Imagine for a moment a simple transistor circuit involving a single NPN transistor with its emitter grounded, its collector tied to the positive supply by a resistor, and a potentiometer between ...

But with our simple transistor circuit, 20 mA will always flow. Well. Sort of. Practical current sources have a certain range of compliance because they can’t provide an infinite voltage.

As with many inventions, two people had the idea for an integrated circuit at almost the same time. Transistors had become commonplace in everything from radios to phones to computers, and now ...