Transistor

A Transistor is a semiconductor device with a base electrode, an emitter electrode and an collector electrode, that sandwiches dissimilar semiconductors such that can control current flow under certain conditions.

• Context:
  • It can be modeled with 2 Diodes that share one end. The shared end is called the base and the other 2 ends are called the emitter and collector.
  • It can range from being an NPN Transistor to being a PNP Transistor, based on their field effects.
  • ...
• Example(s):
  • MOSFET Transistor.
  • ...
  • …
• Counter-Example(s):
  • a Diode.
  • a Resitor.
  • a Capacitor.
  • a Relay.
  • a Cathode.
• See: Solid Electronic Component, Semiconductor, Integrated Circuit.

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References

2013

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transistor
  • A transistor is a semiconductor device used to amplify and switch electronic signals and electrical power. It is composed of semiconductor material with at least three terminals for connection to an external circuit. A voltage or current applied to one pair of the transistor's terminals changes the current through another pair of terminals. Because the controlled (output) power can be higher than the controlling (input) power, a transistor can amplify a signal. Today, some transistors are packaged individually, but many more are found embedded in integrated circuits.

    The transistor is the fundamental building block of modern electronic devices, and is ubiquitous in modern electronic systems. Following its development in 1947 by John Bardeen, Walter Brattain, and William Shockley, the transistor revolutionized the field of electronics, and paved the way for smaller and cheaper radios, calculators, and computers, among other things. The transistor is on the list of IEEE milestones in electronics, and the inventors were jointly awarded the 1956 Nobel Prize in Physics for their achievement.

2011

• http://www.wikihow.com/Test-a-Transistor
  • The collector accepts an input current from the circuit, but it can't send the current through the transistor until allowed to by the base.
  • The emitter sends a current out into the circuit, but only if the base allows the collector to pass the current through the transistor to the emitter.
  • The base acts like a gate. When a small current is applied to the base, the gate opens and a large current can flow from the collector to the emitter.

• http://www.wikihow.com/Test-a-Transistor
  • An NPN transistor uses a positive semiconductor material (P-type) for the base and negative semiconductor material (N-type)for the collector and emitter. On a circuit diagram, and NPN transistor shows an emitter with the arrow pointing out (Never Points iN).
  • A PNP transistor uses an N-type material for the base and P-type material for the emitter and collector. The PNP transistor show an emitter with the arrow pointing in (Points iN Permanently).

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2022

• (Wikipedia, 2022) ⇒ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transistor Retrieved:2022-12-23.
  • File:MOSFET Structure.png

    Metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET), showing gate (G), body (B), source (S) and drain (D) terminals. The gate is separated from the body by an insulating layer (pink).

    A transistor is a semiconductor device used to amplify or switch electrical signals and power. The transistor is one of the basic building blocks of modern electronics. It is composed of semiconductor material, usually with at least three terminals for connection to an electronic circuit. A voltage or current applied to one pair of the transistor's terminals controls the current through another pair of terminals. Because the controlled (output) power can be higher than the controlling (input) power, a transistor can amplify a signal. Some transistors are packaged individually, but many more are found embedded in integrated circuits. Austro-Hungarian physicist Julius Edgar Lilienfeld proposed the concept of a field-effect transistor in 1926, but it was not possible to actually construct a working device at that time. The first working device to be built was a point-contact transistor invented in 1947 by American physicists John Bardeen and Walter Brattain while working under William Shockley at Bell Labs. The three shared the 1956 Nobel Prize in Physics for their achievement. The most widely used type of transistor is the metal–oxide–semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET), which was invented by Mohamed Atalla and Dawon Kahng at Bell Labs in 1959. Transistors revolutionized the field of electronics, and paved the way for smaller and cheaper radios, calculators, and computers, among other things.

    Most transistors are made from very pure silicon, and some from germanium, but certain other semiconductor materials are sometimes used. A transistor may have only one kind of charge carrier, in a field-effect transistor, or may have two kinds of charge carriers in bipolar junction transistor devices. Compared with the vacuum tube, transistors are generally smaller and require less power to operate. Certain vacuum tubes have advantages over transistors at very high operating frequencies or high operating voltages. Many types of transistors are made to standardized specifications by multiple manufacturers.