How transistors work

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PRR

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 30, 2010
Messages
11,143
Location
Maine USA
Tubes, I understand. Transistors are different, mysterious, and the arcane theory which grew up around them is no use at all. I have a mental model which gets me to an answer but I can't put it in words.

This guy has got it right:

http://www.satcure-focus.com/tutor/page4.htm

It even models breakdown voltage.
 
[quote author="PRR"]Tubes, I understand. Transistors are different, mysterious, and the arcane theory which grew up around them is no use at all. I have a mental model which gets me to an answer but I can't put it in words.

This guy has got it right:

http://www.satcure-focus.com/tutor/page4.htm

It even models breakdown voltage.[/quote]

Nice! :D
No stupid holes, electrons, potential barriers! :)

I have one more theory: with human body, legs, arms...
 
wow, that is nice. can we erase all the other explainations everywhere on the internet and textbooks now????
 
Fascinating, but this goes against everything I know to be true. I am almost certain that transistors are filled with highly compressed smoke, not water, electron holes, doughnut holes, or what have you. Capacitors are also filled with smoke, but it has very different properties, and hence a different smell.

Mike P
 
[quote author="sonicmook56"][quote author="Wavebourn"]I have one more theory: with human body, legs, arms...[/quote]Let's hear it![/quote]
What PRR posted is more consistent than my kinesthetic version. :grin:
 
> I am almost certain that transistors are filled with highly compressed smoke, not water,

What's the difference? Oh, when it gets out it is the difference between stink and soaked. But functionally, you can have smoke so compressed that it wants to fall down, and compressed smoke forcing-up the valve.

If you replace the one valve with a zillion elastic force-fields between crystal atoms, it is not so very far off from what the electron/hole-theorists claim to be true. Maybe the only fault in their logic is their irrational faith in impossible objects like electrons. Or maybe "electrons" is really just another word for very-very highly compressed smoke. Smoke so compact that it can skim through a metallic lattice, but not through an amorphous ceramic.
 
[quote author="CJ"]stephan hawking just outlawed transformers.[/quote]

He must've seen the movie.

Clearly, Hawking hasn't figured out his grand theory of everything because nothing explains Michael Bay.

-a
 
[quote author="Andy Peters"][quote author="CJ"]stephan hawking just outlawed transformers.[/quote]

He must've seen the movie.

Clearly, Hawking hasn't figured out his grand theory of everything because nothing explains Michael Bay.
-a[/quote]
Or for that matter, the popularity of American Idol, and in particular why I'm actually watching it this season :shock: :oops:
 
Thank you PRR for posting this link. I can't say I "understand" tubes really but at least I can set up a stage and bias it properly. Transistors are different, mysterious, and my mental model was going absolutely nowhere.
 
It is a good image, however it would not work!

What is needed is an isolated balance tube from C to the underside of the plunger. This way the plunger will not feel the pressure from C (it will now have a differential pressure of zero) and B will be able to move the plunger with little effort. Also, E will need to be low impedance, or else C will put back pressure on B. What is needed is an open tube draining into a reservoir below. That way C can drain freely and B can drain freely. In fact, in this model there would be no need for B to drain at all because it operates on pressure and not flow. You could add a paddle wheel with a rope or belt draped over the hub which pulled on a lever to actuate the plunger. It will be getting rather Goldberg-esque at this point, but it will work! :green:
 

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