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TRANSISTOR
MUSEUM™ Historic Transistor Photo
Gallery Photo Essay – Shockley 4
Layer Diodes |
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Schematic of a Unique Shockley Diode Application – An Audio Power Amplifier |
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Photo
Essay Commentary The
above hand-drawn schematic was provided by Ludwell Sibley, with the comment
that this had been hurriedly copied from a Shockley Applications sheet years
ago. This audio amplifier is clearly
a most unusual application for the Shockley diode, which originally was
developed and sold as a switching device. In fact, it seems that William Shockley was pleased with this
use of his invention, and made at least one professional presentation in 1961
to an engineering group about the circuit [4]. Ludwell
Sibley also relates another unusual application for the Shockley diode: “I
don’t know if I should admit this, but in college my dorm roommate was
enamored of listening to the theme song from a network show that aired at
11PM nightly. This included nights before
my early-morning ROTC drill. Fortunately
the radio signal was weak. A PNPN diode and 820-pF capacitor, wired in series
inside an AC plug, provided effective jamming action: 60 times a second the diode
would fire and send a pulse into the capacitor. The effect was
indistinguishable from loud fluorescent light noise.” Go
To PhotoGallery Shockley Diodes Page 6 |
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Copyright © 2005 by Jack Ward. All Rights Reserved. http://www.transistormuseum.com/ PAGE 5 |
