semiconductor diode

A semiconductor device which conducts electric current run in one direction only. This is the simplest kind of semiconductor device, it has two terminals and a single PN junction. One diode can be used as a half-wave rectifier or four as a full-wave rectifier. electron tube, evacuated glass or metal envelope containing two electrodes, a cathode and an anode. It is used as a rectifier and as a detector in electronic circuits such as radio …

…flow, which we will use here, rather than electron current flow. Those facts allow us to describe a current generator circuit by its function: a current source would supply current from its positive output terminal to a load, which is, in turn, connected to a negative terminal. A current sink would draw current to its negative terminal through a load, which would be connected to a positive source. A current pump could perform either function.