{"id":2525,"date":"2013-02-15T15:44:15","date_gmt":"2013-02-15T15:44:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/semiconductor\/"},"modified":"2017-01-04T13:19:44","modified_gmt":"2017-01-04T13:19:44","slug":"semiconductor","status":"publish","type":"definition","link":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/2373\/semiconductor","title":{"rendered":"Semiconductor"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><span id=\"what_does_semiconductor_mean\">What Does Semiconductor Mean?<\/span><\/h2>\n<p>A semiconductor is a physical substance that is designed to manage and control the flow of current in electronic devices and equipment. It neither allows a freely flowing electric current nor repels it completely.\n<\/p>\n<p>A semiconductor is in between a conductor and insulator and commonly used in the development of electronic chips, computing components and devices. It is generally created using silicon, germanium or other pure elements.\n<\/p>\n<h2><span id=\"techopedia_explains_semiconductor\">Techopedia Explains Semiconductor<\/span><\/h2>\n<p>A semiconductor is created after doping or adding impurities to the element. The conductance or inductance of the element depends on the type and intensity of the added impurities.\n<\/p>\n<p>There are two basic types of semiconductors, as follows:\n<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>N-type semiconductor: Used when its conductance is higher or there is a large amount of free electrons<\/li>\n<li>P-type semiconductor: Used when its inductance is higher and there are less free electrons<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Common devices and components built by using a semiconductor include computer memory, integrated circuits, diodes and transistors.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What Does Semiconductor Mean? A semiconductor is a physical substance that is designed to manage and control the flow of current in electronic devices and equipment. It neither allows a freely flowing electric current nor repels it completely. A semiconductor is in between a conductor and insulator and commonly used in the development of electronic [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7813,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"definitioncat":[217],"class_list":["post-2525","definition","type-definition","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","definitioncat-hardware"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.2 (Yoast SEO v24.5) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>What is a Semiconductor? - Definition from Techopedia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"This definition explains the meaning of Semiconductor and why it matters.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Semiconductor\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This definition explains the meaning of Semiconductor and why it matters.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/2373\/semiconductor\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Techopedia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/techopedia\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-01-04T13:19:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@techopedia\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/2373\/semiconductor#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/2373\/semiconductor\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Margaret Rouse\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/#\/schema\/person\/f5dd538e31ee352d105b8af36c4268a5\"},\"headline\":\"Semiconductor\",\"datePublished\":\"2013-02-15T15:44:15+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-01-04T13:19:44+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/2373\/semiconductor\"},\"wordCount\":161,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/#organization\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/2373\/semiconductor#respond\"]}],\"articleSection\":\"\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/2373\/semiconductor\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/2373\/semiconductor\",\"name\":\"What is a Semiconductor? 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