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Semiconductor is a material which has electrical conductivity between that of a conductor such as copper and an insulator such as glass. Called semi or half-of-conductor because this material (in fact and literally) is not a conductor. You find semiconductors at the heart of microprocessor chips as well as transistors. Anything that's computerized or uses radio waves depends on semiconductors.
We call some material like copper, iron and tin as a good conductor, because these material have special arrangements on their atom. It makes their electron can move freely. Semiconductor material have special electron valence. If we see the insulator element, they have 8 electron valence. Internal electric charges do not flow freely, and which therefore does not conduct an electric current. If we want to release the electron valence, we have to create big and great energy to release the electron. So, we can conclude the semiconductor have more than 1 electron valence and less than 8 electron valence. And, we can conclude the semiconductor material is element which have 4 electron valence.
At semiconductor, the types of use is dependent into it temperature. If the temperature is down (cold), the semiconductor material become insulator. It is because there are none of electron who move. If the temperature is normal, there are electron who released. But the amount of electron released is very small. So it can't be called good conductor.
We have known there are many semicondutor as a Silicon (Si), Germanium (Ge) and Galium Arsenid (GaAs). Many years ago, we have use the Germanium as the main material to make semiconductor, but now technology have improved, and we can extract Silicon (one of the most material on the Earth) into semiconductor. So that, you may have heard expressions like "Silicon Valley" and the "silicon economy," and that's why -- silicon is the heart of any electronic device.
Semiconductor Manufacturing Process
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