Introduction to Electrical and Electronic Materials: Importance of materials, Classification of electrical and electronic materials, Scope of electrical and electronic materials, Requirement of Engineering materials, Operational requirements of electrical and electronic materials, Classification of solids on the basis of energy gap, Products – working principle and materials, Types of engineering materials, Levels of material structure. Spintronics and Spintronic materials, Ferromagnetic semiconductors, Left handed materials.
Conductors: Conductor materials, Factors affecting conductivity, Thermal conductivity, Heating effect of current, Thermoelectric effect, Seebeck effect, Thomson effect, Wiedemann – Franz law and Lorentz relation, Problems
Conductive Materials and Applications: Mechanically processed forms of electrical materials, Types of conducting materials, Low resistivity materials, High resistivity materials, Contact materials, Fusible materials, Filament materials, Carbon as filamentary and brush material, Material for conductors, cables, wires, solder, sheathing and sealing.
Dielectrics: Introduction to dielectric materials, classification of dielectric materials, Dielectric constant, Dielectric strength and Dielectric loss. Polarization, Mechanisms of polarization, Comparison of different polarization process, Factors affecting polarization, Spontaneous polarization, Behaviour of polarization under impulse and frequency switching, Decay and build-up of polarization under ac field, Complex dielectric constant.
Insulating Materials: Insulating materials and applications – Ceramic, Mica, Porcelain, Glass, Micanite and Glass bonded mica. Polymeric materials – Bakelite, Polyethylene. Natural and synthetic rubber. Paper. Choice of solid insulating material for different applications, Liquid insulating materials – Requirements, Transformer oil, Bubble theory, Aging of mineral insulating oils. Gaseous insulating Materials – Air, Nitrogen, Vacuum.
Magnetic Materials: Origin of permanent magnetic dipole, Magnetic terminology, Relation between relative permeability and magnetic susceptibility. Classification of magnetic materials, Diamagnetic, Paramagnetism, Ferromagnetism, Antiferromagnetism and the corresponding materials. Ferrimagnetism and ferrites – properties and applications, Soft and hard ferrites. Curie temperature, Laws of magnetic materials. Magnetization curve, Initial and maximum permeability. Hysteresis loop and loss, Eddy current loss.
Magnetic Materials (continued): Types of magnetic materials, Soft and hard magnetic materials, High energy magnetic materials, Commercial grade soft and hard magnetic materials. Superconductive Materials: Concept of superconductors, Meaning of phenomenon of superconductivity, Properties of superconductors, Types of superconductors, Critical magnetic field Superconductive Materials (continued): and critical temperature, Effects of Isotopic mass on critical temperature, Silsbee rule, Depth of penetration and coherence length. Ideal and Hard superconductors, Mechanism of superconduction, London’s theory for Type I superconductors, GLAG theory for Type I superconductors, BCS theory, Applications and limitations. Applications of high temperature superconductors, Superconducting solenoids and magnets, MRI for medical diagnostics.
Plastics: Introduction, Thermoplastics, Rubbers, Thermosets, DC and AC properties, Mechanical properties and processing of plastic.
Materials for Opto – Electronic Devices: Introduction, Optical phenomena, Reflection, Refraction, Transmittivity, Scattering, Optical absorption, Optical properties of non-metals, Optical properties of metals, Optical properties of semiconductors, Optical properties of insulators. Luminescence, Opto – Electronic devices, Photoconductivity, Photoconductive cell.