collector

collector

One side of a bipolar transistor. When the base is pulsed, current flows from the emitter to the collector, or vice versa depending on the design. See drain.

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collector

1. a person employed to collect debts, rents, etc.

2. the head of a district administration in India

3. a person who collects or amasses objects as a hobby

4. Electronics the region in a transistor into which charge carriers flow from the base

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collector [kə′lek·tər]

(electronics)

A semiconductive region through which a primary flow of charge carriers leaves the base of a transistor; the electrode or terminal connected to this region is also called the collector.

An electrode that collects electrons or ions which have completed their functions within an electron tube; a collector receives electrons after they have done useful work, whereas an anode receives electrons whose useful work is to be done outside the tube. Also known as electron collector.

(engineering)

A class of instruments employed to determine the electric potential at a point in the atmosphere, and ultimately the atmospheric electric field; all collectors consist of some device for rapidly bringing a conductor to the same potential as the air immediately surrounding it, plus some form of electrometer for measuring the difference in potential between the equilibrated collector and the earth itself; collectors differ widely in their speed of response to atmospheric potential changes.