Patrick Tait wrote a comment on Zvychai One.“With a radio on her arm – No one can resist her – Cause she’s loaded with A musical charm” (Freddy Cannon – “Transistor Sister” – 1961).Vedran liked Affordable bionic prosthesis.SHAOS wrote a reply on Lab Computer "Marina".SHAOS has updated the log for Lab Computer "Marina".Mehrdad Majzoobi has added a new log for Ubo Pod: Build Apps with Rich UX on Raspberry Pi.mozbek liked CRT-Style Pi Portable - Pi Terminal.Marsianin245 has added a new log for The simplest 4-bit RISC CPU.mit41301 has updated the project titled Rectangular Micro QR Code (rMQR).Marvin on Kalman Filters Without The Math.ytrewq on The Simplest Curve Tracer Ever.Oliver on Open-Source Firmware For Soldering Irons.rasz_pl on Microsoft Now Offering Parts And Repair Guides For Xbox Controllers.ethzero on Open-Source Firmware For Soldering Irons.David on Kalman Filters Without The Math.Elliot Williams on The Simplest Curve Tracer Ever.Reluctant Cannibal on Kalman Filters Without The Math.The V channel for MOSFETs, for example, opened the door for FETs to be true power devices, able to switch currents required for motors and other high current devices.Ĭontinue reading “Retrotechtacular: Old Transistors” → Posted in Curated, History, Original Art, Retrotechtacular Tagged fet, heathkit, history, it-121, regency tr-1, transistor, transistor radio Of course, even these major milestones are subject to incremental improvements. It would be 1954 before silicon transistors became practical. Two Germans working for a Westinghouse subsidiary in Paris independently developed a point contact transistor in 1948. However, Bell’s lawyers found the earlier patents and elected to pursue the conventional transistor patent that would lead to the inventors (John Bardeen, Walter Brattain, and William Shockley) winning the Nobel prize in 1956. Replica of the First Transistorīell labs researchers worked with germanium and actually understood how to make “point contact” transistors and FETs in 1947. A German inventor patented a similar device in 1934 that didn’t take off, either. Beyond that, mass production of semiconductor material was unknown at the time. In 1925 a Canadian physicist patented a FET but failed to publicize it. Everyone knew the disadvantages of tubes: fragile, power hungry, and physically large, although smaller and lower-power tubes would start to appear towards the end of their reign. The path from vacuum tube to the Regency TR-1 was a twisted one. Maximum frequency rises and power handling capacity increases. Parameters become less variable and yields increased. The FET is a fundamentally different kind of transistor that has many desirable properties and, of course, integrating hundreds or even thousands of transistors on one integrated circuit revolutionized electronics of all types. Of course, germanium to silicon is only one improvement made over the years. Of course, if you had a curve tracer, that was even better because you could measure the device parameters which were probably more subject to change than a modern device. If you pulled an $8 part out of a socket, you’d want to test it before you spent more money on a replacement. For example, a common piece of gear used to be a transistor tester, like the Heathkit IT-121 in the video below. When the economics of transistors changed, it made a lot of things practical. Some gear even used sockets which also allowed the quick substitution of devices, just like the tubes they replaced. The first transistors were germanium which has high leakage and worse thermal properties than silicon.Įarly transistors were subject to damage from soldering, so it was common to use an alligator clip or a specific heat sink clip to prevent heat from reaching the transistor during construction. The transistors were not that good even when they did work. In some cases, 4 out of 5 of the devices were not usable. But another reason is that yields were poor. Part of the reason the transistors cost so much was that production costs were high. Even at that price, they sold about 150,000 radios. That doesn’t sound like much until you realize that in 1954, this was equivalent to about $441 (a new car cost about $1,700 and a copy of life magazine cost 20 cents). In late 1954, the four-transistor device went on sale for $49.95. Consider the Regency TR-1, the first transistor radio from TI and IDEA. According to a recent IEEE article, a transistor cost about $8 in today’s money back in the 1960’s. Like everything else electronic, they’ve become both better and cheaper.
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