Title

Conductor 

Any material which can allows to easily flow electrons means current from through them is called conductor, in other words that, which material through charge flows readily are called conductor,  the general term conductor applies to anything that allows, or conducts, the flow of electricity. Electricity flows in the path of least resistance, and certain material allow energy to flow more freely than others, for example copper is good conductor most wires are made of copper although aluminium and copper clad aluminium wires are also used.

Example of Conductor:-

Include most metals such as;

Silver, Copper, Gold, Aluminum, Mercury, Zinc, Nickel, Brass, Bronze, pure Iron, Platinum, Steel, pure Lead, etc.

Mostly wires “conductors” are copper; the wire may be solid or standard

Solid wire:-  is made of one conductor, If bent or flexed repeatedly it may break, It is typically used in applications such as house wiring etc.

Solid wire

Standard wire:- Is made up of multiple strands of wire braided together It Is more resilient than solid wire. It is typically used in application like telephone and in speaker wire etc.

Standard wire
Silver’s conductivity is higher than copper, & copper conductivity is higher than Gold but also mostly use Silver, copper and aluminium, Copper is mostly used extensively for the conductive paths on electric circuit board, copper wires mostly used for house wiring, and electrical motors, transformers and fans windings.

Copper is good conductor and not high costly Copper wires easily available in the market that is why it is used more at any places. And silver more used in transmission lines for distribute electricity from one place to another place, like from generating station to our house or factories etc.

Also, which printed wire in the electronic circuits (PCBs) it is copper’s, because copper will easily take soldering when silver or aluminium not take soldering easily and other reason that copper is best conductor it has low losses and it heat not get quickly, because sometimes we use high current in the electronic circuit like 30,40 ampere or higher, this current required in UPS, Inverter etc. if we use silver or aluminium printed wire here, circuit can be shorted this reason that copper used in any PCBs circuit.  

Conductivity of some metals:-

No.

Metal

Conductivity

(10.E6 siemens/m)

Melting Point

1

Silver

62.1

961.8 °C

2

Copper

58.7

1,085 °C

3

Gold

44.2

1,064 °C

4

Aluminium

36.9

660.3 °C

5

Molybdenum

18.7

2,623 °C

6

Zinc

16.6

419.5 °C

7

Lithium

10.9

180.5 °C

8

Brass

15.9

926.6 °C

9

Nickel

14.3

1,455 °C

10

Iron

10.3

1,538 °C

11

Steel

10.1

1371 °C

12

Palladium

9.5

1,555 °C

13

Platinium

9.3

1,768 °C

13

Tungsten

8.9

3,422 °C

14

Tin

8.7

231.9 °C

15

Bronze

7.4

912.7 °C

16

Carbone steel

5.9

1540 °C

17

Lead

4.7

327.5 °C

18

Titanium

2.4

1,668 °C

19

Stainless

1.32

1400 - 1450°C

20

Mercury

1.1

-38.83 °C

     Insulator

Any material that does not allow passing current through them is called insulator.

Example:-

Rubber, Plastic, Dry Wood, Varnish, Ceramics, Glass, Paper, Dry Air, Pure Water, Oil, Diamond, Foam, Dry Cotton etc.

This is all material is insulator, it cannot pass current from one place to another place, this type material only use for insulation provide to conductor means any wire. Each insulator has a point at which a very high voltage causes an arc, breaking its internal structure and forcing it to run. Insulator has very high resistance such as Mega ohms; Insulator can have one of two functions, to isolate conductors to eliminate conduction between them Insulators are also called dielectric.

Mostly Used:

Rubber:- is mostly used for any conductor (wire) coating, that current cannot out from wire and use it securely.

Plastic:- Use for physical touching electrical items like Button, Switch, Half point, and electrical product’s body etc.

Varnish:- use in any winding’s items like transformer, motor etc. varnish provide insulate to windings that it not be short together.

Semi Conductor

Semi Conductor
This type material is In the middle of Conductor and insulator.

Example:-

Silicon, germanium, gallium, arsenide etc.

Diode, Transistor, Micro Processor Chip, made by silicon material.

Semiconductor has electrical conductivity is low from conductor and high from insulator in easy words that it will can flow current but not easily, it electrons pass through them in the control, means current will pass In under control. The resistance of semiconductor is inversely proportional means when temperature will increase resistance will decrease and when temperature will decrease resistance increase. And when any apt material added to it, its conducting property will change.

Semiconductor is the main pillar of electronics and it the backbone of electronic industries, the semiconductors made possible the advent of integrated circuits that has totally revolutionized the electronics, they affects all areas of life be it communication, computer, defense, medical, engineering, entertainment, etc.

Other two types of Semiconductor is following:

 1- Intrinsic or pure semiconductor

2- Extrinsic or impure semiconductor 

1- 

This type of semiconductor material is made to be very pure chemically, it is made up of only a single type of element, Germanium and silicon are the most common types of intrinsic semiconductor elements, they have four valence electrons (tetravalent).And we can’t any changing in it not physical not apply by any external source.

2- Extrinsic or impure semiconductor

The conductivity of semiconductors can be improved by introducing a small number of less suitable alternative atoms called impurities. The process of adding impure atoms to a pure semiconductor is called doping. Normally only 1 atom in 107 is converted from a doped atom to a doped semiconductor.

An Extrinsic semiconductor defines further:-

N-type Semiconductor
P-type Semiconductor

Classification of N-Type Semiconductor

When a pure semiconductor (silicon or germanium) is doped with pentavalent impurities (P, As, Sb, Bi), four of the five valence electrons are bound to the four electrons of Ge or Si. DuPont’s fifth electron is free. Thus the impure atom donates a free electron for delivery into the lattice and is called a "donor". As the number of free electrons increases with the increase of impurities, so do the (negative charge carriers) that is why it is called N-type semiconductor.

 Classification of P-Type Semiconductor

When a pure semiconductor is doped with a small impure (B, Al, In, Ga), the three valence electrons of the impure bonds are with three of the four valence electrons. of the semiconductor, this is results in the absence of electrons (holes) in the impurity. These impure atoms that are ready to accept the bound electrons are called "acceptors". As the number of impurities increases, the holes (positive charge carriers) increase, therefore, it is called P-type semiconductor.