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Simple Definitions

The most important electronics terms, demystified in one place.

Conduction band

Our Take

This "band" is a collection of energy levels in which electrons can move freely. The electrons have enough energy that they can flow around and join the “sea of electrons” that metals have of electrons that are, at best, tenuously attached to a nucleus.

Wikipedia

In solid-state physics, the valence band and conduction band are the bands closest to the Fermi level and thus determine the electrical conductivity of the solid. In non-metals, the valence band is the highest range of electron energies in which electrons are normally present at absolute zero temperature, while the conduction band is the lowest range of vacant electronic states. On a graph of the electronic band structure of a material, the valence band is located below the Fermi level, while the conduction band is located above it.

The distinction between the valence and conduction bands is meaningless in metals, because conduction occurs in one or more partially filled bands that take on the properties of both the valence and conduction bands.

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