Newsgroups: sci.electronics
Path: utzoo!henry
From: henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer)
Subject: 1N34s
Message-ID: <1989Nov29.175720.4671@utzoo.uucp>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
References: <5386@internal.Apple.COM> <24441@cup.portal.com> <1989Nov25.080724.19517@utzoo.uucp> <24473@cup.portal.com>
Date: Wed, 29 Nov 89 17:57:20 GMT

In article <24473@cup.portal.com> ISW@cup.portal.com (Isaac S Wingfield) writes:
>...we concluded that germanium diode specs
>were all kind of loose, and it was possible to duplicate (or even better)
>all specs *except* FCD using silicon, and that's what nearly everybody
>was doing! The ITT devices came in at 0.3V, and everything was fine.

I was sort of curious about this, and ran some tests on the 1N34s I've
got in my parts box at home.  They are from Rockwell, I think -- at least
the tiny symbol on the side looks like the Rockwell logo!  I *think* these
are germanium; the current-vs-voltage curve does start to break at 0.3V.
What startled me a bit was how gradual the rise was after that; within
the limits of my simple measuring setup, it looked like a near-linear rise
at about 1mA/100mV, whereas the one for a 1N4148 is nearly vertical at
circa 0.6V.  Is this normal for germanium, or have I got something funny
like silicon pretending to be germanium?
-- 
That's not a joke, that's      |     Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
NASA.  -Nick Szabo             | uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu


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