[ExI] Electronic Circuit Question (Emitter Follower)

[Bryan Bishop]

On Saturday 01 March 2008, Lee Corbin wrote:
> But the book says that when the input voltage drops down
> to -4.4 volts, the base-emitter junction gets back-biased,
> (and the transistor turns off?).  I don't understand why the
> voltage on the base cannot keep going down, say to -6V,
> with the output voltage continuing to keep in step, say at
> -6.6.  Even at -6 volts, there seems to me to be plenty
> of leeway between that and the -10V source below it.

I was recently brushing up on my understanding of transistor tech, and 
while my understanding isn't of the same nature that Jef portrays, it 
was my interpretation that transistors throw off because of the 
restriction to the amount of electrons that can flow through due to the 
field effect generated by the incoming electrons from the base. If its 
voltage was to drop, I think that would mean that the field would 
become inverted, thus not allowing anything to travel through any of 
the doped material. But this is my layman interpretation. Consult Jef.

- Bryan
________________________________________
Bryan Bishop
http://heybryan.org/