Analogue Electronics and Semiconductor Devices Crossword

Digital circuits represent information as two abstract states, but the physical devices implementing those states are entirely analogue. Transistors, diodes, and rectifiers operate on physical transport phenomena: the diffusion and drift of charge carriers across junctions, exponential voltage-current curves, internal capacitances, and thermal constraints.

This crossword covers that physical vocabulary across twenty-three terms grouped into four strands:

The p-n junction and diode characteristics. Depletion regions, anodes, cathodes, the Shockley diode equation, knee voltages, and metal-semiconductor Schottky contacts. Diffusion of mobile carriers leaves fixed ionised donor and acceptor atoms across the metallurgical junction, giving rise to an internal potential barrier that forward bias lowers and reverse bias widens.

Rectification and power supplies. Full-wave bridge rectifiers, reservoir smoothing capacitors, residual ripple voltages, and voltage regulators. Converting alternating mains voltages into stable direct current relies on diode steering, charge storage in a reservoir capacitor while input voltages collapse between peaks, and closed-loop or Zener regulation to eliminate ripple under varying loads.

Breakdown and optoelectronic mechanisms. Zener diodes, reverse breakdown mechanisms, dynamic impedance, and photon emission in LEDs. Operating a junction in controlled breakdown exploits field emission or avalanche multiplication to clamp terminal voltages, with the dynamic slope impedance determining regulation quality. In direct bandgap semiconductors, electron-hole radiative recombination releases energy as discrete photons.

Transistors and amplifier stages. Bipolar junction transistors and field-effect devices: emitters, common-emitter current gain ($\beta$), saturation, quiescent operating points (Q-points), emitter resistor bypass capacitors, emitter followers, signal clipping, and insulated-gate MOSFETs. Biasing circuits establish stable operating conditions despite device parameter spread, while external topologies trade stage gain for bandwidth and linearity.

How it works

Click a cell and type. Clicking the same cell again switches between across and down, and the clue you are currently in is highlighted.

Check grid marks incorrect letters in red without revealing the correct ones, so a check is a prompt to reconsider a clue rather than a way of being told the answer. Clear grid empties the puzzle. Clues can be ticked off in the list as you finish them.

Where an answer has more than one word, run the words together and leave the spaces out. Where a clue has a gap in it, the missing word is the answer and the surrounding phrase indicates the term required.

Analogue Electronics and Semiconductor Devices Crossword

Analogue Electronics & Semiconductor Devices Crossword (23 terms). Where answers have multiple words, omit spaces.

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💡 Note:Where an answer comprises multiple words, omit the space (e.g., “The best lecturer in the world!” would be entered as DEREKMOLLOY).

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Across

4.The n-type terminal of a diode, marked on the package by a printed band.(7)

5.A three-terminal device controlled by gate voltage rather than gate current, its insulated gate drawing no steady current at all.(6)

6.A circuit that holds its output voltage steady while both the input supply and the load current vary.(9)

7.The reverse-bias region in which minority carriers gain enough energy to liberate further carriers from the lattice, and conduction rises abruptly.(9)

11.The most heavily doped of a bipolar transistor's three layers, and the terminal carrying the sum of the other two currents.(7)

13.The transistor state in which both junctions are forward biased, the collector voltage has collapsed, and the current is set by the external circuit.(10)

14.The region either side of a p-n junction from which mobile carriers have been swept, leaving only fixed ionised atoms and widening under reverse bias.(9)

16.The common-emitter current gain of a bipolar transistor, being the ratio of collector current to base current.(4)

18.The descriptive name for the capacitor placed across a rectifier's load to sustain the output while the diodes are not conducting.(9)

19.Describing the steady operating point a stage rests at with no signal applied, abbreviated to Q on the load line.(9)

20.The residual sawtooth variation left on a smoothed supply between one charging peak and the next.(6)

Down

1.The dynamic quantity, measured in ohms, that explains why the flat part of a Zener's characteristic is not truly flat.(9)

2.A diode formed from a metal-semiconductor contact rather than a p-n junction, chosen for its notably lower forward drop.(8)

3.A diode operated deliberately in reverse breakdown, where its voltage stays nearly constant over a wide range of current.(5)

4.The flattening of a waveform's peaks that occurs once an amplifier is driven into either saturation or cutoff.(8)

8.The p-type terminal of a diode, into which conventional current flows when the device is forward biased.(5)

9.The bend in a diode's forward characteristic, above which current rises steeply for very little further increase in voltage.(4)

10.The four-diode arrangement that routes both halves of an alternating cycle through the load in the same direction.(6)

12.A circuit that converts an alternating input into an output having only one polarity.(9)

13.The equation describing the exponential relationship between the current through a junction and the voltage across it.(8)

15.The quantum of light emitted when a carrier recombines across the band gap of a light emitting diode instead of giving up its energy as heat.(6)

16.The capacitor placed across an emitter resistor to remove it from the signal path while leaving it in place for the bias.(6)

17.The common-collector configuration, whose output tracks the input at a voltage gain of very nearly unity.(8)

Where to look things up

The physical operation of the p-n junction and diode I-V curves are analysed in Diodes, from Switch to Curve. Power rectification, full-wave bridges, and smoothing capacitors are demonstrated in Turning AC into DC.

Reverse breakdown, Zener voltage regulation, dynamic impedance, and light-emitting diodes appear in Zener Diodes and LEDs. BJT layers, gain parameters, saturation limits, and MOSFET fundamentals are explored in Transistors, from Switch to Amplifier. Finally, DC bias networks, Q-point selection, emitter bypass capacitors, follower stages, and distortion clipping are examined in Amplifier Stages, and Choosing the Operating Point.

If you get stuck

Leave it and come back. A clue that looks difficult often becomes obvious once intersecting letters are in place. Many terms in semiconductor electronics share Greek letters, standard package identifiers, or characteristic physical units that help you establish the word length and structure quickly.