Build your own Germanium Transistor?

[GermaniumTransistors]

[digi2t]

And all this time, I`ve been wondering what to do with that can of germanium that`s been sitting on my bench.

[Kipper4]

Isn't germanium hazardous to health?

[Govmnt_Lacky]

Still working on my Kryptonium transistors...



Still trying to figure out how to cram it all into a TO-5 package!! 

[wavley]

This is how my coworkers built high frequency transistors in the 70's... whiskers and diode junctions on quartz.

[Digital Larry]

Isn't germanium hazardous to health?

I read the wikipedia article on Ge and surprisingly it is not that toxic.  Some Ge compounds are.

[GermaniumTransistors]

This is how my coworkers built high frequency transistors in the 70's... whiskers and diode junctions on quartz.

Wow that is amazing!  Thanks for sharing, do you remember if it was PNP type?

[duck_arse]

Still working on my Kryptonium transistors...



Still trying to figure out how to cram it all into a TO-5 package!!

sooo..... is it the germanium or the kryptonium that causes the baldness?

[PRR]

Point-Contact is NOT the Junction Transistor which became common.

Bell/AT&T did use thousands of PC devices in audio amplifiers. But it was a major headache.

Yes, you poke a whisker at Ge, zap it, you have a point contact. MOST of these don't do crap. Most of the long-trained women who did this were lucky to get a few working devices a day. (So I suppose, if you got nothing else in your life, it is a practical DIY project.)

[wavley]

Point-Contact is NOT the Junction Transistor which became common.

Bell/AT&T did use thousands of PC devices in audio amplifiers. But it was a major headache.

Yes, you poke a whisker at Ge, zap it, you have a point contact. MOST of these don't do crap. Most of the long-trained women who did this were lucky to get a few working devices a day. (So I suppose, if you got nothing else in your life, it is a practical DIY project.)

This is very true.  Ours in particular were from special wafer runs that we designed, the junctions are actually Schottky.  They actually probably have more in common with Cat's Whiskers than your average transistor, also it was designed to be cryogenically cooled for best performance.