A transistor looks like two diodes back-to-back. You'd imagine that no current could flow through a transistor because back-to-back diodes would block current both ways. And this is true. However, when you apply a small current to the center layer of the sandwich, a much larger current can flow through the sandwich as a whole. This gives a transistor its switching behavior. A small current can turn a larger current on and off.

Answered by archana , an ibibo Specialist, at 10:11 PM on March 04, 2008

A transistor is a semiconductor,or an electric an electronic component used in a circuit to control a large amount of current or voltage with a small amount of voltage or current.A transistor consists of three layers of a semiconductor material, each capable of carrying a current.

Answered by Ashish , an ibibo Wizard, at 9:14 PM on February 27, 2008

hello harish, electronic device that can regulate electricity and act as an on/off switch. In a computer, this on/off ability is used to represent binary digits (bits). A CPU contains millions of transistors.

Answered by Saurabh , an ibibo Master, at 12:01 PM on February 20, 2008

A Transistor can be thought of as a device that is active in only One Direction: It can draw more or less current through its load resistor (sometimes referred to as a pull-up resistor).

Answered by Smarty , an ibibo Master, at 1:31 AM on February 20, 2008

well, Transistors are tiny electrical devices that can be found in everything from radios to robots. They have two key properties:
1) they can amplify an electrical signal and
2) they can switch on and off, letting current through or blocking it as necessary.

Answered by Romi , an ibibo Master, at 9:55 PM on February 19, 2008

Well harish,i think An electronic component used as a switch to open and close with extreme speed. Replaced the vacuum tube due to its reliability, long life, and much higher switching speed.

Answered by Uttam , an ibibo Master, at 12:36 PM on February 19, 2008

A transistor is a semiconductor device, commonly used to amplify or switch electronic signals.

A transistor is created by using three layers rather than the two layers used in a diode. You can create either an NPN or a PNP sandwich. A transistor can act as a switch or an amplifier.

A transistor looks like two diodes back-to-back. You'd imagine that no current could flow through a transistor because back-to-back diodes would block current both ways. And this is true. However, when you apply a small current to the center layer of the sandwich, a much larger current can flow through the sandwich as a whole. This gives a transistor its switching behavior. A small current can turn a larger current on and off.

A silicon chip is a piece of silicon that can hold thousands of transistors. With transistors acting as switches, you can create Boolean gates, and with Boolean gates you can create microprocessor chips.

The natural progression from silicon to doped silicon to transistors to chips is what has made microprocessors and other electronic devices so inexpensive and ubiquitous in today's society. The fundamental principles are surprisingly simple. The miracle is the constant refinement of those principles to the point where, today, tens of millions of transistors can be inexpensively formed onto a single chip.

Answered by Kannan , an ibibo Specialist, at 11:40 AM on February 19, 2008

An electronic device that controls current flow and serves as the basic element of a computer chip. Consists of three terminals: a source, a gate, and a drain. Applying a voltage to the gate controls current flow between the source and the drain. Integrated Chip

Answered by Sunita , an ibibo Advisor, at 12:16 AM on February 19, 2008

an electronic device which consist of three pins
they are collector emitter and base
this device is used to transfer resistance from one point to another at a particular trigger in the circuit

Answered by Rahul , an ibibo Citizen, at 10:40 PM on February 18, 2008

A transistor is a semiconductor, differentiated from a vacuum tube primarily by its use of a solid, non-moving part to pass a charge. Transistors are crucial components in virtually every piece of modern electronics, and are considered by many to be the most important invention of the modern age (as well as a herald of the Information Age).

The development of the transistor grew directly out of huge advances in diode technology during World War II. In 1947, scientists at Bell Laboratories unveiled the first functional transistor, after a number of false starts and technological stumbling blocks.

The first important use of the transistor was in hearing aids, by military contractor Raytheon — inventors of the microwave oven and producer of many widely-used missiles, including the Sidewinder and Patriot missiles.

The first transistor radio was released in 1954 by Texas Instruments, and by the beginning of the 1960s transistor radios had become a mainstay of the worldwide electronics market. Also in the 1960s transistors were integrated into silicon chips, laying the groundwork for the technology that would eventually allow personal computers to become a reality. In 1956, Bill Shockley, Walter Brattain, and John Bardee won the Nobel Prize for physics for their development of the transistor.

The primary type of transistor in use is known as a bipolar junction transistor, which consists of three layers of semi-conductor material, two of which have extra electrons, and one which has gaps in it. The two with extra electrons (N-Type) sandwich the one with gaps (P-Type). This configuration allows the transistor to be a switch, closing and opening rapidly like an electronic gate, allowing voltage to pass at a determined rate. If a bipolar transistor is not shielded from light, the light may be used to open or close the gate, in which case it is referred to as a phototransistor, functioning as a highly-sensitive photodiode.

The secondary type of transistor is known as a field-effect transistor, and consists either entire of N-Type semi-conductive material or P-Type semi-conductive material, with the current controlled by the amount of voltage applied to the transistor.

Answered by sanjiv dhir , an ibibo Specialist, at 9:32 PM on February 18, 2008