Unraveling Transistors: Understanding the Essence of Transistors

Did you know that in our world, there exists more transistors than grains of sand? Transistors, with some being thinner than human hair, and some even tinier than bacteria, are what forms the backbone of modern electronics. From supercomputers to everyday phones, transistors are used in every electronic device around us.

What Are Transistors?

Transistors are semiconductors that amplify and switch electronic signals. They come in many shapes and sizes, and each transistor is rated to handle a different amount of voltage and current. In simple terms, voltage is the electrical potential difference between two points in a transistor, while current refers to the flow of electric charge through the transistor. There are two main types of transistors, the bipolar(BJT) and the field effect(FET) transistors. This poster talks about the FETs.

How Transistors are Made

Transistors are commonly made out of silicon, as silicon is a semiconductor. A semiconductor is a solid chemical element that can conduct electricity under specific conditions, which means you can control its electrical current. Its conducting properties can be changed by adding it with impurities, also known as doping. Impurities refer to atoms being intentionally added to the semiconductor material. By adding the silicon with an atom that carries an extra electron, it turns into a n type conductor, whereas when injected with an atom deprived of an electron,  it turns to a p type conductor. These are used to adjust the semiconductor’s electrical properties during its creation.

What is a FET?

A field-effect transistor is a semiconductor equipment that controls current. It has three terminals: source, drain, and gate. The source is where current enters from the transistor, the drain where current leaves, and the gate which controls the current flow. A FET works by doping the source and drain with n or p type materials, which in turn allows you to control the current flow. FETs are also called unipolar transistors as they rely on only one type of charge carrier.

Inventors

Transistors were invented in 1947, by William Shockley, John Bardeen, and Walter Brattain, who all worked together and won the nobel prize in physics for their breakthrough. This invention completely replaced the large vacuum tubes that were used to build electronic devices then. These transistors were smaller, cheaper, consumed less power, less heat waste, and were just better in every way possible.

Moore’s Law 

Moore’s Law, created by Intel co-founder Gordon Moore in 1965, predicted that the number of transistors on a computer chip will double approximately every two years. This observation has now held relatively true for nearly 50 years. In the years Moores predicted this law, the typical number of transistors on a computer chip was in the thousands, while today’s is in the several billions. With more transistors, there also comes more speed. Intel’s best chip in 1985 took over four hours to process what their best chip today can process in a second.

Future Trends

As transistors continue to improve, they will enable even faster computing. Moore’s law will still apply, with the number of transistors doubling every 2 years, along with likely power increase in the microchip. New materials will also be looked for to complement silicon, since it’s likely to reach its limit soon. Artificial intelligence will grow smarter and faster , and 3D integration will be used more to make powerful and efficient microchips. Transistors will also continue to shrink even more, getting to the smallest it possibly can, gaining even better performance and lower power consumption.

Impact

Transistors have become the foundation for almost every electronic device and system in the world. Thanks to them, we now have faster and cheaper devices, like the computer, phones, GPS devices, radios, television and gaming consoles. Without it, common things we use everyday like the internet, cellphones and even modern vehicles may cease to exist, so you can thank the transistor for how comfortably we live now.

References

-Agarwal, T. (2020, December 24). Difference between BJT and FET : Working & their characteristics. ElProCus. https://www.elprocus.com/difference-between-bjt-and-fet/ 

-Hardy, J. (2024, February 26). The brains behind the breakthrough: Who invented the transistor?. History Cooperative. https://historycooperative.org/who-invented-the-transistor/ 

-history, T. human. (2023, January 3). The Transistor Revolution: How Transistors changed the world. Arrow.com. https://www.arrow.com/en/research-and-events/articles/the-transistor-revolution-how-transistors-changed-the-world 

-Hu, C. (2023, March 29). The future of the transistor is our future. IEEE Spectrum. https://spectrum.ieee.org/the-future-of-transistors 

–Transistor. Transistor – an overview | ScienceDirect Topics. (n.d.). https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/materials-science/transistor 

-Wiki, C. to B. (n.d.). Field Effect Transistors. BMET Wiki. https://bmet.fandom.com/wiki/Field_Effect_Transistors