Electrical – Level-Shifter, a resistor i dont understand

level-shiftingresistorstransistors

I got a lot of help in understanding this circuit in a previous post.

I just don't understand the choice of R3 or why it is even there exactly.

EDIT: I just read my question and realized I give no context at all.
This is supposed to be a levelshifter from 3.3V to 5V the Output requires near 5V for High and near 0V for Low.

Why is R3 1koHm?
Is it to limit the current to the output although I though a digital input has negligible current draw? Or is it just cause I need something to create a voltage drop and i don't care about the current anymore? Or is 5mA just a standard for digital signals?

schematic

simulate this circuit – Schematic created using CircuitLab

Thank you guys alot

Best Answer

It's not a critical choice. If you were driving many TTL loads with Iih of 60uA each 1K would still be overkill for the DC level. There is one more consideration. The capacitance of the input must be considered. The Rc choice with this capacitance will determine the rise time.

What is more important here is why use two transistors to do this. If you put the input to the base of the second transistor you would only need a beta to 10 to saturate the transistor. If you use a more reasonable 10k pull-up there is not doubt at all. The inversion of the bit in the micro is much less expensive than the second transistor. Engineers must always be concerned with the cost of a product.