A condition in electrical circuits resulting from a sudden release of energy. Often this condition is precipitated by a static discharge, lightning, or switching of an inductive load. May occur in repeated fashion or randomly. See over-voltage . A pulse of ionizing radiation.
Transient radiation can cause data upset, device latchup, and destruction of unprotected ICs.
Properly designed ICs however, can resist such effects to high levels of transient radiation. A three-terminal active semiconductor device that provides current amplification. A bipolar transistor is comprised of base, emitter and collector and is a current-controlled device with a low input impedance. The first transistor was invented at Bell Laboratories in 1947 by Nobel-Prize physicists John Bardeen, William Shockley and Walter Bratain. An advanced Intersil wafer process used to prepare rad-hard 64k SOS SRAMs.