Transistors: Things You Need to Know About These

Transistors are semiconductor device which is considered the most important part of any electronic circuits. They have changed the horizons of electronics and made it possible for electronic products to be much smaller and effective than earlier ones. Transistors have basically two works to perform; amplify and switch. In amplification, transistor takes lesser input and provides a much higher output. Such usability of transistors has made it a quite popular and its creators American physicists John Bardeen, Walter Brattain, and William Shockley were awarded with 1956’s Nobel Prize for physics.

A transistor is a small electronic device that can cause changes in a large electrical output signal by small changes in a small input signal. That is, a weak input signal can be amplified (made stronger) by a transistor. For example, very weak radio signals in the air can be picked up by a wire antenna and processed by transistor amplifiers until they are strong enough to be heard by the human ear. A transistor consists of three layers of silicon or germanium semiconductor material. Impurities are added to each layer to create a specific electrical positive or negative charged behavior. "P" is for a positive charged layer and "N" is for a negative charged layer. Transistors are either NPN or PNP in the configuration of the layers. There is no particular difference here except the polarity of voltages that need to be applied to make the transistor operate. The weak input signal is applied to the center layer called the base and usually referenced to ground which is also connected to the bottom layer called the emitter. The larger output signal is take from the collector also referenced to ground and the emitter. Additional resistors and capacitors are required along with at least one DC power source to complete the transistor amplifier.

This is a silicon transistor circuit showing typical voltage values. When the forward base/emitter voltage is 0.6 to 0.7 V, the transistor is silicon. Germanium transistors will have a forward base/emitter bias voltage of 0.2 to 0.3 V This is a silicon transistor because 2.6 base volts minus 1.9 emitter volts equal a forward bias of 0.7 volts indicating a silicon transistor.