Static Induction Transistor

The transistor, due to its capability of controlling the current flow between two terminals with a low power control on the third terminal, has revolutionized many consumer fields and opened new application areas. Such success derives from the versatility of the various transistor devices to the application niches and to the fact that transistors are manufactured using high performance semiconductor materials that guarantee low cost, reduced size, and high reliability. In the field of power electronics, the power transistors take care of managing the energy flow. As a consequence, the improvement and the optimization of power transistors results in improved power management circuits with increased efficiency, reduced environmental pollution, reduced cost, reduced size, and longer battery life. Typical application areas of the power transistors are: automotive, traction, consumer electronics, air conditioning, electric engines. The Static Induction Transistor (SIT), together with its variants, is a transistor optimized for power electronics applications that has been developed for the past fourty years, for various ranges of voltages, and using different semiconductor materials. In this entry, the history and the characteristics of the SIT are reported.