At 10:24 PM 12/27/00 -0500, you wrote:
>Mitch Miller wrote:
>>> MOSFETs are indeed specced interms of on resistance rather than saturation
>>> voltage.
>>
>>Could someone explain saturation (as it applies to this thread) to me?
>>
>

Bipolar Transistor Operation:

In the linear region, an increase in base current causes an increase in
emitter-collector current.  When the transistor is passing it's maximum
amount of collector current, further increases in base current do not cause
further amounts of collector current. At this point, the transistor is said
to be SATURATED.

Side note: complete filling of the base region with majority carriers (to
get to the saturation point) has a side effect: it takes a relatively long
time to remove the carriers to turn the transistor off.  Thus, to minimize
turn-off times (for fast operation), you must avoid saturation.  This is
exactly the premise behind ECL: emitter coupled logic. Ok. I'll stop now.

Tom M.>

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