TRANSISTOR MUSEUM Historic Transistor Photo Gallery
Transistor Size (5/8” X 5/16”) No Date Codes or Packaging Each Unit Hand Serialized on Back or Top	RCA TA154 TYPE Germanium NPN Alloy Junction Low Frequency Amplifier USAGE Experimental/Developmental DATE INTRODUCED 1953 CASE STYLES White Epoxy AVAILABILITY Rare (Limited Production)
HISTORIC NOTES The RCA TA154 transistor was the first NPN junction type developed by RCA. This work was started at the RCA Labs in Princeton NJ in 1952 and has been described in the classic paper “A Germanium NPN Junction Transistor by the Alloy Process” by D. A. Jenny, RCA ISL Bulletin LB-903, Jan 26, 1953. Several thousand of this type were built and the main purpose was to supply functioning transistors to RCA circuit engineers for developing devices such as radios. The TA154 was the prototype for the commercialized 2N35, which was introduced by RCA in 1953. The case material is araldite epoxy, which, through time, allows moisture degradation of the transistor junctions - most currently existing units are not functional. The units were hand lettered with green ink (green was used to represent NPN types). The “TA” part of the model number was used by RCA to represent “developmental” transistors which were not yet ready for commercialization but were available for circuit developmental – “TA” stands for “Transistor Amplifier”.
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