A previous Design Idea describes a circuit that uses an astable multivibrator to drive an LED (Reference 1). The circuit in Figure 1 uses a simpler alternative approach. The circuit uses a 2N3904 NPN ...

In this lesson, students build two circuits and explore how transistors function. When Bell Labs introduced the transistor in June of 1948, a spokesman proudly announced "This cylindrical object . . .

The transistor is probably the most important invention in electronic engineering and the basis for nearly all integrated circuits (ICs). The transistor is a three-terminal electronic device that can ...

[Kevin Darrah] wanted to make a simple 3.3V regulator without using an integrated circuit. He wound up using two common NPN transistors and 4 1K resistors. The circuit isn’t going to beat out a cheap ...