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electron movement? — Parallax Forums

electron movement?

ArchiverArchiver Posts: 46,084
edited 2002-06-04 08:22 in General Discussion
This talk of Vdd=Vcc has confused me with respect to electron flow. Don't
electrons move from the negative terminal to the positive terminal? what is
"hole migration". Thanks.


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Comments

  • ArchiverArchiver Posts: 46,084
    edited 2002-06-04 00:13
    For Sean

    Hole migration - imagine electrons flowing from negative to positive. As
    each electron moves forward it leaves a space - or a hole - which is quickly
    filled by another electron. If the electrons are moving from left to right,
    then the "hole" would appear to move from right to left. It is also referred
    to as "hole current", which of course would flow from positive to negative

    Sid


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  • ArchiverArchiver Posts: 46,084
    edited 2002-06-04 00:47
    Electrons aren't the ONLY way that electric charge gets around.

    Semiconductors of the 'p' type (as in npn or pnp transistors) have
    predominantly POSITIVE charge carriers (called 'holes' for lack of a
    more sophisticated name.)


    Some metals ALSO have predominately positive charge carriers.

    Usually it doesn't matter what's moving. We USUALLY can't tell the
    difference but magnetic fields show the difference clearly. See a
    search of the 'Hall Effect'.


    At 6:56 PM -0400 on 6/3/02, sean975@a... wrote
    >This talk of Vdd=Vcc has confused me with respect to electron flow. Don't
    >electrons move from the negative terminal to the positive terminal? what is
    >"hole migration". Thanks.
    >

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  • ArchiverArchiver Posts: 46,084
    edited 2002-06-04 03:19
    Sean:
    Don't get confused! For all practical purposes electrons are the only things
    that move. Holes are what happens when an atom looses an electron. If for
    instance you have 4 atoms of silicon wich are covalently bonded (share
    electrons) to each other and one happens to loose an electron you will see that
    an electron from one of the other si's will replace that one lost causing a
    chain reaction. This is called hole migration. Don't think of it as a moving
    proton or anything because that is wrong just think of it as a moving
    defficiency of an electron or electrons.
    good luck!
    Randy Knutson
    sean975@a... wrote: This talk of Vdd=Vcc has confused me with respect to
    electron flow. Don't
    electrons move from the negative terminal to the positive terminal? what is
    "hole migration". Thanks.


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  • ArchiverArchiver Posts: 46,084
    edited 2002-06-04 08:22
    Hi Sean,

    Think of it this way, if you're (you being the electron) standing on a
    rail road platform, waiting to get on a train. When you get on the train
    and the train starts travelling east (electron flow). You could say,
    that that the platform (the place where you were standing) is travelling
    west, relative to your new position on the moving train("hole
    migration"). It's just a change in relativity, or point of observation.
    We have (as often quoted on the footer of one email sender) Albert
    Einstein to thank for this relative theory. But Electrons are the main
    "movers and shakers" (literally) in physics.
    So to recap:-
    Conventional current flow and "hole migration" is from POSITIVE to
    NEGATIVE.
    Electrons flow from NEGATIVE to POSITIVE.

    Rob

    Original Message
    From: sean975@a... [noparse]/noparse]mailto:[url=http://forums.parallaxinc.com/group/basicstamps/post?postID=GX2AIQtZVOMAjdMLrbX5j0uwlOkDncFKJM0LJrISG5vm4gN9dgUatnUj0JoPCcTj6EGthv8VPriv]sean975@a...[/url
    Sent: 03 June 2002 23:57
    To: basicstamps@yahoogroups.com
    Subject: [noparse][[/noparse]basicstamps] electron movement?

    This talk of Vdd=Vcc has confused me with respect to electron flow.
    Don't
    electrons move from the negative terminal to the positive terminal? what
    is
    "hole migration". Thanks.


    [noparse][[/noparse]Non-text portions of this message have been removed]


    To UNSUBSCRIBE, just send mail to:
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