When discussing something like how current travels through a transistor do professors and/or people in the industry describe the behavior in terms of electron flow or in conventional flow? I know that the difference between electron flow and conventional flow is taught, but if the flow type is not specified how do you know which is being used?
I came across some course material that described the operation of an NPN transistor in the same way that I would expect a PNP transistor to be described - I thought that it was an error, however it was intentional. Depending upon which flow the describing person is using, either could be correct. If the type of flow is not specified, which is the correct one to use?
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Going back to this original posting, the vital clue is in the transistors pictured.
They date from an earlier period, as does the information shown with them.
In the late 1950s, to mid '60s, if you did any formal course in Semiconductors at Technician level, you learnt about such things as Valency bonds, Electron energy levels, & so on.
It seemed that the Physicists didn't know how much to "dumb" things down before passing it on to the EEs, who in turn, passed it pretty much untouched to the Techs.
Your information dates from this period.
As the Physicists used Electrons & "holes", so did the material, which usually showed current as Electron Flow.
This was hardly a problem, as there were thousands of people to whom Electron Flow was not something "new & alarming", but how current flowed through vacuum tubes, & external circuitry.
At the same time, such people happily used Conventional Current Flow for calculations appertaining to motors, generators, electromagnets, etc, due to the vast quantity of material, "Right Hand Rules", & so on, available using CCF, which hadn't yet attained the "god-like" status it enjoys today amongst many.
Any information presented in that period as part of a Semiconductor course was most likely to use EF.
A lot of the stuff was interesting, but not really used every day, as circuit applications were not usually covered very intensively.
Many years later, as part of another course, I did a unit which went seriously into circuit theory, ignoring Semiconductor Physics, & effectively treating the transistor as a "black box".
This used CCF, which didn't worry me in the least, but was much more useful in understanding the
use of such devices.
Many of the design formulas are either the same, or similar between BJTs, FETs, & vacuum tubes.