Optically Pumped Bipolar Transistor

Abstract

The properties of a bipolar NPN transistor when exposed to unmodulated incoherent radiation created by a white LED are studied. The static and dynamic characteristics of the transistor are measured at various exposure intensities. It is shown that the change in the characteristics of the transistor under the optical effect is due to the increased lifetime of nonequilibrium charge carriers and the photovoltaic effect in PN transitions. For these reasons, the gain increases, the switching threshold decreases, and the transistor’s speed increases. The results obtained are applicable both to the creation of high-speed transistors and integrated circuits of a fundamentally new type.