of the most important applications of UJTs or PUTs is to trigger thyristors (silicon controlled rectifiers (SCR), TRIAC, etc.). A DC voltage can be used to control a UJT or PUT circuit such that the "on-period" increases with an increase in the DC control voltage. This application is important for large AC current control. UJTs can also be used to measure magnetic flux. The hall effect modulates the voltage at the PN junction. This affects the frequency of UJT relaxation oscillators. This only works with UJTs. PUTs do not exhibit this phenomenon. Construction The UJT has three terminals: an emitter (E) and two bases (B1 and B2) and so is sometimes known a "double-base diode". The base is formed by a lightly doped n-type bar of silicon. Two ohmic contacts B1 and B2 are attached at its ends. The emitter is of p-type is heavily doped; this single PN junction gives the device its name. The resistance between B1 and B2 when the emitter is open-circuit is called interbase resistance. The emitter junction is usually located closer to base-2 (B2) than base-1 (B1) so that the device is not symmetrical, because a symmetrical unit does not provide optimum electrical characteristics for most of the applications. If no potential difference exists between its emitter and either of its base leads, there is an extremely small current from B1 to B2. On the other hand, if an adequately large voltage relative to its base leads, known as the trigger voltage, is applied to its emitter, then a very large current from its emitter joins the current from B1 to B2, which creates a larger B2 output current. The schematic diagram symbol for a unijunction transistor represents the emitter lead with an arrow, showing the direction of conventional current when the emitter-base junction is conducting a current. A complementary UJT uses a p-type base and an n-type emitter, and operates the same as the n-type base device but with all voltage polarities reversed. The structure of a UJT is similar to that of an N-channel JFET, but p-type (gate) material surrounds the N-type (channel) material in a JFET, and the gate surface is larger than the emitter junction of UJT. A UJT is operated with the emitter junction forward-biased while the JFET is normally operated with the gate junction reverse-biased. It is a current-controlled negative resistance device. Device operation The device has a