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Chapter 3
The P-N Junction
Before looking at the transistor in Chapter 3, it will be helpful to first briefly review the
diode, and thereby some of the basic characteristics of the P-N junction, because
diode action is an essential ingredient in making current sources and reference volt-
ages. In a circuit’s design, this can be induced by using either the forward voltage
(V
FWD
) of a dedicated switching diode or a transistor’s base-emitter junction voltage
(V
BE
), or even a JFET’s channel diode voltage. In each case the P-N junction is used,
either as a stable predictable reference or for compensation purposes.
Early semiconductor diode types ...