Although a unijunction transistor is not a thyristor, this device can trigger la rger thyristors with a pulse at base B1.

A unijunction transistor is composed of a bar of N-type silicon having a P-type connection in the middle. See Figure be low(a). The connections at the ends of the bar are known as bases B1 and B2; the P-type mid-point is the emitter. With the emitter disconnected, the total resis tance RBBO, a datasheet item, is the sum of RB1 and RB2 as shown in Figure below (b). RBBO ranges from 4-12kO for different device types. The intrinsic standoff ratio ? is the ratio of RB1 to RBBO. It varies from 0.4 to 0.8 for different dev ices. The schematic symbol is Figure below(c) The Unijunction emitter current vs voltage characteristic curve (Figure below(a) ) shows that as VE increases, current IE increases up IP at the peak point. Bey ond the peak point, current increases as voltage decreases in the negative resis tance region. The voltage reaches a minimum at the valley point. The resistance of RB1, the saturation resistance is lowest at the valley point. The relaxation oscillator in Figure below is an application of the unijunction o scillator. RE charges CE until the peak point. The unijunction emitter terminal has no effect on the capacitor until this point is reached. Once the capacitor v oltage, VE, reaches the peak voltage point VP, the lowered emitter-base1 E-B1 re sistance quickly discharges the capacitor. Once the capacitor discharges below t he valley point VV, the E-RB1 resistance reverts back to high resistance, and th e capacitor is free to charge again.