Transistor

A semiconductor device that controls current or voltage, commonly used to amplify signals or act as an electronic switch.

Bipolar junction transistor: A transistor in which a small base current controls a larger current between emitter and collector. Its current-controlled action distinguishes it from field-effect transistors.
Point-contact transistor: The first working transistor, built from two closely spaced metal contacts on a semiconductor. Its 1947 demonstration marked the device's invention.
Semiconductor: A material whose electrical conductivity lies between that of a conductor and an insulator and can be controlled. Transistors use controllable conductivity in semiconductor materials.
Logic gate: A circuit that performs a Boolean operation on binary inputs to produce an output. Transistors form the switching networks that implement digital logic.
Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory: A semiconductor company founded by William Shockley in California in 1956. Its departure of engineers helped seed the semiconductor industry around Silicon Valley.
Field-effect transistor: A transistor in which an electric field controls current through a semiconductor channel. Its voltage-controlled channel is the basis of most modern integrated circuits.
John Bardeen: An American physicist who co-invented the point-contact transistor and developed the theory of superconductivity. His semiconductor research helped produce the first working transistor.
Doping (semiconductor): The deliberate addition of impurities to a semiconductor to change its electrical properties. Doping creates the regions and channels that give transistor structures their behavior.
Static random-access memory: A volatile memory that stores each bit in a bistable circuit, commonly built from six transistors. Its bit cells show how transistor circuits can retain digital states while powered.
Fairchild Semiconductor: A semiconductor company founded in 1957 by the group known as the traitorous eight. Its manufacturing and integrated-circuit work accelerated commercial transistor technology.

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