The leakage current is least in _______

The leakage current is least in _______

Right Answer is:

Silicon

SOLUTION

  • The reverse saturation current is of the order of nanoamperes (nA) for silicon and microamperes (µA) for Germanium PN junctions.
  • The reverse saturation current for, Si devices is smaller than that of Ge because silicon has a large energy gap (a 1.1 eV) between the conduction and valence bands compare to the energy band gap of (0.7 eV).
  • As a result of this, fewer minority carriers are thermally generated at any temperature in silicon than that of germanium. This is the reason why Si is mostly preferred over Ge.
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