Spacistor

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The Spacistor is a transistor variant that, like the bipolar transistor, is based on a potential effect . It was developed in the 1950s with the aim of improving the electrical properties compared to the tip transistor and the alloy transistors of the time . With the invention and improvement of diffusion transistors in the late 1950s, this advantage became meaningless.

Structure and functionality

The spacistor is a semiconductor component with four electrodes. It consists of a pn junction with a wide space charge zone (barrier layer). The p-region of the pn-junction is called the base and the n-region is called the collector. In the space charge region two additional contacts are present: the injector ( injector ) and the modulator ( modulator ).

If you compare the function of the connections with those of a bipolar transistor (BJT), the following analogies result:

  1. The injector behaves similarly to the BJT emitter
  2. The modulator behaves similarly to the BJT base
  3. The collector like its namesake at the BJT

The basic idea behind the Spacistor was to use the strong voltage gradient with a blocked pn junction. By injecting charge carriers into the barrier layer, the transit times of the charge carriers in the transistor should be reduced and thus the switching frequency increased. The injector current is controlled by the modulator.

literature

  • H. Statz, RA Pucel: The Spacistor, A New Class of High-Frequency Semiconductor Devices . In: Proceedings of the IRE . tape 45 , no. 3 , 1957, pp. 317-324 , doi : 10.1109 / JRPROC.1957.278367 .
  • JM Lavine, W. Rindner, B. Nost, RF Nelson: The Spacistor . In: Electron Devices, IRE Transactions on . tape 8 , no. 4 , 1961, pp. 252-264 , doi : 10.1109 / T-ED.1961.14798 .