RCA Transistor Manual

This manual, like its preceding edition, has been prepared to assist those who work or experiment with semiconductor devices and circuits. It will be useful to engineers, educators, students, radio amateurs, hobbyists, and others technically interested in transistors, silicon rectifiers, silicon controlled rectifiers, varactor diodes, and tunnel diodes.

Semiconductor devices are small but versatile units that can perform an amazing variety of control functions in electronic equipment. Like other electron devices, they have the ability to control almost instantly the movement of charges of electricity. They are used as rectifiers, detectors, amplifiers, oscillators, electronic switches, mixers and modulators.

In addition, semiconductor devices have many important advantages over other types of electron devices.They are very small and light in weight (some are less than an inch long and weigh just a fraction of an ounce). They have no filaments or heaters, and therefore require no heating power or warm-up time. They consume very little power. They are solid in construction, extremely rugged, free from microphonics, and can be made impervious to many severe environmental conditions. The circuits required for their operation are usually simple.