Difference Between Conductor Semiconductor and Insulator

Table of Contents

The key difference between conductor semiconductor and insulator is that conductors show a high electric conductivity and semiconductors show an intermediate conductivity, whereas insulators show a negligible conductivity.

Conductors, semiconductors, and insulators are three categories to which we can categorize any material depending on the electrical conductivity.

1. Overview and Key Difference
2. What is a Conductor
3. What is a Semiconductor
4. What is an Insulator
5. Conductor vs Semiconductor vs Insulator in Tabular Form
6. Summary

What is a Conductor?

A conductor or electrical conductor is an object in electrical engineering in which the flow of charge in one or more directions is allowed. In other words, conductor materials can conduct an electrical current through themselves. The most common electrical conductors are metals and metallic objects. In these materials, electric currents are generated through the flow of negatively charged electrons, positively charged holes, and sometimes due to the presence of positive and negative ions.

More importantly, when an electrical current is passing through a conductor, it is not necessary for a charged particle to travel from a site where the current is produced to the site where the current consumption occurs. Here, the charged particles tend to nudge their neighbor a finite amount of energy, and this occurs as a chain reaction between the neighboring particles where particles at the end of the chain nudge the power into the consumer object. Therefore, we can observe long-chain momentum transfer between mobile charge carriers.

Figure 01: Electrical Conductor

When considering the two important facts about resistance and conductance regarding a conductor, the resistance depends on the composition of the material and its dimensions, whereas the conductance depends on the resistance. Moreover, the temperature of the conductor also has a great impact on this. Not only metals, but there can also be other forms of conductors as well, which include electrolytes, semiconductors, superconductors, plasma states, and some nonmetallic conductors, including graphite.

What is a Semiconductor?

Semiconductors are materials having an electrical conductivity value that falls between the conductivity of conductors and insulators. More importantly, the resistivity of these materials tends to fall upon increasing the temperature. In addition, we can alter the conductivity of semiconductors by introducing impurities (the process is named “doping”) to the crystal structure of the material. Therefore, we can use these materials for various different applications with great importance.

Two regions with differently-doped structures occurring in the same crystal structure create a semiconductor junction. These junctions act as the basis for the behavior of charge carriers in diodes, transistors, and other modern electronics.

Some common examples of semiconductor materials include silicon, germanium, gallium arsenide, and metalloid elements. The most common materials that are being used for semiconductor formation involve laser diodes, solar cells. Microwave frequency integrated circuits, etc., are silicon and germanium.

Figure 02: Semiconductor – Silicon

After the doping process, the number of charge carriers in the crystal structure increases rapidly. There can be free holes or free electrons in the semiconductor that helps in conductivity. If the material has more free holes, then we call it a “p-type” semiconductor, and if there are free electrons, then it belongs to the “n-type”. During the doping process, we can add materials such as pentavalent chemical elements, including antimony, phosphorous, or arsenic, or trivalent atoms such as boron, gallium, and indium. In addition, we can increase the conductivity of semiconductors also by increasing the temperature.

What is an Insulator?

Insulators are materials that cannot carry a free-flowing electric current. This is because the atoms of this type of material have electrons that are tightly bound to atoms and cannot readily move. When considering the property of resistivity, resistivity is very high compared to conductors and semiconductors. Nonmetals are the most common examples of insulators.

However, there are no perfect insulators because they contain small numbers of mobile charges that can carry an electric current. Additionally, all the insulators tend to become electrically conductive when there is a sufficient amount of voltage applied to the material, which can tear the electrons away from the atoms. It is the breakdown voltage of the insulator.

There are different uses of insulators, including the production of electrical equipment to support and separate electrical conductors without allowing the current to flow through themselves. Furthermore, a flexible coating of an insulator is usually used for electric wires and cables to make insulated wires. This is because the wires that can touch each other produce a cross-connection, short circuits, and fire hazards as well.

What is the Difference Between Conductor Semiconductor and Insulator?

Conductors, semiconductors, and insulators are three categories to which we can categorize any material depending on the electrical conductivity. The key difference between conductor semiconductor and insulator is that conductors show a high electric conductivity and semiconductors show an intermediate conductivity, whereas insulators show a negligible conductivity.

The following table lists the differences between conductor semiconductor and insulator for side by side comparison.

Summary – Conductor vs Semiconductor vs Insulator

Reference:

1. “Insulator.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

Image Courtesy:

1. “Electrical wires near Putim” By Chmee2 – Own work (CC BY-SA 3.0) via Commons Wikimedia
2. “Silicon” By Jurii – (CC BY 3.0) via Commons Wikimedia

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