Tags: devices

Description

On June 30, 1948, AT&T Bell Labs unveiled the transitor to the world, creating a spark of explosive economic growth that would lead into the Information Age. William Shockley led a team of researchers, including Walter Brattain and John Bardeen, who invented the device. Like the existing triode vacuum tube device, the transistor could amplify signals and switch currents on and off, but the transistor was smaller, cheaper, and more efficient. Moreover, it could be integrated with millions of other transistors onto a single chip, creating the integrated circuit at the heart of modern computers.

Today, most transistors are being manufactured with a minimum feature size of 60-90nm--roughly 200-300 atoms. As the push continues to make devices even smaller, researchers must account for quantum mechanical effects in the device behavior. With fewer and fewer atoms, the positions of impurities and other irregularities begin to matter, and device reliability becomes an issue. So rather than shrink existing devices, many researchers are working on entirely new devices, based on carbon nanotubes, spintronics, molecular conduction, and other nanotechnologies.

Learn more about transistors from the many resources on this site, listed below. Use our simulation tools to simulate performance characteristics for your own devices.

Resources (181-200 of 334)

  1. ECE 606 Lecture 37a: Nonideal Effects in MOSFET I

    28 Apr 2009 | | Contributor(s):: Muhammad A. Alam

  2. ECE 606 Lecture 39: Reliability of MOSFET

    28 Apr 2009 | | Contributor(s):: Muhammad A. Alam

  3. ECE 606 Lecture 33: MOS Electrostatics II

    16 Apr 2009 | | Contributor(s):: Muhammad A. Alam

  4. ECE 606 Lecture 34: MOSCAP Frequency Response

    16 Apr 2009 | | Contributor(s):: Muhammad A. Alam

  5. ECE 606 Lecture 35: MOSFET I-V Characteristics I

    16 Apr 2009 | | Contributor(s):: Muhammad A. Alam

  6. ECE 606 Lecture 30: Heterojunction Bipolar Transistors I

    04 Apr 2009 | | Contributor(s):: Muhammad A. Alam

  7. ECE 606 Lecture 31: Heterojunction Bipolar Transistors II

    04 Apr 2009 | | Contributor(s):: Muhammad A. Alam

  8. ECE 606 Lecture 29: BJT Design II

    31 Mar 2009 | | Contributor(s):: Muhammad A. Alam

  9. ECE 606 Lecture 19: Numerical Solution of Transport Equation

    29 Mar 2009 | | Contributor(s):: Muhammad A. Alam

    Outline:Basic Transport Equations Gridding and finite differencesDiscretizing equations and boundary conditions Conclusion

  10. ECE 606 Lecture 28: BJT Design I

    29 Mar 2009 | | Contributor(s):: Muhammad A. Alam

  11. ECE 606 Lecture 27: Introduction to Bipolar Transistors

    29 Mar 2009 | | Contributor(s):: Muhammad A. Alam

  12. ECE 606 Lecture 25: Schottky Diode I

    24 Mar 2009 | | Contributor(s):: Muhammad A. Alam

  13. ECE 606 Lecture 18: Continuity Equations

    24 Mar 2009 | | Contributor(s):: Muhammad A. Alam

    OutlineContinuity EquationExample problems Conclusion

  14. ECE 606 Lecture 24: Large Signal Response

    13 Mar 2009 | | Contributor(s):: Muhammad A. Alam

  15. ECE 606 Lecture 23: AC Response

    13 Mar 2009 | | Contributor(s):: Muhammad A. Alam

  16. ECE 606 Lecture 20: Electrostatics of P-N Junction Diodes

    11 Mar 2009 | | Contributor(s):: Muhammad A. Alam

  17. ECE 606 Lecture 21: P-N Diode I-V Characteristics

    11 Mar 2009 | | Contributor(s):: Muhammad A. Alam

  18. ECE 606 Lecture 22: Non-ideal Effects

    11 Mar 2009 | | Contributor(s):: Muhammad A. Alam

  19. ECE 606 Lecture 17: Hall Effect, Diffusion

    24 Feb 2009 | | Contributor(s):: Muhammad A. Alam

    Outline:Measurement of mobilityHall Effect for determining carrier concentrationPhysics of diffusionConclusions

  20. ECE 606 Lecture 16: Carrier Transport

    23 Feb 2009 | | Contributor(s):: Muhammad A. Alam