Latest episodes of the podcast How Semiconductors and Transistors Work

• Here is our do it yourself silicon atom kit
• First, let's make the nucleus of the atom
• Add the first two electrons
• And six more
• And finally the four bonding electrons
• Move them farther apart
• Make a 2nd atom and form a bond
• Start to make a crystal
• Take a look at its planes and facets
• Make a bar of silicon crystal
• Create a donor atom with 5 bonding electrons
• Put it into the silicon crystal
• The donor's electron starts to wander
• More donors => a cloud of electrons
• Put donor atoms into the other end of the bar
• Does the bar conduct? Not yet!
• But add metal plate just above the bar . . .
• The positive plate draws in the electrons
• Completing this MOS transistor
• This podcast is drawn from the Virtual Lab presentations of WeCanFigureThisOut.org. The copyrighted material of this site was developed under funding from National Science Foundation CCLI, NIRT, MRSEC and NUE programs. This project is led by John C. Bean
• All of the scenes together