What is a transistor? Easily explained

When you think of electronic circuits, you also think of transistors. But what is such a transistor anyway? We'll explain it to you.

Transistors simply explained

You can find transistors in almost every electronic device and without them, computers as we know them today would be hard to imagine.

• Transistors are usually used to regulate the current flow in circuits and, consequently, their function.
• They prevent the flow of current through their resistance - the current flow can be regulated by applying a voltage.
• This creates, among other things, on and off switches. Alternatively, transistors are also used as amplifiers.
• In these functions, transistors appear on millions of modern processors or graphics cards.
• A transistor consists of three parts: gate, sink and source.
• If the gate is charged positively, electricity can flow, because the charge movement causes the path to be cleared.
• All of this is made possible by the semiconductor properties of the transistor material - often silicon.

Next, we'll explain how a processor works - a central location for transistors.