What is a transistor, and how does it work?

Question

I know a transistor can amplify a signal or open/close a circuit. But what I want to know in straight-forward terms is: What exactly is a transistor? And simply put, how does it work?

Answer 1

The transistor, invented by three scientists at the Bell Laboratories in 1947, rapidly replaced the vacuum tube as an electronic signal regulator.

A transistor regulates current or voltage flow and acts as a switch or gate for electronic signals. A transistor consists of three layers of a semiconductor material, each capable of carrying a current. A semiconductor is a material such as germanium and silicon that conducts electricity. It's somewhere between a real conductor such as copper and an insulator (like the plastic wrapped around wires).


Transistors are the basic elements in integrated circuits (ICs), which consist of very large numbers of transistors interconnected with circuitry and baked into a single silicon microchip or "chip."

Answer 2

A transistor is a semiconductor and come in the category of an amplifyer. It Basically performs amplification similar to a vacuum tube.Except it uses currents instead of voltages. It is basically a grown crystal in three different configurations which constists of a base ,an emmiter ,and a collector.The conduction of current is done by the holes or slot in the atoms crystal structure. by varying a small signal on the emmiter a large current is produced in the collector. Thus amplification. where as in vacuum tube the signal was a variying small voltage on the grid would cause a large current on the plate.,hence also amplification .
The advantage of the transistor over the tube is reliability and compactness.

Answer 3

A transistor is a three-terminal semiconductor device that can be used for amplification, switching, voltage stabilization, signal modulation and many other functions. The transistor is the fundamental building block of both digital and analog integrated circuits -- the circuitry that governs the operation of computers, cellular phones, and all other modern electronics.


If you go to this link it tells you how a Transistor works

http://www.physlink.com/Education/AskExperts/ae430.cfm

Answer 4

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Answer 5

It's a sandwich of materials that lets a little current control a big current. For instance, if it had a gain of 1000, every milliamp you sent through the base/emitter leads would let 1000ma through the collector/emitter leads. That works with dc current, as in a switch, or ac, as in audio or rf.

Answer 6

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Answer 7

http://www.lucent.com/minds/transistor/tech1.html