M
Mark Aitchison
Guest
Does anyone make germanium diodes or germanium transistors now? I think
I heard of some expensive modern germanium high frequency devices (but
I'm not sure if that was simply "a few decades old" instead of "many
decades old". There are some advantages with germanium in some
situations, but all the germanium diodes (for instance) I know of are
"new Old Stock" (or "Old Old Stock"!) and not particularly good in many
respects partially because of factors I guess germanium will always
have, but probably largely because the production techniques have
generally improved since then.
If somebody made germanium diodes or transistors today, could they be
much better, closer tolerance, less noisey, etc than before? Are
germanium transistors getting a bum rap simply because they used
techniques that also gave poor silicon transistors back then?
Mark A
I heard of some expensive modern germanium high frequency devices (but
I'm not sure if that was simply "a few decades old" instead of "many
decades old". There are some advantages with germanium in some
situations, but all the germanium diodes (for instance) I know of are
"new Old Stock" (or "Old Old Stock"!) and not particularly good in many
respects partially because of factors I guess germanium will always
have, but probably largely because the production techniques have
generally improved since then.
If somebody made germanium diodes or transistors today, could they be
much better, closer tolerance, less noisey, etc than before? Are
germanium transistors getting a bum rap simply because they used
techniques that also gave poor silicon transistors back then?
Mark A
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