7 ms·

I was disappointed with the article. This doesn't explain anything new beyond a standard textbook. Same stuff - differently regurgitated. (If you want a swing

I was disappointed with the article. This doesn't explain anything new beyond a standard textbook. Same stuff - differently regurgitated. (If you want a swing on this topic MIT 6.004/nand2tetris does a better job & even talks about trade-offs such as doping, channel contaminations, propagation delays due to FET designs, which electrical engineers routinely deal with in production. There are few videos by Carver Mead as well who intuitively explains why transistor work the way they do.) And for delving into F/R bias, junction effects, leakage current - there are no illustrations showing polarity or flow of charges. Sorry but this is just another low SNR article for today.

mhh__ 4y ago
Bob Widlar also wrote an intro to semiconductors
- abfan1127 4y ago
  my undergraduate analog circuits professor worked with Bob Widlar. He had some great stories. Widlar was a pioneer!
- gaze 4y ago
  It's an extremely underappreciated text
- ce4 4y ago
  That guy's career is a story unto itself: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Widlar https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Widlar Edit - some nice reads: https://hackaday.com/2014/04/08/heroes-of-hardware-revolution-bob-widlar/ https://hackaday.com/2014/04/08/heroes-of-hardware-revolutio... https://web.archive.org/web/20190527014243/https://www.autodesk.com/products/eagle/blog/bob-widlar-life-engineering-legend/ https://web.archive.org/web/20190527014243/https://www.autod...
  - srvmshr 4y ago
    If I could think of anyone being Rick Sanchez (of Rick & Morty) in real life, it had to be Bob Widlar: Brash, extremely genius & mostly drunk.
  - weinzierl 4y ago
    I like how he had his retirement period in the middle of his life and not at the end. This quote in the section about his retirement in the Wikipedia article made me chuckle: His proud statement: "I don't work" caused him frequent troubles when crossing the Mexican border and eventually, Widlar created a set of fake business cards presenting him as a "road agent" for "Morgan Associates".
weinzierl 4y ago
Not disappointed, it's a good introductory text with beautiful illustrations. It is called "How do transistors work, anyway?" and not "How do transistors really work?" or "The big transistor deep dive!". I think the article matches the expectations set by the title pretty well. That is not to say an accessible transistor deep dive would be interesting. I enjoyed my fair share of band gap calculations at university and not to forget Shockley's Garage. That's what an in depth transistor coverage would be for me. You raised very different points and I would love to read that transistor article anytime.
- srvmshr 4y ago
  Normally I avoid sounding critical but since you vociferously defend the article's merit, here is what I honestly feel: As people deeply involved or passionate about tech, we hope HN to be a place where * Read something we know from a different perspective (a.k.a the hacker way) * Read something deeper which explains the (usually simpler) stuff in due course (i.e. deepdive) I get it, you love the article and you want it on HN. But it does nothing more than regurgitating what we learned in university already. And the treatment of the topic is pedestrian (Please see why I critiqued it in terms of absence F/R bias & charge flow etc. Just having a sketch of the BJTs & FETs is extremely low bar)
  - sheusndudn 4y ago
    I didn't learn about this in university and was interested by the article. Maybe consider that not everyone took electric engineering and move on with your day?
    - srvmshr 4y ago
      Absolutely. But would you like to base your understanding on something well written, intuitively illustrated (not necessarily math or physics heavy) OR something which is a refined copypasta from any garden variety electronic textbook? If I could show you where to find a better place to learn, would you still consider me to "mind my own business" I am not HN's knight crusader. But I would be happy if people got a better appreciation of things others love. And that needs some constructive critique at times. At HN discussions I try to do that whenever I can.
matkoniecz 4y ago
Can you recommend a better article?
- Koshkin 4y ago
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transistor https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transistor
amirhirsch 4y ago
You might be interested in this substantially more in depth collection of article about semiconductor physics: http://britneyspears.ac/lasers.htm http://britneyspears.ac/lasers.htm
anikom15 4y ago
https://youtu.be/KqIOGGjPFQU https://youtu.be/KqIOGGjPFQU I find this to be the best concise explanation of the PN junction, which is enough to figure out how a transistor works on one’s own.
oumua_don17 4y ago
Agreed. One of the best books to understand how transistors work is the GE transistor manual from 1964 :). [1] PS: pdf link [1] https://worldradiohistory.com/BOOKSHELF-ARH/GE-Books/GE-Transistor-Manual-1964.pdf https://worldradiohistory.com/BOOKSHELF-ARH/GE-Books/GE-Tran...

mhh__ 4y ago

Bob Widlar also wrote an intro to semiconductors

abfan1127 4y ago
my undergraduate analog circuits professor worked with Bob Widlar. He had some great stories. Widlar was a pioneer!
gaze 4y ago
It's an extremely underappreciated text
ce4 4y ago
That guy's career is a story unto itself: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Widlar https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Widlar Edit - some nice reads: https://hackaday.com/2014/04/08/heroes-of-hardware-revolution-bob-widlar/ https://hackaday.com/2014/04/08/heroes-of-hardware-revolutio... https://web.archive.org/web/20190527014243/https://www.autodesk.com/products/eagle/blog/bob-widlar-life-engineering-legend/ https://web.archive.org/web/20190527014243/https://www.autod...
- srvmshr 4y ago
  If I could think of anyone being Rick Sanchez (of Rick & Morty) in real life, it had to be Bob Widlar: Brash, extremely genius & mostly drunk.
- weinzierl 4y ago
  I like how he had his retirement period in the middle of his life and not at the end. This quote in the section about his retirement in the Wikipedia article made me chuckle: His proud statement: "I don't work" caused him frequent troubles when crossing the Mexican border and eventually, Widlar created a set of fake business cards presenting him as a "road agent" for "Morgan Associates".

weinzierl 4y ago

Not disappointed, it's a good introductory text with beautiful illustrations. It is called "How do transistors work, anyway?" and not "How do transistors really work?" or "The big transistor deep dive!". I think the article matches the expectations set by the title pretty well. That is not to say an accessible transistor deep dive would be interesting. I enjoyed my fair share of band gap calculations at university and not to forget Shockley's Garage. That's what an in depth transistor coverage would be for me. You raised very different points and I would love to read that transistor article anytime.

srvmshr 4y ago
Normally I avoid sounding critical but since you vociferously defend the article's merit, here is what I honestly feel: As people deeply involved or passionate about tech, we hope HN to be a place where * Read something we know from a different perspective (a.k.a the hacker way) * Read something deeper which explains the (usually simpler) stuff in due course (i.e. deepdive) I get it, you love the article and you want it on HN. But it does nothing more than regurgitating what we learned in university already. And the treatment of the topic is pedestrian (Please see why I critiqued it in terms of absence F/R bias & charge flow etc. Just having a sketch of the BJTs & FETs is extremely low bar)
- sheusndudn 4y ago
  I didn't learn about this in university and was interested by the article. Maybe consider that not everyone took electric engineering and move on with your day?
  - srvmshr 4y ago
    Absolutely. But would you like to base your understanding on something well written, intuitively illustrated (not necessarily math or physics heavy) OR something which is a refined copypasta from any garden variety electronic textbook? If I could show you where to find a better place to learn, would you still consider me to "mind my own business" I am not HN's knight crusader. But I would be happy if people got a better appreciation of things others love. And that needs some constructive critique at times. At HN discussions I try to do that whenever I can.

matkoniecz 4y ago

Can you recommend a better article?

Koshkin 4y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transistor https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transistor

amirhirsch 4y ago

You might be interested in this substantially more in depth collection of article about semiconductor physics: http://britneyspears.ac/lasers.htm http://britneyspears.ac/lasers.htm

anikom15 4y ago

https://youtu.be/KqIOGGjPFQU https://youtu.be/KqIOGGjPFQU I find this to be the best concise explanation of the PN junction, which is enough to figure out how a transistor works on one’s own.

oumua_don17 4y ago

Agreed. One of the best books to understand how transistors work is the GE transistor manual from 1964 :). [1] PS: pdf link [1] https://worldradiohistory.com/BOOKSHELF-ARH/GE-Books/GE-Transistor-Manual-1964.pdf https://worldradiohistory.com/BOOKSHELF-ARH/GE-Books/GE-Tran...