How does temperature effect semiconductors?

Answer 1

Firstly a general rule: Too hot fries anything.

(and lesser important: too cold and you get superconduction) Resistors For normal resistors: as temperature increases, the electrical resistance decreases.

Though specially made heat sensitive resistors with the opposit effect (for temperature measurements) do exist.

Answer 2

The conductivity of semiconductors increases with an increase in temperature as the breakdown of covalent bonds take place in the semiconductor. If the temperature keeps rising it may result in damage to the semiconductor with a decrease in conductivity.

Answer 3

Heat degrades the conductivity of semiconductor's. The excessive buildup of heat can also cause permanent degradation of a semiconductor. Conduction in a semiconductor is provided by doapants which are "implanted" into the strata, heat can cause migration of these doapants into other layers in a typical "chip".

Answer 4

With the increase in temperature, the concentration of minority carriers starts increasing. Eventually, a temperature is reached called the critical temperature (85° C in case of germanium and 200° C in case of silicon) when the number of covalent bonds that are broken is very large and the number of holes is approximately equal to number of electrons. The extrinsic semiconductor now behaves essentially like an intrinsic semi-conductor.