Nearly every piece of technology you use—from smartphones to computers—relies on one revolutionary component: the transistor.

One of the joys of writing up the entries for the 2025 Component Abuse Challenge has come in finding all the different alternative uses for the humble transistor. This building block of all modern ...

OK, so I have an old project laptop with an IDE/PATA/slim-ATAPI optical drive bay, into which I have inserted a SATA drive caddy with a bridge board. The thing is, the caddy doesn't transfer the drive ...

A Planet Analog article, “2N3904: Why use a 60-year-old transistor?” by Bill Schweber, inspired some interest in this old transistor and how it’s commonly used, and if any uncommon uses might exist.

Fast switching: the Hybrid Photonics Labs at Skoltech where the new optical transistor was created. (Courtesy: Skoltech) A new optical transistor has been designed by researchers in Russia, ...