TRANSISTOR ELECTRONICS - IMPERFECTIONS, UNIPOLAR AND ANALOG TRANSISTORS (REPRINTED FROM PROCEEDINGS OF THE IRE, VOL 40, PG 1289-1313, 1952)

The electronic mechanisms that are of chief interest in transistor ele ctronics are discussed from the point of view of solid-state physics. The important concepts of holes, electrons, donors, acceptors, and dea thnium (recombination center for holes and electrons) are heated from a unified viewpoint as imperfections in a nearly perfect crystal. The behavior of an excess electron as a negative particle moving with rand om thermal motion and drifting in an electric field is described in de tail. A hole is similar to an electron in all regards save sign of cha rge. Some fundamental experiments have been performed with transistor techniques and exhibit clearly the behavior of holes and electrons. Th e interactions of holes, electrons, donors, accepters, and deathnium g ive rise to the properties of p-n junctions, p-n junction transistors, and Zener diodes. Point-contact transistors are not understood as wel l from a fundamental viewpoint. A new class of unipolar transistors is discussed. Of these, the analog transistor is described in terms of a nalogy to a vacuum tube.