Eli5: How are logic gates made?

Question

Logic gates such as NAND can create other logic gates, but how are the very basic ones made and mass produced?

In: 4

Answer 1

Using transistors. A transistor is like a wire that only allows a high voltage to pass through if if there’s also a high voltage coming into the third “gate” wire. This simple rule allows you to make the most basic logic gates.

This rule that a transistor follows is all thanks to a bit of a quirk in physics. It marries up our real world to the digital world.

Another handy quirk that people don’t really talk about is resistance. We use resistance to create the NOT gate, because a transistor on its own isn’t capable of this.