Dictionary of Electrical Engineering

Commonly used terms in the Electrical industry.

diode
a two-terminal device that permits the flow of electric current in only one direction.

Diodes are most often constructed by abutting n-type and p-type regions of a semiconductor, that has significantly higher electrical conductivity in one direction (forwardbiased) than the other (reverse-biased).

Diode devices may be specially designed for low-power, high switching speed applications (signal diodes) or higher-power applications (rectifier diodes).
diode detector
a device that by use of rectification and the use of inherent nonlinearity separates a modulating signal from its carrier.
diode rectifier
a circuit in which the output voltage is fixed by the circuit parameters and the load. The direction of power flow is not reversible. An example of a single-phase diode-bridge rectifier with a capacitor filter is shown. Note that the diodes are on only for a short duration, while the rectified line voltage is greater than the capacitor voltage.
light emitting diode (LED)
a forward-biased p-n junction that emits light through spontaneous emission by a phenomenon termed electroluminescence.
organic light emitting diode
a group of recently developed organic material that emits light in response to electrical input. Although lower in efficiency, they have greater manufacturing flexibility than semiconductor LED.
varactor diode
a diode designed to have a repeatable and high capacitance vs. reverse voltage characteristic. A two terminal semiconductor device in which the electrical characteristic of primary interest is the voltage dependent capacitance.