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How do electronics work?

In the design of transistors and microchips, what affects the behaviour and movement of electrons in a semiconductor, conductor, vacuum, or gas?
And how do engineers harness and control this movement?

Posted - December 5, 2020

Responses


  • 13251
    Electronically.
      December 5, 2020 12:15 PM MST
    2

  • 4631
    Ha ha! :D

    With a tautology one can never be wrong. :)
      December 6, 2020 1:48 AM MST
    1

  • 13251
    I, of course, am nearly never wrong!
      December 6, 2020 6:01 AM MST
    0

  • 44175
    Here is an oversimplification; voltage is the force causing electron motion. It controls the amount of current flow, which in turn, is also controlled by various other devices, like resistors, transistors etc. To give you more detailed information would require many paragraphs, which I would be unable to do at this forum.. Here is a fun video.

      December 5, 2020 12:54 PM MST
    5

  • 4631
    That was absolutely fabulous! Thank you SO much, Ele! :D

    The odd thing is, it reminded me very much of the diagrams we were given in science in about year two (K8) at high school.
    But those diagrams were still. The movement in the video somehow transformed it into something I can easily imagine and understand. Or maybe my brain just works better now than it did then.

    There were a couple of details that I am sure were not mentioned back then. 
    Electrons jump from one atom to another at the speed of light; that explains why electricity seems to work so fast.
    The sheer volume of electrons grouped in one amp is staggering - mind-bogglingly orders-of-magnitude beyond comprehension. It explains how the power and flow can be so powerful.

    When watching how coils and transistors work, I was reminded of back when I was a sculptor. I welded a steel stellated dodecahedron three meters in diameter using stick rods and 3-phase power. As I welded, I kept the leads behind me to ensure that I wouldn't get tangled or trip - I took the weight of the leads up my back, across my shoulders and down my right arm so that my hands could move and control the feed of the rod.
    By the end of a work session I would feel "buzzed" and "lit up" - "charged". I thought it was some kind of strange illusion or emotional response.
    After watching that video, I think I really was charged; my body's natural electrics and nervous system had formed some kind of transistor with the leads and an electric flow had in fact been passing through my body (mostly shielded by the thick plastic pipes around the wires).

    What do you think?
      December 6, 2020 1:42 AM MST
    2

  • 44175
    Here is a good explanation of electron velocity. It's not the speed of light. I used copy and paste, as it is too much to type.

    The actual velocity of electrons through a conductor is measured as an average speed called drift speed. This is because individual electrons do not continue through the conductor in straight line paths, but instead they move in a random zig-zag motion, changing directions as they collide with atoms in the conductor. Thus, the actual drift speed of these electrons through the conductor is very small in the direction of current.

    For example, the drift speed through a copper wire of cross-sectional area 3.00 x 10-6 m2, with a current of 10 A will be approximately 2.5 x 10-4 m/s or about a quarter of a milimeter per second.

    So how does an electrical device turn on near instantaneously? If you think of a copper wire as a pipe completely filled with water, then forcing a drop of water in one end will result in a drop at the other end being pushed out very quickly. This is analogous to initiating an electric field in a conductor.
      December 6, 2020 11:01 AM MST
    1

  • 10449
    Fairies.  They go out and trap a bunch of fairies inside a plastic box.  Then they put a semi-shiny rock called a "battery" in the case with the fairies (I think they mine battery rock somewhere up in South Dakota).  Anyhow, the fairies are attracted to the battery like Willie Nelson to marijuana and begin to munch on it.  As the fairies eat the battery, they get super high and start to glow different colors (the higher they get, the more of the battery they consume).  Now these super stoned fairies start to meander around inside the plastic box bouncing off the walls and each other,making all sorts of weird patterns ... especially on the window.  Then humans look at the fairies in the case and say, "oh look, the new iPhone is out".  
    .


    (yeah, my college professor didn't buy that explanation either)
      December 5, 2020 3:57 PM MST
    5

  • 4631
    Laughing out loud - that's a beauty!
    It could even be made into a children's book or cartoon, and extended as a metaphor - with the fairies as electrons. :)
      December 6, 2020 1:57 AM MST
    3

  • 52903

     

      Banana, banana, banana, banana.


    ~

      December 5, 2020 6:00 PM MST
    2

  • 44175
      December 5, 2020 6:51 PM MST
    2

  • 4631
    Aaar! There you are, Ele!
    Good to see you again, even in your ersatz form. :)
      December 6, 2020 1:45 AM MST
    2

  • 4631
    Ha ha! You and me both.
    Electronics have always mystified me.
    I need my science mentor for enlightenment.

    Actually, these days I have trouble even working out which button is which.
    The dang things are designed to be so elegant that I can't see the controls.
    Wait a moment, just let me find my glasses, please...
      December 6, 2020 1:16 AM MST
    2