Question

Define or describe the following terms as applied within an electronics environment and relative to our class.

A - High Pass Filter

B - Low Pass Filter

C - Zener Diode (What is a unique feature of a zener diode?)

D - N Channel JFET (draw the symbol, label and descrive the leads)

E - Very Large Scale Integration

F - Electrostatic Discharge

G - Light emitting diode (how does an LED produce light?)

H - Photovoltaic cell (describe how a solar cell functions)

I - List the characteristics of the Common Base Circuit, Common Emitter circuit, and the Common Collector circuit

J - Forward Baised

K - Reverse Biased

Answer 1

A) High Pass Filter:
A high pass filter allows high frequencies to go through and cuts, or attenuates low frequencies.
B) Low Pass Filter:
A low-pass filter (LPF) is a filter that passes signals with a frequency lower than a certain cutoff frequency and attenuates signals with frequencies higher than the cutoff frequency.
C) zener diode:
A zener diode is a special type of device designed to operate in the zener breakdown region. Zener diodes acts like normal p-n junction diodes under forward biased condition. When forward biased voltage is applied to the zener diode it allows large amount of electric current and blocks only a small amount of electric current.

Zener diode is heavily doped than the normal p-n junction diode. Hence, it has very thin depletion region. Therefore, zener diodes allow more electric current than the normal p-n junction diodes.

D) N channel JFET:

E) very large scale integration:

Very large-scale integration (VLSI) is the process of integrating or embedding hundreds of thousands of transistors on a single silicon semiconductor microchip. VLSI technology was conceived in the late 1970s when advanced level computer processor microchips were under development.
F) Electrostatic discharge:

Electrostatic discharge (ESD) is a swift discharge of electric current between two objects with different charges and different numbers of electrons. This exchange of electrons creates a large electromagnetic field buildup, resulting in ESD.

Certain electronic devices are vulnerable to low-voltage ESD. For example, a hard drive is susceptible to just 10 volts. Integrated circuits (IC) are also prone to ESD and may be permanently damaged by high-voltage currents.

G)LED:
The light emitting diode simply, we know as a diode. When the diode is forward biased, then the electrons & holes are moving fast across the junction and they are combining constantly, removing one another out. Soon after the electrons are moving from the n-type to the p-type silicon, it combines with the holes, then it disappears. Hence it makes the complete atom & more stable and it gives the little burst of energy in the form of a tiny packet or photon of light.
H) photo voltaic cell:

Conversion of light energy in electrical energy is based on a phenomenon called photovoltaic effect. When semiconductor materials are exposed to light, the some of the photons of light ray are absorbed by the semiconductor crystal which causes a significant number of free electrons in the crystal. This is the basic reason for producing electricity due to photovoltaic effect. Photovoltaic cell is the basic unit of the system where the photovoltaic effect is utilised to produce electricity from light energy. Silicon is the most widely used semiconductor material for constructing the photovoltaic cell. The silicon atom has four valence electrons. In a solid crystal, each silicon atom shares each of its four valence electrons with another nearest silicon atom hence creating covalent bonds between them. In this way, silicon crystal gets a tetrahedral lattice structure. While light ray strikes on any materials some portion of the light is reflected, some portion is transmitted through the materials and rest is absorbed by the materials.

The same thing happens when light falls on a silicon crystal. If the intensity of incident light is high enough, sufficient numbers of photons are absorbed by the crystal and these photons, in turn, excite some of the electrons of covalent bonds. These excited electrons then get sufficient energy to migrate from valence band to conduction band. As the energy level of these electrons is in the conduction band, they leave from the covalent bond leaving a hole in the bond behind each removed electron. These are called free electrons move randomly inside the crystal structure of the silicon. These free electrons and holes have a vital role in creating electricity in photovoltaic cell. These electrons and holes are hence called light-generated electrons and holes respectively. These light generated electrons and holes cannot produce electricity in the silicon crystal alone. There should be some additional mechanism to do that.
J) Forward bias:
When we connect p-type region of a junction with the positive terminal of a voltage source and n-type region with the negative terminal of the voltage source, then the junction is said to be forward biased
Reverse Bias:
When positive terminal of a voltage source is connected to the n-type region and the negative terminal of the source is connected to the p-type region then the pn junction is said to be in reverse biased condition.