A multiple-emitter transistor is a specialized
bipolar transistor
A bipolar junction transistor (BJT) is a type of transistor that uses both electrons and electron holes as charge carriers. In contrast, a unipolar transistor, such as a field-effect transistor, uses only one kind of charge carrier. A bipolar t ...
mostly used at the inputs of
integrated circuit
An integrated circuit or monolithic integrated circuit (also referred to as an IC, a chip, or a microchip) is a set of electronic circuits on one small flat piece (or "chip") of semiconductor material, usually silicon. Large numbers of tiny ...
TTL
TTL may refer to:
Photography
* Through-the-lens metering, a camera feature
* Zenit TTL, an SLR film camera named for its TTL metering capability
Technology
* Time to live, a computer data lifespan-limiting mechanism
* Transistor–transistor lo ...
NAND logic gate
A logic gate is an idealized or physical device implementing a Boolean function, a logical operation performed on one or more binary inputs that produces a single binary output. Depending on the context, the term may refer to an ideal logic gate, ...
s. Input signals are applied to the
emitters. The voltage presented to the following stage is pulled low if any one or more of the base–emitter junctions is forward biased, allowing logical operations to be performed using a single
transistor
upright=1.4, gate (G), body (B), source (S) and drain (D) terminals. The gate is separated from the body by an insulating layer (pink).
A transistor is a semiconductor device used to Electronic amplifier, amplify or electronic switch, switch e ...
. Multiple-emitter transistors replace the
diode
A diode is a two-terminal electronic component that conducts current primarily in one direction (asymmetric conductance); it has low (ideally zero) resistance in one direction, and high (ideally infinite) resistance in the other.
A diode ...
s of
diode–transistor logic
Diode–transistor logic (DTL) is a class of digital circuits that is the direct ancestor of transistor–transistor logic. It is called so because the logic gating function (e.g., AND) is performed by a diode network and the amplifying function ...
(DTL) to make
transistor–transistor logic Transistor–transistor logic (TTL) is a logic family built from bipolar junction transistors. Its name signifies that transistors perform both the logic function (the first "transistor") and the amplifying function (the second "transistor"), as opp ...
(TTL), and thereby allow reduction of
switching time and
power dissipation
In thermodynamics, dissipation is the result of an irreversible process that takes place in homogeneous thermodynamic systems. In a dissipative process, energy (internal, bulk flow kinetic, or system potential) transforms from an initial form to ...
.
![Multiple-emitter transistor](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9b/Multiple-emitter_transistor.png)
Logic gate use of multiple-emitter transistors was patented in 1961 in the UK and in the US in 1962.
[B. A. Boulter, ''The Multiple Emitter Transistor In Low Power Logic Circuits'' in Edward Keonjian (ed) ''Micropower Electronics'', Elsevier, 2013, , p. 105 ff]
References
External links
Tutorial on bipolar-transistor logic
Digital electronics
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