Difference Between Silicon Diode And Germanium Diode

October 11, 2020February 21, 2022 Shilpa Annigeri

Hello guys, welcome back to my blog. In this article, I will discuss what is silicon diode, what is germanium diode, the difference between silicon diode and germanium diode, etc.

If you need an article on some other topics then comment below in the comment box. You can also catch me @ Instagram – Chetan Shidling.

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Silicon Diode And Germanium Diode

Introduction

Both Silicon and Germanium are used to make diodes. But they both differ in some aspects. Let’s study some fundamental differences between Silicon diode and Germanium diode.

What is Silicon diode?

Si diode is a semiconductor diode which is having positive and negative charge polarity and allows the current to flow in only one direction.

What is a Germanium diode?

Germanium diode also works similarly to Si diode, but the difference is Germanium has low forward voltage, which results in it being a low power loss and an efficient diode.

Differences between Si diode and Ge diode

01. Silicon transistor has threshold voltage of 0.7V, whereas Germanium has 0.3V.

02. Si diode is having good temperature stability about 200° Celsius, whereas ge is having temperature stability about 85°c.

03. Leakage current of Sili_con diode is in nA, whereas the leakage current for germanium is in mA.

04. PIV is more for Si diode, whereas the PIV is less for germanium diode.

05. Silicon diodes can work maximum up to 170°c, whereas germanium diodes can work maximum up to 100°c.

06. The reverse bias saturation current is higher i.e (1nA) in Silicon diode. Whereas for Germanium diode it is high (1000nA).

07. Si diodes are preferred as rectifiers, whereas Ge diodes are preferred as lighting sensors.

08. The forward break over voltage is high for silicon diodes, whereas it’s low for Ger-manium diode.

09. Silicon diode looses about 0.7-0.9V, whereas Ger-manium diode looses about 0.3-0.4V.

10. Si crystals are having capacity to withstand at higher temperature as compared to germanium crystals.

11. Silicon is cheaper than Germanium. Therefore, it’s preferred over Ge diode.

12. The forward voltage drop for Germanium junction is less, whereas for Silicon diode the forward voltage drop is low.

I hope this article may help you all a lot. Thank you for reading. If you have any doubts related to this article, then comment below in the comment box.

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Shilpa Annigeri: Ships annigeri

Department of Electrical and Electronics engineering, B.L.D.E.A's V.P.Dr.P.G.Halalatti college of engineering and technology Vijayapur.