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Essay / What is a transistor - 536
What is a transistor? A transistor is a semiconductor that can act as a tap of electrical current. The transistor can act as a switch maximizing the amount of current flowing through it or minimizing it. This device played a vital role in the advancement of modern technology; by replacing vacuum tubes and electromechanical switches that are unreliable, bulky, overheated and consume too much energy. A basic electronic device can contain thousands or even millions of transistors due to their small size. Transistors also reduced the cost of electronics because of their structure: the fact that they were made of inexpensive materials such as silicon made the device user-friendly. What is a transistor? Transistors are tiny components found in integrated circuits. A transistor is a small electrical component with three terminals to which current can be applied. They are the emitter, the collector and the base. Furthermore, the transistor has three parts: the gate, the drain and the source. The transistor is also made of a semiconductor called silicon. Silicon ...