How transistors work is probably the hardest concept for you to understand as a beginner. At least it was for me. The problem is that almost everyone is trying to teach that a transistor is “…a semiconductor device”. And instead of just telling you what it does, they explain that “…it consists of n-doped and p-doped materials”. I don’t know about you, but that statement didn’t help me much! So let me tell you, in a simple way, how transistors work. I even made a video for you, just to make it clearer. The transistor is like an electronic switch. It can turn a current on and off. A simple way you can think of it is to look at the transistor as a relay without any moving parts. A transistor is similar to a relay in the sense that you can use it to turn something ON and OFF. Check out the video explanation I made on the transistor: There are different types of transistors. A very common one is the “bipolar junction transistor” or “BJT”. And it usually looks li...
In this article we investigate the IC X9315 which is actually a solid state digital potentiometer and could be used exactly like a mechanical potentiometer, but through logical supply inputs. The IC X9315 from Intersil, is a digitally controlled solid state potentiometer, which internally possesses an array of resistors, wiper switches, a controlling system, and a non-volatile memory section. The IC utilizes a 3 wire interface for controlling the various positions of the wiper, and the potentiometer function is implemented through the array of resistors which are 31 numbers of resistive network, associated with the wiper switching network. The entire array along with the end points of this resistive network are all integrated with the wiper network such that the wiper is able to access any point of the resistor array for executing the corresponding values of the potentiometer output through the 3 wire interface. The CS, U/D and the INC pinouts of the IC actuall...