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Fully depleted silicon transistor are much promising for future developments. Xavier Cauchy writes:
To date, transistor scaling has continued in accordance with Moore’s Law down to 32 nm. Engineering challenges, however, are forcing chipmakers to compromise performance and power efficiency in order to reach smaller nodes – unless they switch to new technologies that help better solve these challenges. Today, the semiconductor industry is starting to deploy such new technologies, largely relying on “fully-depleted” transistors for continued scaling and performance gains.
Fully depleted silicon technology to underlie energy-efficient designs at 28 nm and beyond - [Link]
Raju Baddi writes:
Bipolar junction transistors transfer a current from a lower-resistance emitter to a higher-resistance collector. You can use this property to measure inductance by connecting a series inductance/resistance circuit in the emitter and biasing on the transistor long enough for the current to reach a maximum value that is at least five LR time constants. When the transistor’s off time is equal to its on time but is still biased by a silicon diode, the LR current decays exponentially toward 0A. Using the transistor’s current-source property, you can measure this current without hindering the decay process in the LR circuit.
Use a transistor and an ammeter to measure inductance - [Link]
Happy birthday, Transistor becomes 65 - [via]
The transistor, the ubiquitous building block of all electronic circuits, will be 65 years old on Sunday. The device is jointly credited to William Shockley (1910-1989), John Bardeen (1908-1991) and Walter Brattain (1902-1987), and it was Bardeen and Brattain who operated the first working point-contact transistor during an experiment conducted on 16 December 1947.
Yet this now ubiquitous device – these days more as an element in silicon chip design than as a discrete component – has a history that goes back to the mid-1920s.
Happy birthday, Transistor becomes 65 - [Link]
www.changpuak.ch writes:
A Curve Tracer is a Device which will show the Voltage / Current dependency of an electronic part. It is therefore suitable to discover characteristics of electronic parts – and to quickly check if they are o.k. – or if the smoke left already.
It offers a current limiter, and a base/gate Driving Section.
Transistor Curve Tracer Project - [Link]
Ferdinand added a dc/dc converter circuit to the transistor tester, allowing it to be powered from 2 AA batteries instead of a single 9volt. This project is similar to our Part Ninja, it’s designed to test various electronic components like transistors, diodes, resistors, etc, and display their pin out and basic specifications. [via]
I built my own version of this handy tool last weekend. I replaced the linear regulator with a small boost-converter. Now the circuit can be powered with two AA batteries.
The PCB is sandwiched between the battery holder and LCD, so to provide a handy device without need for a case. I had a lot of fun designing and building the circuit, so thank you DP for highlighting this project.
Transistor tester powered from 2 AA batteries - [Link]
[photo: engadget.com]
Silicon is the basis of most modern technology, including cellular phones and computers. But according to Tel Aviv University researchers, this material is quickly becoming outdated in an industry producing ever-smaller products that are less harmful to the environment.
The researchers have brought together cutting-edge techniques from multiple fields of science to create protein-based transistors from organic materials found in the human body. They could become the basis of a new generation of nano-sized technologies that are both flexible and biodegradable.
The researchers turned to biology and chemistry for a different approach to building a transistor. When applied to a base material various combinations of blood, milk, and mucus proteins molecules self-assemble to create a semi-conducting film on a nano-scale. In the case of blood protein, for example, the film has a thickness of approximately 4 nm. The researchers have already succeeded in taking the first step towards biodegradable displays. [via]
Biodegradable Transistor made from Blood, Milk & Mucus - [Link]
Whoa! See that little bump in the middle of the micrograph? THAT’S A TRANSISTOR. From Ars Technica: [via]
a group of researchers has fabricated a single-atom transistor by introducing one phosphorous atom into a silicon lattice. Through the use of a scanning tunnelling microscope (STM) and hydrogen-resist lithography, Martin Fuechsle et al. placed the phosphorous atom precisely between very thin silicon leads, allowing them to measure its electrical behavior. The results show clearly that we can read both the quantum transitions within the phosphorous atom and its transistor behavior. No smaller solid-state devices are possible, so systems of this type reveal the limit of Moore’s law—the prediction about the miniaturization of technology—while pointing toward solid-state quantum computing devices.
A Transistor From a Single Atom - [Link]
When you expose the silicon die of a transistor to a light source a charge is produced. CircuitsDIY opened up a 2N3055 transistor and did some experimenting. With the help of a magnifying glass he was able to built up a charge of 0.65V and produce 42.2mA of current. [via]
Most photovoltaic cells are made of silicon chip above which there resides a very thin layer of noble metal through which around 1% of photon particles enter the material and activates electron flow. Here I’m showing how to make one simple solar panel using transistor.
Testing the photovoltaic effect with a transistor - [Link]
www.sciencedaily.com writes:
Smaller and more energy-efficient electronic chips could be made using molybdenite. In an article appearing online January 30 in the journal Nature Nanotechnology, EPFL’s Laboratory of Nanoscale Electronics and Structures (LANES) publishes a study showing that this material has distinct advantages over traditional silicon or graphene for use in electronics applications.
A discovery made at EPFL could play an important role in electronics, allowing us to make transistors that are smaller and more energy efficient. Research carried out in the Laboratory of Nanoscale Electronics and Structures (LANES) has revealed that molybdenite, or MoS2, is a very effective semiconductor. This mineral, which is abundant in nature, is often used as an element in steel alloys or as an additive in lubricants. But it had not yet been extensively studied for use in electronics.
New Transistors: An Alternative to Silicon and Better Than Graphene - [Link]
Hack a Week’s new project this week is a single NPN transistor audio preamp – [via]
Here’s a great little project that goes well with the LM386 audio amp. It’s a good first time transistor project because it’s simple and demonstrates the common emitter class A amplifier circuit with only six components in the signal path.
The single NPN transistor audio preamp - [Link]
