Transistors To understand how a transistor works, especially a molecular one, let's return to our original traffic analogy. Pretend we have an intersection for our molecular traffic, with roads going north-south (NS) and east-west (EW). Pretend that the light for the EW direction only turns red when there are cars at the NS side. So long as there are no cars waiting at the NS direction, cars going EW are free to pass through the intersection unopposed. But when cars are present going NS, the light at the EW intersection turns red, stopping the flow of traffic, or current as it may be. Effectively, cars going NS act as a switch for the current going EW. So, depending on the current at the NS junction, the current going EW can be controlled. This process is the basis for modern logic functions and essentially all of electronics. It's basically a switch, and you might be wondering: so what? But this process, repeated millions of times over, is the basis for all of modern electronics. Any device you use today would not exist without transistors. Now let's see how a molecular transistor might work © 2006 M. Busuttil, I. Kandikov, M. Lubrick, J. Mutus, J. Nantais
To understand how a transistor works, especially a molecular one, let's return to our original traffic analogy. Pretend we have an intersection for our molecular traffic, with roads going north-south (NS) and east-west (EW). Pretend that the light for the EW direction only turns red when there are cars at the NS side. So long as there are no cars waiting at the NS direction, cars going EW are free to pass through the intersection unopposed. But when cars are present going NS, the light at the EW intersection turns red, stopping the flow of traffic, or current as it may be. Effectively, cars going NS act as a switch for the current going EW. So, depending on the current at the NS junction, the current going EW can be controlled. This process is the basis for modern logic functions and essentially all of electronics. It's basically a switch, and you might be wondering: so what? But this process, repeated millions of times over, is the basis for all of modern electronics. Any device you use today would not exist without transistors. Now let's see how a molecular transistor might work
© 2006 M. Busuttil, I. Kandikov, M. Lubrick, J. Mutus, J. Nantais