From the course: Electronics Foundations: Semiconductor Devices
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NPN bipolar junction transistors
From the course: Electronics Foundations: Semiconductor Devices
NPN bipolar junction transistors
- [Teacher] A bipolar junction transistor, or BJT, consists of three alternating layers of doped N-type and P-type semiconductor material joined together. And there were two ways that those three layers of material can be stacked. The BJT on the left is called an NPN transistor because it contains a section of P-type material sandwiched between two N-type sections. And its counterpart on the right is a PNP transistor because it has two P-type sections with a region of N-type material in the middle. For now, I'll just focus on how an NPN transistor works. From a physical standpoint, the three alternating layers of material create two P-N junctions. Now at first glance, those back to back P-N junctions might look somewhat like a pair of diodes with their cathodes connected together pointing away from each other. This is a common simplification that many people like to use when explaining BJTs, but it's important to recognize…
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