> I have seen several infrared receiver circuits were the anode is connected
to the negative rail and cathode connected towards the positive rail.

> What am I missing here?

The transistor polarity is normal.

The transistor functions as an emitter follower with a gain of (essentially)
1.
This acts as a buffer for the photodiode so it "sees" a high impedance load.
The output is lower impedance than the diode by itself (but not very low).

The 47uF and 10k act as a filter to remove power supply noise.



        RM

--
http://www.piclist.com hint: To leave the PICList
mailto:piclist-unsubscribe-request@mitvma.mit.edu