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transistor: Quick Facts

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NMOS transistorNegative-channel metal-oxide semiconductors (NMOS) employ a positive secondary voltage to switch a shallow layer of p-type semiconductor material below the gate into n-type. For positive-channel metal-oxide semiconductors (PMOS), all these polarities are reversed. NMOS transistors are more expensive, but faster, than PMOS transistors.
transistor
CMOS
Diagram of a germanium crystal lattice showing how the absence of an electron, called a hole, moves through the structure as electrons jump between atoms, with arrows and labels explaining each step.
p-n junction
forward-biased p-n junction
A diagram showing a cross section of an n-p-n transistor with labeled gate, source, and drain on the left, and its electronic circuit symbol with the same labels on the right.
MESFET transistorIn a metal-semiconductor field-effect transistor (MESFET), current is normally on (used to represent “true” or “1”). A secondary voltage is applied to the gate to deplete charge carriers beneath it, thereby pinching off the current, or changing the state to off (“false” or “0”).
A line graph illustrating Moore's law, showing the exponential increase in the number of transistors on computer processors from 1970 to 2005, with key Intel processors labeled along the curve.
first transistor
How the Elliott 803 transistorized computer works
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Key People

Robert Noyce (left) and Gordon Moore standing outside an Intel building.
Gordon Moore
American engineer and entrepreneur
Shockley
William B. Shockley
American physicist
Bardeen.
John Bardeen
American physicist
Brattain
Walter H. Brattain
American physicist
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Jack Kilby
American engineer
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Robert H. Dennard
American engineer
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Herbert Kroemer
German physicist

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