A transistor is a semiconductordevice used to amplify and switch electronic signals.

It is made of a solid piece 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 flowing through another pair of terminals. Because the controlled (output) power can be much more than the controlling (input) power, the transistor provides amplification of 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 release in the early 1950s the transistor revolutionized the field of electronics, and paved the way for smaller and cheaper radios, calculators, and computers, among other things. Importance The transistor is the key active component in practically all modern electronics, and is considered by many to be one of the greatest inventions of the 20th century.[9] Its importance in today's society rests on its ability to be mass produced using a highly automated process (semiconductor device fabrication) that achieves astonishingly low per-transistor costs. Although several companies each produce over a billion individually packaged (known as discrete) transistors every year,[10] the vast majority of transistors now produced are in integrated circuits (often shortened to IC, microchips or simply chips), along with diodes, resistors, capacitors and other electronic components, to produce complete electronic circuits. A logic gate consists of up to about twenty transistors whereas an advanced microprocessor, as of 2011, can use as many as 3 billion transistors (MOSFETs).[11] "About 60 million transistors were built this year [2002] ... for [each] man, woman, and child on Earth."[12] The transistor's low cost, flexibility, and reliability have made it a ubiquitous device. Transistorized mechatronic circuits have replaced electromechanical devices in controlling appliances and machinery. It is often easier and cheaper to use a standard microcontroller and write a computer program to carry out a control function than to design an equivalent mechanical control function.
Usage

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Simple circuit to show the labels of a bipolar transistor. The essential usefulness of a transistor comes from its ability to use a small signal applied between one pair of its terminals to control a much larger signal at another pair of terminals. This property is called gain. A transistor can control its output in proportion to the input signal; that is, it can act as an amplifier. Alternatively, the transistor can be used to turn current on or off in a circuit as an electrically controlled switch, where the amount of current is determined by other circuit elements. The two types of transistors have slight differences in how they are used in a circuit. A bipolar transistor has terminals labeledbase, collector, and emitter. A small current at the base terminal (that is, flowing from the base to the emitter) can control or switch a much larger current between the collector and emitter terminals. For a field-effect transistor, the terminals are labeledgate, source, and drain, and a voltage at the gate can control a current between source and drain. The image to the right represents a typical bipolar transistor in a circuit. Charge will flow between emitter and collector terminals depending on the current in the base. Since internally the base and emitter connections behave like a semiconductor diode, a voltage drop develops between base and emitter while the base current exists. The amount of this voltage depends on the material the transistor is made from, and is referred to as VBE.
[edit]Transistor as a switch

The bipolar junction transistor, or BJT, was the most commonly used transistor in the 1960s and 70s. Even after MOSFETs became widely available, the BJT remained the transistor of choice for many analog circuits such as simple amplifiers because of their greater linearity and ease of manufacture. Desirable properties of MOSFETs, such as their utility in low-power devices, usually in the CMOS configuration, allowed them to capture nearly all market share for digital circuits; more recently MOSFETs have captured most analog and power applications as well, including modern clocked analog circuits, voltage regulators, amplifiers, power transmitters, motor drivers, etc. Simplified operation

BJT used as an electronic switch, in grounded-emitter configuration. Transistors are commonly used as electronic switches, both for high-power applications such as switched-mode power supplies and for low-power applications such as logic gates. In a grounded-emitter transistor circuit, such as the light-switch circuit shown, as the base voltage rises the base and collector current rise exponentially, and the collector voltage drops because of the collector load resistor. The relevant equations: VRC = ICE R C, the voltage across the load (the lamp with resistance RC) VRC + VCE = VCC, the supply voltage shown as 6V If VCE could fall to 0 (perfect closed switch) then Ic could go no higher than VCC / RC, even with higher base voltage and current. The transistor is then said to be saturated. Hence, values of input voltage can be chosen such that the output is either completely off,[13] or completely on. The transistor is acting as a switch, and this type of operation is common in digital circuits where only "on" and "off" values are relevant.
[edit]Transistor as an amplifier

Modern transistor audio amplifiers of up to a few hundred watts are common and relatively inexpensive. [edit]Comparison with vacuum tubes Prior to the development of transistors, vacuum (electron) tubes (or in the UK "thermionic valves" or just "valves") were the main active components in electronic equipment.
[edit]Advantages

The key advantages that have allowed transistors to replace their vacuum tube predecessors in most applications are

y y y y y y y y y

Small size and minimal weight, allowing the development of miniaturized electronic devices. Highly automated manufacturing processes, resulting in low per-unit cost. Lower possible operating voltages, making transistors suitable for small, battery-powered applications. No warm-up period for cathode heaters required after power application. Lower power dissipation and generally greater energy efficiency. Higher reliability and greater physical ruggedness. Extremely long life. Some transistorized devices have been in service for more than 50 years. Complementary devices available, facilitating the design of complementary-symmetry circuits, something not possible with vacuum tubes. Insensitivity to mechanical shock and vibration, thus avoiding the problem of microphonics in audio applications.

[edit]Limitations

Silicon transistors do not operate at voltages higher than about 1,000 volts (SiC devices can be operated as high as 3,000 volts). In contrast, vacuum tubes have been developed that can be operated at tens of thousands of volts. High-power, high-frequency operation, such as that used in over-the-air television broadcasting, is better achieved in vacuum tubes due to improved electron mobility in a vacuum. Silicon transistors are much more vulnerable than vacuum tubes to an electromagnetic pulse generated by a high-altitude nuclear explosion.

Amplifier circuit, common-emitter configuration. The common-emitter amplifier is designed so that a small change in voltage in (Vin) changes the small current through the base of the transistor and the transistor's current amplification combined with the properties of the circuit mean that small swings in Vin produce large changes in Vout. Various configurations of single transistor amplifier are possible, with some providing current gain, some voltage gain, and some both. From mobile phones to televisions, vast numbers of products include amplifiers for sound reproduction, radio transmission, and signal processing. The first discrete transistor audio amplifiers barely supplied a few hundred milliwatts, but power and audio fidelity gradually increased as better transistors became available and amplifier architecture evolved.

[edit]Types

PNP

P-channel

[edit]Bipolar junction transistor Main article: Bipolar junction transistor

NPN

Nchannel

BJT BJT and JFET symbols

JFET

Bipolar transistors are so named because they conduct by using both majority and minority carriers. The bipolar junction transistor (BJT), the first type of transistor to be mass-produced, is a combination of two junction diodes, and is formed of either a thin layer of p-type semiconductor sandwiched between two n-type semiconductors (an n-p-n transistor), or a thin layer of n-type semiconductor sandwiched between two p-type semiconductors (a p-n-p transistor). This construction produces two p-n junctions: a baseemitter junction and a basecollector junction, separated by a thin region of semiconductor known as the base region (two junction diodes wired together without sharing an intervening semiconducting region will not make a transistor). The BJT has three terminals, corresponding to the three layers of semiconductor an emitter, a base, and a collector. It is useful in amplifiers because the currents at the emitter and collector are controllable by a relatively small base current."[15] In an NPN transistor operating in the active region, the emitter-base junction is forward biased (electrons and holes recombine at the junction), and electrons are injected into the base region. Because the base is narrow, most of these electrons will diffuse into the reverse-biased (electrons and holes are formed at, and move away from the junction) base-collector junction and be swept into the collector; perhaps one-hundredth of the electrons will recombine in the base, which is the dominant mechanism in the base current. By controlling the number of electrons that can leave the base, the number of electrons entering the collector can be controlled.[15] Collector current is approximately (common-emitter current gain) times the base current. It is typically greater than 100 for small-signal transistors but can be smaller in transistors designed for high-power applications. Unlike the FET, the BJT is a lowinput-impedance device. Also, as the baseemitter voltage (Vbe) is increased the baseemitter current and hence the collectoremitter current (Ice) increase exponentially according to the Shockley diode model and the Ebers-Moll model. Because of this exponential relationship, the BJT has a higher transconductance than the FET. Bipolar transistors can be made to conduct by exposure to light, since absorption of photons in the base region generates a photocurrent that acts as a base current; the collector current is approximately times the photocurrent. Devices designed for this purpose have a transparent window in the package and are called phototransistors.
[edit]Field-effect transistor Main articles: MOSFET and JFET

Pcha nnel

Ncha nnel

JFET

MOSFET enh

MOSFET dep

JFET and IGFET symbols Transistors are categorized by

y y y y y

Semiconductor material: germanium, silicon, gallium arsenide, silicon carbide, etc. Structure: BJT, JFET, IGFET (MOSFET), IGBT, "other types" Polarity: NPN, PNP (BJTs); N-channel, P-channel (FETs) 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, power modules Amplification factor hfe (transistor beta)
[14]

y y y

The field-effect transistor (FET), sometimes called a unipolar transistor, uses either electrons (in N-channel FET) or holes (in Pchannel FET) for conduction. The four terminals of the FET are named source, gate, drain, and body (substrate). On most FETs, the body is connected to the source inside the package, and this will be assumed for the following description. In FETs, the drain-to-source current flows via a conducting channel that connects the source region to the drain region. The conductivity is varied by the electric field that is produced when a voltage is applied between the gate and source terminals; hence the current flowing between the drain and source is controlled by the voltage applied between the gate and source. As the gatesource voltage (Vgs) is increased, the drainsource current (Ids) increases

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

exponentially for Vgs below threshold, and then at a roughly quadratic rate ( ) (where VT is the threshold voltage at which drain current begins)[16] in the "spacecharge-limited" region above threshold. A quadratic behavior is not observed in modern devices, for example, at the 65 nm technology node.[17] For low noise at narrow bandwidth the higher input resistance of the FET is advantageous. FETs are divided into two families: junction FET (JFET) and insulated gate FET (IGFET). The IGFET is more commonly known as a metaloxidesemiconductor FET (MOSFET), reflecting its original construction from layers of metal (the gate), oxide (the insulation), and semiconductor. Unlike IGFETs, the JFET gate forms a PN diode with the channel which lies between the source and drain. Functionally, this makes the N-channel JFET the solid state equivalent of the vacuum tube triode which, similarly, forms a diode between its grid and cathode. Also, both devices operate in the depletion mode, they both have a high input impedance, and they both conduct current under the control of an input voltage. Metalsemiconductor FETs (MESFETs) are JFETs in which the reverse biased PN junction is replaced by a metalsemiconductor Schottky-junction. These, and the HEMTs (high electron mobility transistors, or HFETs), in which a two-dimensional electron gas with very high carrier mobility is used for charge transport, are especially suitable for use at very high frequencies (microwave frequencies; several GHz). Unlike bipolar transistors, FETs do not inherently amplify a photocurrent. Nevertheless, there are ways to use them, especially JFETs, as light-sensitive devices, by exploiting the photocurrents in channelgate or channelbody junctions. FETs are further divided into depletion-mode and enhancementmode types, depending on whether the channel is turned on or off with zero gate-to-source voltage. For enhancement mode, the channel is off at zero bias, and a gate potential can "enhance" the conduction. For depletion mode, the channel is on at zero bias, and a gate potential (of the opposite polarity) can "deplete" the channel, reducing conduction. For either mode, a more positive gate voltage corresponds to a higher current for N-channel devices and a lower current for P-channel devices. Nearly all JFETs are depletion-mode as the diode junctions would forward bias and conduct if they were enhancement mode devices; most IGFETs are enhancement-mode types.

optics, molecules, or even mechanical elements. With amplification, logic gates can be cascaded in the same way that Boolean functions can be composed, allowing the construction of a physical model of all of Boolean logic, and therefore, all of the algorithms and mathematics that can be described with Boolean logic. Background Main article: Logic family The simplest form of electronic logic is diode logic. This allows AND and OR gates to be built, but not inverters, and so is an incomplete form of logic. Further, without some kind of amplification it is not possible to have such basic logic operations cascaded as required for more complex logic functions. To build a functionally complete logic system, relays, valves (vacuum tubes), or transistors can be used. The simplest family of logic gates using bipolar transistors is called resistor-transistor logic (RTL). Unlike diode logic gates, RTL gates can be cascaded indefinitely to produce more complex logic functions. These gates were used in early integrated circuits. For higher speed, the resistors used in RTL were replaced by diodes, leading to diode-transistor logic (DTL). Transistor-transistor logic (TTL) then supplanted DTL with the observation that one transistor could do the job of two diodes even more quickly, using only half the space. In virtually every type of contemporary chip implementation of digital systems, the bipolar transistors have been replaced by complementary fieldeffect transistors (MOSFETs) to reduce size and power consumption still further, thereby resulting in complementary metaloxidesemiconductor (CMOS) logic. For small-scale logic, designers now use prefabricated logic gates from families of devices such as the TTL7400 series by Texas Instruments and the CMOS4000 series by RCA, and their more recent descendants. Increasingly, these fixed-function logic gates are being replaced by programmable logic devices, which allow designers to pack a large number of mixed logic gates into a single integrated circuit. The field-programmable nature of programmable logic devices such as FPGAs has removed the 'hard' property of hardware; it is now possible to change the logic design of a hardware system by reprogramming some of its components, thus allowing the features or function of a hardware implementation of a logic system to be changed. Electronic logic gates differ significantly from their relay-andswitch equivalents. They are much faster, consume much less power, and are much smaller (all by a factor of a million or more in most cases). Also, there is a fundamental structural difference. The switch circuit creates a continuous metallic path for current to flow (in either direction) between its input and its output. The semiconductor logic gate, on the other hand, acts as a highgainvoltageamplifier, which sinks a tiny current at its input and produces a low-impedance voltage at its output. It is not possible for current to flow between the output and the input of a semiconductor logic gate. Another important advantage of standardised integrated circuit logic families, such as the 7400 and 4000 families, is that they can be cascaded. This means that the output of one gate can be wired to the inputs of one or several other gates, and so on. Systems with varying degrees of complexity can be built without great concern of the designer for the internal workings of the gates, provided the limitations of each integrated circuit are considered.

Logic gate From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A logic gate is an idealized or physical device implementing a Boolean function, that is, it performs a logical operation on one or more logic inputs and produces a single logic output. Depending on the context, the term may refer to an ideal logic gate, one that has for instance zero rise time and unlimited fan-out, or it may refer to a non-ideal physical device.[1] (see Ideal and real op-amps for comparison) Logic gates are primarily implemented using diodes or transistors acting as electronic switches, but can also be constructed using electromagnetic relays (relay logic), fluidic logic, pneumatic logic,

The output of one gate can only drive a finite number of inputs to other gates, a number called the 'fanout limit'. Also, there is always a delay, called the 'propagation delay', from a change in input of a gate to the corresponding change in its output. When gates are cascaded, the total propagation delay is approximately the sum of the individual delays, an effect which can become a problem in high-speed circuits. Additional delay can be caused when a large number of inputs are connected to an output, due to the distributed capacitance of all the inputs and wiring and the finite amount of current that each output can provide. Logic gates

All other types of Boolean logic gates (i.e., AND, OR, NOT, XOR, XNOR) can be created from a suitable network of NAND gates. Similarly all gates can be created from a network of NOR gates. Historically, NAND gates were easier to construct from MOS technology and thus NAND gates served as the first pillar of Boolean logic in electronic computation. For an input of 2 variables, there are 16 possible boolean algebraic functions. These 16 functions are enumerated below, together with their outputs for each combination of inputs variables.

Universal logic gates For more details on the theoretical basis, see functional completeness.

The 7400 chip, containing four NANDs. The two additional pins supply power (+5 V) and connect the ground. Charles Sanders Peirce (winter of 188081) showed that NOR gates alone (or alternatively NAND gates alone) can be used to reproduce the functions of all the other logic gates, but his work on

it was unpublished until 1933.[2] The first published proof was by Henry M. Sheffer in 1913, so the NAND logical operation is sometimes called Sheffer stroke; the logical NOR is sometimes called Peirce's arrow.[3] Consequently, these gates are sometimes called universal logic gates.[4] De Morgan equivalent symbols By use of De Morgan's theorem, an AND gate can be turned into an OR gate by inverting the sense of the logic at its inputs and outputs. This leads to a separate set of symbols with inverted inputs and the opposite core symbol. These symbols can make circuit diagrams for circuits using active low signals much clearer and help to show accidental connection of an active high output to an active low input or vice-versa. Symbolically, a NAND gate can also be shown using the OR shape with bubbles on its inputs, and a NOR gate can be shown as an AND gate with bubbles on its inputs. The bubble signifies a logic inversion. This reflects the equivalency due to De Morgans law, but it also allows a diagram to be read more easily, or a circuit to be mapped onto available physical gates in packages easily, since any circuit node that has bubbles at both ends can be replaced by a simple bubble-less connection and a suitable change of gate. If the NAND is drawn as OR with input bubbles, and a NOR as AND with input bubbles, this gate substitution occurs automatically in the diagram (effectively, bubbles "cancel"). This is commonly seen in real logic diagrams - thus the reader must not get into the habit of associating the shapes exclusively as OR or AND shapes, but also take into account the bubbles at both inputs and outputs in order to determine the "true" logic function indicated. All logic relations can be realized by using NAND gates (this can also be done using NOR gates). De Morgan's theorem is most commonly used to transform all logic gates to NAND gates or NOR gates. This is done mainly since it is easy to buy logic gates in bulk and because many electronics labs stock only NAND and NOR gates. Data storage Main article: sequential logic Logic gates can also be used to store data. A storage element can be constructed by connecting several gates in a "latch" circuit. More complicated designs that use clock signals and that change only on a rising or falling edge of the clock are called edgetriggered "flip-flops". The combination of multiple flip-flops in parallel, to store a multiple-bit value, is known as a register. When using any of these gate setups the overall system has memory; it is then called a sequential logic system since its output can be influenced by its previous state(s). These logic circuits are known as computer memory. They vary in performance, based on factors of speed, complexity, and reliability of storage, and many different types of designs are used based on the application. Three-state logic gates There are several logic families with different characteristics ( power consumption, speed, cost, size) such as: RDL (resistor-diode logic), RTL (resistor-transistor logic), DTL (diode-transistor logic), TTL (transistor-transistor logic) and CMOS (complementary metal oxide semiconductor). There are also subvariants, e.g. standard CMOS logic vs. advanced types using still A tristate buffer can be thought of as a switch. If B is on, the switch is closed. If B is off, the switch is open. Main article: Tri-state buffer Three-state, or 3-state, logic gates are a type of logic gates that have three states of the output: high (H), low (L) and highimpedance (Z). The high-impedance state plays no role in the logic, which remains strictly binary. These devices are used on buses also known as the Data Buses of the CPU to allow multiple chips to send data. A group of three-states driving a line with a suitable control circuit is basically equivalent to a multiplexer, which may be physically distributed over separate devices or plugin cards. In electronics, a high output would mean the output is sourcing current from the positive power terminal (positive voltage). A low output would mean the output is sinking current to the negative power terminal (zero voltage). High impedance would mean that the output is effectively disconnected from the circuit. 'Tri-state', a widely-used synonym of 'three-state', is a trademark of the National Semiconductor Corporation. History and development In a 1886 letter, Charles Sanders Peirce described how logical operations could be carried out by electrical switching circuits.[6] Starting in 1898, Nikola Tesla filed for patents of devices containing electro-mechanical logic gate circuits (see List of Tesla patents). Eventually, vacuum tubes replaced relays for logic operations. Lee De Forest's modification, in 1907, of the Fleming valve can be used as AND logic gate. Ludwig Wittgenstein introduced a version of the 16-row truth table, which is shown above, as proposition 5.101 of TractatusLogico-Philosophicus (1921). Claude E. Shannon introduced the use of Boolean algebra in the analysis and design of switching circuits in 1937. Walther Bothe, inventor of the coincidence circuit, got part of the 1954 Nobel Prize in physics, for the first modern electronic AND gate in 1924. Active research is taking place in molecular logic gates. Implementations Main article: unconventional computing Since the 1990s, most logic gates are made of CMOS transistors (i.e. NMOS and PMOS transistors are used). Often millions of logic gates are packaged in a single integrated circuit.

CMOS technology, but with some optimizations for avoiding loss of speed due to slower PMOS transistors. Many early electromechanical digital computers, such as the Harvard Mark I, were built from relay logic gates, using electromechanical relays. It is also possible to make logic gates out of pneumatic devices, such as the Sortebergrelayor mechanical logic gates, including on a molecular scale.[7] Logic gates have been made out of DNA (see DNA nanotechnology)[8] and used to create a computer called MAYA (see MAYA II). Additionally, logic gates can be made from quantum mechanical effects (though quantum computing usually diverges from boolean design). It is also possible to make photonic logic gates using non-linear optical effects.[citation needed]

Input 1 Input 2 Output

The OR gate gets its name from the fact that it behaves after the fashion of the logical inclusive "or." The output is "true" if either or both of the inputs are "true." If both inputs are "false," then the output is "false."

LOGIC GATE (AND, OR, XOR, NOT, NAND, NOR, AND XNOR)

AND | OR | XOR | NOT | NAND | NOR | XNOR

OR gate

A logic gate is an elementary building block of a digitalcircuit . Most logic gates have two inputs and one output. At any given moment, every terminal is in one of the two binary conditions low (0) or high (1), represented by different voltage levels. The logic state of a terminal can, and generally does, change often, as the circuit processes data. In most logic gates, the low state is approximately zero volts (0 V), while the high state is approximately five volts positive (+5 V). There are seven basic logic gates: AND, OR, XOR, NOT, NAND, NOR, and XNOR.

Input 1 Input 2 Output

The AND gate is so named because, if 0 is called "false" and 1 is called "true," the gate acts in the same way as the logical "and" operator. The following illustration and table show the circuit symbol and logic combinations for an AND gate. (In the symbol, the input terminals are at left and the output terminal is at right.) The output is "true" when both inputs are "true." Otherwise, the output is "false."

The XOR( exclusive-OR ) gate acts in the same way as the logical "either/or." The output is "true" if either, but not both, of the inputs are "true." The output is "false" if both inputs are "false" or if both inputs are "true." Another way of looking at this circuit is to observe that the output is 1 if the inputs are different, but 0 if the inputs are the same.

AND gate

XOR gate

Input 1 Input 2 Output

1 The NOR gate is a combination OR gate followed by an inverter. Its output is "true" if both inputs are "false." Otherwise, the output is "false."

A logical inverter , sometimes called a NOT gate to differentiate it from other types of electronic inverter devices, has only one input. It reverses the logic state. NOR gate

Input 1 Input 2 Output

0 Inverter or NOT gate

1 Input Output

0 The XNOR (exclusive-NOR) gate is a combination XOR gate followed by an inverter. Its output is "true" if the inputs are the same, and"false" if the inputs are different.

The NAND gate operates as an AND gate followed by a NOT gate. It acts in the manner of the logical operation "and" followed by negation. The output is "false" if both inputs are "true." Otherwise, the output is "true."

XNOR gate

Input 1 Input 2 Output

0 NAND gate

Input 1 Input 2 Output

Using combinations of logic gates, complex operations can be performed. In theory, there is no limit to the number of gates that can be arrayed together in a single device. But in practice, there is a limit to the number of gates that can be packed into a given physical space. Arrays of logic gates are found in digital integrated circuits (ICs). As IC technology advances, the required physical volume for each individual logic gate decreases and digital devices of the same or smaller size become capable of performing evermore-complicated operations at ever-increasing speeds.