Mediaspace scheduled maintenance: Aug 25, 2026 07:00 - 12:00 AM. During this time, videos will be temporarily unavailable. Check status updates.

Lecture

The Transistor: An Invention of First Plan

Description

This lecture covers the invention and structure of the transistor, its junctions, modes of operation, and characteristics. It explains the significance of the transistor in the evolution of electronics and humanity. The presentation includes the tri-pole structure of the transistor, its similarity to a hydraulic system, the use of silicon, and the parameters for controlling a LED.

Official source

Ontological neighbourhood

Physics

Condensed matter physics: Solid-state physics

Related concepts (31)

Transistor

A transistor is a semiconductor device used to amplify or switch electrical signals and power. It 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.

Field-effect transistor

The field-effect transistor (FET) is a type of transistor that uses an electric field to control the flow of current in a semiconductor. FETs (JFETs or MOSFETs) are devices with three terminals: source, gate, and drain. FETs control the flow of current by the application of a voltage to the gate, which in turn alters the conductivity between the drain and source. FETs are also known as unipolar transistors since they involve single-carrier-type operation.

Bipolar junction transistor

A bipolar junction transistor (BJT) is a type of transistor that uses both electrons and electron holes as charge carriers. In contrast, a unipolar transistor, such as a field-effect transistor (FET), uses only one kind of charge carrier. A bipolar transistor allows a small current injected at one of its terminals to control a much larger current flowing between the terminals, making the device capable of amplification or switching. BJTs use two p–n junctions between two semiconductor types, n-type and p-type, which are regions in a single crystal of material.

History of the transistor

A transistor is a semiconductor device with at least three terminals for connection to an electric circuit. In the common case, the third terminal controls the flow of current between the other two terminals. This can be used for amplification, as in the case of a radio receiver, or for rapid switching, as in the case of digital circuits. The transistor replaced the vacuum-tube triode, also called a (thermionic) valve, which was much larger in size and used significantly more power to operate.

Transistor count

The transistor count is the number of transistors in an electronic device (typically on a single substrate or "chip"). It is the most common measure of integrated circuit complexity (although the majority of transistors in modern microprocessors are contained in the cache memories, which consist mostly of the same memory cell circuits replicated many times). The rate at which MOS transistor counts have increased generally follows Moore's law, which observed that the transistor count doubles approximately every two years.

Related lectures (31)

Transistor Bipolar: Introduction MOOC: Electronics II

Covers the electrical specifications and characteristics of bipolar transistors in different configurations.

Transistor Amplifiers: Voltage Amplifiers MOOC: Electronics II

Covers common transmitter amplifiers and the characteristics of large signals, including saturation and blocking of transistors.

Transistor Bipolar Modeling: Small Signal Linear Model MOOC: Electronics II

Explains the small signal linear model of a bipolar transistor in operation.

Introduction to Small Signal Configurations MOOC: Electronics II

Covers small signal configurations, transistor modeling, resistors, gain calculations, and assembly selection in electronics.

Analog CMOS Integrated Circuits: Fundamentals