Like silicon, germanium is used as a semiconductor, and is widely used in the computer industry. Silicon and germanium are both metalloids, having some characteristics of both metals and nonmetals.
Why is germanium in the same group as silicon and tin?
Silicon and germanium are semimetals (metalloids), existing in compounds with either +4 or -4 charges. Tin and lead are definitely metals. They always lose electrons due to the distance of their outer shells from the nucleus.
What is special about silicon and germanium?
Solid state electronics arises from the unique properties of silicon and germanium, each of which has four valence electrons and which form crystal lattices in which substituted atoms (dopants) can dramatically change the electrical properties.
What is the difference between germanium and silicon?
Silicon and germanium have four valence electrons but at the given temperature germanium will have more free electrons and higher conductivity than silicon. Silicon is more widely used in the electronic device than germanium since it can be used at a higher temperature.
How germanium can be used as a substitute for silicon?
Germanium is one material being considered to replace silicon because it could enable the industry to make smaller transistors and more compact integrated circuits, Ye said. … The material has properties that make it difficult to create an N-type contact with low electrical resistance for good current flow.
Why is germanium used as a semiconductor?
Germanium atoms have one more shell than silicon atoms, but what makes for the interesting semiconductor properties is the fact that both have four electrons in the valence shell. As a consequence, both materials readily constitute themselves as crystal lattices. … The process of adding these atoms is known as doping.
Which is more metallic silicon or germanium?
Germanium is more metallic in its behavior than silicon. … Although tin has an even more metallic character than germanium, lead is the only element in the group that behaves purely as a metal.
Is germanium magnetic yes or no?
Abstract. The magnetic susceptibility of highly doped germanium has been measured between 300°K and 1.3°K. The contribution of the carriers to the susceptibility has been derived from the data. Most of the measurements concern electrons occupying unbound states in the conduction band.
Why silicon and germanium are not used in LED?
LEDs are p-n junction devices constructed of gallium arsenide (GaAs), gallium arsenide phosphide (GaAsP), or gallium phosphide (GaP). Silicon and germanium are not suitable because those junctions produce heat and no appreciable IR or visible light. … An exposed semiconductor surface can then emit light.
Why are germanium and silicon not efficient conductors?
Pure silicon and germanium are poor conductors of electricity because their outer electrons are tied up in the covalent bonds of the diamondlike framework. … Electrical conductivity decreases as temperature increases in metals because the vibrations of the atoms make passage of electrons more difficult.
Why are germanium and silicon metalloids?
A metalloid is any chemical element which has properties in between those of metals and nonmetals, or that has a mixture of them. Silicon and Germanium have properties of both hence they are classified as metalloids.
Which is better germanium or silicon?
In present, Silicon is preferred over Germanium for semiconductor. … The reason is, Silicon can be worked at a higher temperature as compared to germanium. The structure of Germanium crystals will be destroyed at higher temperature. Also, Silicon has much smaller leakage current than that of germanium.
Is germanium a better semiconductor than silicon?
Abstract. There are several reasons Silicon has become the preferred semiconductor in the present, over Germanium. … Silicon has large band gap (1.12eV) than germanium (0.7eV). So, at same temperature, the thermal pair generation in silicon is less than germanium.
Why is germanium more temperature dependent than silicon?
Germanium is more temperature sensitive than silicon because it has a smaller band gap. Even at moderate temperature, a substantial number of electrons in germanium are produce from thermal generation. For example at about 120 C, the concentration of electrons and holes from thermal generation is > 1E15.
Why do carbon silicon and germanium share many chemical properties?
Why do carbon, silicon, and germanium share many chemical properties? They have the same atomic mass. They have the same atomic number.
Why carbon silicon and germanium are not affected by water?
NEET Question
Carbon Silicon are not affected by water because of tetravalency. Carbon,Silicon,Germanium belongs to group14 and have 4 electrons in the outermost orbit. So, to react with group 14 elements you must give tremendous amount of energy to either lose or gain electron to react which is not possible.
What is the reactivity of GE?
Germanium is widely distributed in nature but is too reactive to occur free. … Among the acids, only concentrated nitric or sulfuric acid or aqua regia (a mixture of nitric and hydrochloric acids) attack germanium appreciably.
Why silicon is used in semiconductor?
Silicon material has been widely used in semiconductor device fabrication because of its low cost and its producibility of high quality silicon dioxide needed for impurity diffusion and surface passivation processes.
Why are silicon and germanium useful in the electronics industry?
Explanation: Each has four valence electrons, but germanium will at a given temperature have more free electrons and a higher conductivity. Silicon is by far the more widely used semiconductor for electronics, partly because it can be used at much higher temperatures than germanium.
How does silicon behave as semiconductor?
Although pure silicon is an insulator, then how does it behave as a semiconductor on heating. On heating some covalent bonds among silicon atoms break on heating and electrons become free to move under applied field, hence silicon behaves like semi-conductor at high temperature.
Why silicon is preferred over germanium for making semiconductor devices state any two reasons?
Why is silicon usually preferred to germanium in the manufacture of semiconductor devices? Silicon is abundant on the earth’s surface and therefore cheaper than germanium. The PIV (Peak Inverse Voltage) rating of silicon is much higher than germanium and therefore can withstand much higher temperatures than germanium.
Why silicon is more widely used as semiconductor than germanium?
Silicon crystals have fewer free electrons than germanium crystals at room temperature, which is why silicon crystals are used for semiconductor devices. In general, the ICBO of germanium is 10-100 times greater than that of silicon, but the variation of ICBo at any temperature is lower for silicon than for germanium.
Why is silicon transistor more commonly used compared to germanium transistor?
Silicon as a semiconductor has wider bandgap than germanium and therefore it can be operated at a much higher temperature up to 120 degree centigrade . It interstice concentration is much less than Ge and therefore the reverse saturation current has much less values for Si which means less of currents.