semiconductor — English Dictionary

Noun

1. A substance with electrical properties intermediate between a good conductor and a good insulator.

   Examples

   Holonyms: chip, microchip, integrated circuit

   Integrated circuits are made from semiconductors, especially silicon.

   More examples (2)

   In this sense we are to understand the following table in which bodies are classed as conductors, semiconductors, and nonconductors; those bodies being conveniently designated as conductors which, when applied to an electroscope charged with either kind of electricity discharge it almost instantaneously; semiconductors being those which discharge it in a short but measurable time, a few seconds, for instance; while nonconductors effect no discharge even, in the course of a minute.

   The following table of conductors may therefore be used in inverse order as a table of resistances, the good conductors being bodies of slight resistance, the semiconductors being bodies of great resistance, and the insulators being bodies of so great resistance that they almost effectually oppose the passage of any current.

Noun

1. a substance as germanium or silicon whose electrical conductivity is intermediate between that of a metal and an insulator; its conductivity increases with temperature and in the presence of impurities

   Synonyms

   semiconducting material

   Broader terms

   conductor

2. a conductor made with semiconducting material

   Synonyms

   semiconductor devicesemiconductor unit

   Broader terms

   conductor