My favorite distributor has this on its website. There is no base connection, so why would I (or anybody else) care whether it is NPN or PNP?


Related: I've noticed a trend in datasheets over the last couple of decades. Representative internal schematics have been replaced by block diagrams. This is good enough when combined with the specifications but I feel like something is missing from the experience.

 

You would need to know which way round to connect the emitter and collector.

 

There is no base connection, so why would I (or anybody else) care whether it is NPN or PNP?

So one knows which way the current flows into the collector?

 

so why would I (or anybody else) care whether it is NPN or PNP?
View attachment 155390
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Pretty much goes for most opto isolators, slot opto sensors etc.
Max.

 

base or not... this is still a polarized device.

 

I remember the old digital chip's datasheets in which the standard symbols for their logic gates were graphically included in their pin layout.

Nowadays they only represent the pins functions with letters and/or their complements... as you say, it takes something away from the experience, and makes for a sometimes incomplete and even slower interpretation of the device's internal workings.

 

If the anode and cathode were marked, then there would not be a need to know whether the device inside is NPN or PNP.

 

If the anode and cathode were marked, then there would not be a need to know whether the device inside is NPN or PNP.

There is no "anode" or "cathode".

 

datasheet does show pinout, collector is closer to lens