What is a transistor?

Question

What are the details that i might know about transistors?

Answer 1

A transistor is a device that has the ability to allow a large amount of electrical current to be controlled by a much smaller amount. It consists of two types of material. Both materials begin as silicon, but one has a second chemical added or "doped" that makes each molecule have an extra electron and is called N type. The other material is doped to have one less electron and is called P type. When some P type material is sandwiched between two layers of N type material, it is called a NPN transistor. Now, when a dc voltage is applied across this transistor from the one N type material to the other, electrical processes prevent any current from passing. A small current, applied to the P type material in the center, will allow a much higher current to flow through the transistor.

Answer 2

A transistor is a switch that is operated by an energy input. They are useful and reliable because they have no moving parts.

It is typically a printed circuit board component, and it has 3 connections. Sometimes transistors are very large and used elsewhere, to switch or change high amounts of electricity.

A transistor has three connections:

- Two transistor connections are for completing a circuit, one for input, and one for output.

- The third lead is designed to either turn on or turn off the juction where the input and outputs meet.

With that said, there are many different types of transistors out there. Some are used to convert AC energy to DC, some are for a true solid-state switch usage. Inside a transistor, you will find a material called a semiconductor which is a special material that enables when voltage is present.

Answer 3

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.




https://www.electrikals.com/

Answer 4

Transistors are divided into two main categories: bipolar junction transistors (BJTs) and field effect transistors (FETs). Transistors have three terminals: input, common, and output. Application of current in BJTs or voltage with FETs between the input terminal and the common terminal increases the conductivity between the common and output terminals, thereby controlling current flow between them.

In English, it allows you to control the voltage based on the materials a transistor is made up of and the input voltage and current you put through it.

Answer 5

The transistor is a three terminal solid state semiconductor device that can be used for amplification, switching, voltage stabilization, signal modulation and many other functions.

Transistors are categorized by:

Semiconductor material: germanium, silicon, gallium arsenide, silicon carbide
Structure: BJT, JFET, IGFET (MOSFET), IGBT, "other types"
Polarity: NPN, PNP, N-channel, P-channel
Maximum power rating: low, medium, high
Maximum operating frequency: low, medium, high, radio frequency (RF), microwave (The maximum effective frequency of a transistor is denoted by the term fT, an abbreviation for "frequency of transition." The frequency of transition is the frequency at which the transistor yields unity gain).
Application: switch, general purpose, audio, high voltage, super-beta, matched pair
Physical packaging: through hole metal, through hole plastic, surface mount, ball grid array
Thus, a particular transistor may be described as: silicon, surface mount, BJT, NPN, low power, high frequency switch.

Transistors are divided into two main categories: bipolar junction transistors (BJTs) and field effect transistors (FETs). Transistors have three terminals: input, common, and output. Application of current in BJTs or voltage with FETs between the input terminal and the common terminal increases the conductivity between the common and output terminals, thereby controlling current flow between them. The physics of this "transistor action" is quite different for the BJT and FET; see the respective articles for further details.

In analog circuits, transistors are used in amplifiers, (direct current amplifiers, audio amplifiers, radio frequency amplifiers), and linear regulated power supplies. Transistors are also used in digital circuits where they function as electrical switches. Digital circuits include logic gates, random access memory (RAM), microprocessors, and digital signal processors (DSPs).

FOR MORE PL. VISIT:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transistor
http://www.101science.com/transistor.htm

Answer 6

In short, a transistor is a three terminal solid state semiconductor device that can be used for amplification, switching, voltage stabilization, signal modulation and many other functions.

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transistor for more info.

Answer 7

Very basically, a transistor is a switch with no moving parts.

Answer 8

A Transistor is a Transistor is a Transistor is a Transistor is a Transistor is a Transistor.........

Answer 9

It is a device with three wires. These wires are called "collector, base and emitter". A small current (voltage) on the base will allow a much larger current to flow between the other two wires so amplification is achieved.
Internally the device consists of 3 types of silicon sandwiched together normally these are n-type/p-type/n-type (the three external wires are connected to these different regions). The different types of silicon are made by "doping" with small amounts of impurities.

Answer 10

Introduction

Transistors are divided into two main categories: bipolar junction transistors (BJTs) and field effect transistors (FETs). Transistors have three terminals: input, common, and output. Application of current in BJTs or voltage with FETs between the input terminal and the common terminal increases the conductivity between the common and output terminals, thereby controlling current flow between them. The physics of this "transistor action" is quite different for the BJT and FET; see the respective articles for further details.

In analog circuits, transistors are used in amplifiers, (direct current amplifiers, audio amplifiers, radio frequency amplifiers), and linear regulated power supplies. Transistors are also used in digital circuits where they function as electrical switches. Digital circuits include logic gates, random access memory (RAM), microprocessors, and digital signal processors (DSPs).

The first patents for the transistor principle were registered in Germany in 1928 by Julius Edgar Lilienfeld. In 1934 German physicist Dr. Oskar Heil patented the field-effect transistor. It is not clear whether either design was ever built, and this is generally considered unlikely.

On 22 December 1947 William Shockley, John Bardeen and Walter Brattain succeeded in building the first practical point-contact transistor at Bell Labs. This work followed from their war-time efforts to produce extremely pure germanium "crystal" mixer diodes, used in radar units as a frequency mixer element in microwave radar receivers. Early tube-based technology did not switch fast enough for this role, leading the Bell team to use solid state diodes instead. With this knowledge in hand they turned to the design of a triode, but found this was not at all easy. Bardeen eventually developed a new branch of surface physics to account for the "odd" behaviour they saw, and Bardeen and Brattain eventually succeeded in building a working device.

Bell Telephone Laboratories needed a generic name for the new invention: "Semiconductor Triode", "Solid Triode", "Surface States Triode", "Crystal Triode" and "Iotatron" were all considered, but "transistor," coined by John R. Pierce, won an internal ballot. The rationale for the name is described in the following extract from the company's Technical Memoranda calling for votes:

Transistor. This is an abbreviated combination of the words "transconductance" or "transfer", and "varistor". The device logically belongs in the varistor family, and has the transconductance or transfer impedance of a device having gain, so that this combination is descriptive.

— Bell Telephone Laboratories — Technical Memorandum (May 28, 1948)


The transistor is considered by many to be one of the greatest inventions in modern history, ranking in importance with the printing press, automobile and telephone. It is the key active component in practically all modern electronics. Its importance in today's society rests on its ability to be mass produced using a highly automated process (fabrication) that achieves vanishingly low per-transistor costs.

Although millions of individual transistors (known as discretes) are still used, the vast majority of transistors are fabricated into integrated circuits (also called microchips or simply chips) along with diodes, resistors, capacitors and other electronic components to produce complete electronic circuits. A logic gate comprises about twenty transistors whereas an advanced microprocessor, as of 2006, can use as many as 1.7 billion MOSFETs. [1]

The transistor's low cost, flexibility and reliability have made it an almost universal device for non-mechanical tasks, such as digital computing. Transistorized circuits are replacing electromechanical devices for the control of appliances and machinery as well. It is often less expensive and more effective to use a standard microcontroller and write a computer program to carry out a control function than to design an equivalent mechanical control function.

Because of the low cost of transistors and hence digital computers, there is a trend to digitize information. With digital computers offering the ability to quickly find, sort and process digital information, more and more effort has been put into making information digital. As a result, today, much media data is delivered in digital form, finally being converted and presented in analog form by computers. Areas influenced by the Digital Revolution include television, radio, and newspapers.
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Types
PNP P-channel
NPN N-channel
BJT JFET
Transistor symbols for BJT and JFET

Transistors are categorized by:

* Semiconductor material: germanium, silicon, gallium arsenide, silicon carbide
* Structure: BJT, JFET, IGFET (MOSFET), IGBT, "other types"
* Polarity: NPN, PNP, N-channel, P-channel
* Maximum power rating: low, medium, high
* Maximum operating frequency: low, medium, high, radio frequency (RF), microwave (The maximum effective frequency of a transistor is denoted by the term fT, an abbreviation for "frequency of transition." The frequency of transition is the frequency at which the transistor yields unity gain).
* Application: switch, general purpose, audio, high voltage, super-beta, matched pair
* Physical packaging: through hole metal, through hole plastic, surface mount, ball grid array

Thus, a particular transistor may be described as: silicon, surface mount, BJT, NPN, low power, high frequency switch.