell phones, computers, and MP3 players.
Semiconductors are made of silicon, and are cheap to extract from sand. Semiconductor industry sells several hundred billion dollars of products each year.
The first semiconductor was a little detector on a radio. The semiconducting element was lead sulfide. In 1939, an inventor was the first that discovered that some crystals with small impurities have conductivity that varies based on light exposure. Semiconductors were first used in planes to power radios inside planes allowing airlines to communicate with airports
Carbon, silicon and germanium have a unique property in their electron structure. Each one of these has four electrons in its outer orbital allowing them to form crystals. The four electrons form covalent bonds with neighboring atoms, creating a lattice.
Metals are good conductors of electricity because they have free electrons moving easily between atoms.
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What underlies a semiconductor device, is the p-n junction. A p-n junction has two regions – p and n. The p region is “doped” small amounts of boron, causing the materials to be filled with electron holes. This means absence of electrons where there should be electrons. Boron causes it to absorb weakly-bound outer electrons from the semiconductor atoms, leaving voids. The n region is doped with materials that cause the reverse effect; impurities donate the extra electron to the semiconducting material, causing an overload of electrons.
By manipulating the junctions, charge flow can be regulated precisely, allowing for complex electronics. Variations in the transistor can be used to make delicate sensors. The computer you are using has billions of transistors, of different types.