MPSA18 vs. 2N5088/5089

[Fancy Lime]

I just realized that all the graphs in the On Semi datasheets for the MPSA18 and for the 2N5088/5089 are identical. Not similar. The exact same plots. The specifications in numbers are quite a bit different. Does anyone know what's up with that? My initial assumption was that these are all sourced from the same process and the MPSA18 is just a tighter specced 2N5089. The graphs should be similar but not identical, no?

Andy


Edit: forgot to link the datasheets:

https://www.onsemi.com/pub/Collateral/MPSA18-D.PDF

https://www.onsemi.com/pub/Collateral/2N5088-D.PDF

[antonis]

MPSA18 is considered "low noise"..

[Fancy Lime]

So are the other two, no?

[antonis]

No..!!

[R.G.]

It's much like the old quip about the difference between climate and weather. Climate is what you expect, weather is what you get.

Datasheets are advertising, with some hints of a guarantee. As long as a device is within the mins and maxes, it's one of those devices. You have to pay careful attention to what the datasheet doesn't say. The word "typical" means "the following parameter may be anything in the world". So yeah, the same numbers on a datasheet may say that they are selections from the same process. In the past, this was normal - different "2N" numbers were unabashedly selections from a process. The suffixes of a, b, c, etc. were another way to say "some of these are really high gain, some medium," and so on.

There really isn't any way to say what an MPSA18, 2N5088, and 2N5089 are except this: does the device you receive with that label on it fit within the guaranteed specs. If it does, it's one of those.