A semiconductor device uses controlled populations and motion of charge carriers in a semiconductor to rectify, switch, amplify, detect or emit signals. Its behavior depends on semiconductor doping, contacts, geometry and any heterojunctions, rather than only on the bulk material.
A diode illustrates the distinction: its two-terminal current-voltage characteristic comes from carrier transport through a junction and its contacts. A field-effect transistor instead uses a gate's electric field to control a conducting channel. Measuring a device therefore requires specified biasing and temperature; a quoted bulk electrical conductivity alone does not determine its terminal response.
A heterostructure transistor with a high-mobility channel spatially separated from ionized dopants; the gate modulates channel population.
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