
Single-Molecule Transistors at Room Temperature - well_i_never
http://engineering.columbia.edu/news/latha-venkataraman-single-molecule-transistor
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logfromblammo
Title claims "transistor"; article and infographic says that only "diode" was
actually demonstrated.

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castis
Im just getting started with hardware electronics so forgive me if this is way
off. Also, not to defend the title...

Is a standard transistor just two diodes with similar sides facing each other?

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noobiemcfoob
Unless I'm mistaken, that would act as a capacitor. A transistor has a
slightly more complicated doping pattern with a gate as shown here:

[http://cdn4.explainthatstuff.com/fet1.gif](http://cdn4.explainthatstuff.com/fet1.gif)

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simcop2387
That's a field effect transistor. A diode is made from a P/N junction in
normal silicon (i won't say i know it's the same in other materials). A
Bipolar Junction Transistor is made from an N/P/N junction, or a P/N/P
junction. On the surface it looks like you could make a transistor out of two
diodes because of the junctions, but the problem is that you have to bond them
on the silicon to get close to the effect of a transistor, the metal leads and
bonding wires inside a normal diode prevent that from working. What this does
mean however is that you can use half of an NPN or PNP transistor as a diode,
and it's a somewhat common thing to do to minimize the types of parts you need
on a circuit board if you're already using the transistors for something else.

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e5an
The electron microscope seems to be an integral part of this thing's
functioning, and is made up of a lot more than one molecule.

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hatsunearu
Translation: the dudes made a diode, and the writing guy wrote transistor.

Where's the third terminal, yo.

