App note from ON Semiconductors about less common transistors stresses when used on switching power supplies. Link here (PDF) The power transistor, in today’s switching power supply, exists in an environment which is quite hostile to semiconductors. Large currents, large voltages, high temperature, high frequency, and low impedance sources add up to something close to […]
Tag Archives: transistors
App note: Understanding a digital transistor datasheet
Application note from ON Semiconductors about digital transistors where two resistors are built-in the transistor package. Link here (PDF) This application note will describe the common specifications of a Digital Transistor. It will also show how to use these specifications to successfully design with a Digital Transistor.
App note: Current ratings of power semiconductors and thermal design
Here’s an app note from International Rectifier discussing on semiconductor’s limitations. This application note described the methods commonly used to calculate peak junction temperature in a power circuit. It also explains the assumptions behind the current ratings of power semiconductors.
BJT in reverse avalanche mode
Kerry Wong writes: Transistors operating in their avalanche regions are often used to generate fast rise pulses (see avalanche pulse generator using 2N3904). Many transistors can also avalanche when the connections to collector and emitter are reversed. When operating in reverse avalanche region, these transistors are sometimes referred to as negistors. Because the asymmetry and […]
Altera breaks industry record for most transistors on an IC
Altera today issued a press release announcing that it set an industry milestone in semiconductor technology by delivering the most transistors ever packed onto an integrated circuit. Altera’s 28-nm Stratix® V FPGAs are the semiconductor industry’s first devices to feature 3.9 billion transistors. “Altera surpassed the known record for transistors when it taped out Stratix […]
1.5 to 10 volt inverter
If you need a 5 to 10 volt DC power source and only have a couple AA batteries, here’s a simple solution from CoolCircuits. It uses four transistors and a handful of passive components to produce an adjustable 5 to 10 volt output from 1.5 to 4.5 volt input.