Identifying transistor roles in teaching microelectronic circuits

Transistor circuit analysis and design is a difficult skill for many students. New methods and techniques to help novices learn are needed. In this paper the transistor role concept is introduced and common individual transistor roles are identified. Typical circuit and block symbols have been used and some new symbols are defined. Roles of transistors capture expert electronics engineers tacit knowledge in a way that can be explicitly taught to students; therefore, roles should be taught to students in order to distinguish different transistor configurations in a complex circuit. The use of roles and role-based circuit analysis and design is expected to facilitate the teaching of circuit analysis and synthesis