An analysis of the complementary pair trigger circuit

Summary form only given, as follows. The complementary pair family of circuits can yield great economy in digital computer design, as has been shown in the preceding paper. One member of this family is attractive, because of its simplicity, in those situations where the ultimate in speed and load handling capacity is not required. If it were possible to allow saturation in the transistors, a very simple bistable element would result. In general, ·this is not permissible, for the degradation of performance is too severe. By application of a new principle, which has been called by the author that of "Controlled Saturation," one of the transistors may be allowed to saturate without undue performance deterioration. Then the other transistor may be prevented from saturating at a cost of only a single resistor. The paper first describes the process of Controlled Saturation, and then shows the synthesis of a practical trigger circuit employing it.