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Magic smoke.

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schmitt trigger

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Sorry, I was going to post this thread two days earlier.................better late than never.

Does anyone know the company who made the first plastic packaged transistors?
Old timers may remember that many years ago, transistors came in hermetically sealed metal cans. The reason was simple, vaporized germanium or silicon (the magic smoke) was injected at high pressure into the can. Seal it, and voila! you had a transistor. But those were expensive.

Plastic transistors reduced the price considerably. But I never understood how they packaged the vaporized silicon in an epoxy blob.
Anyways, those guys who invented it should have gotten the Nobel prize, instead of Shockley.
 
Does anyone know the company who made the first plastic packaged transistors?

I don't know the answer for sure; but I recall the first plastic-packaged transistors I encountered were 2N2923's, back in the early 1960's, and IIRC they were made by GE.
 
vaporized germanium or silicon (the magic smoke) was injected at high pressure into the can
The germanium or silicon is not "vaporized", it is a chip of material that has been cut from a wafer that has been processed using high temperature to diffuse the desired atoms into the wafer to form the transistors.
When it is packaged, the chip is at room temperature, no high pressure involved.

The metal or plastic case is just to protect the chip from atmospheric moisture and other contamination that could damage the transistor.
If you carefully open the case, the transistor will still operate, at least until contaminants cause it to fail.
 
The germanium or silicon is not "vaporized", it is a chip of material that has been cut from a wafer that has been processed using high temperature to diffuse the desired atoms into the wafer to form the transistors.
When it is packaged, the chip is at room temperature, no high pressure involved.

The metal or plastic case is just to protect the chip from atmospheric moisture and other contamination that could damage the transistor.
If you carefully open the case, the transistor will still operate, at least until contaminants cause it to fail.
See utter nonsense like this, is what destroys this site!! Everyone knows they stopped high pressure injection when they started using liquid smoke! Inject,seal, warm up and your done!!

I wish they would find an easy easy to recapture it once its out, then we could put it back in. I have tried a few times, but I dont think I get enough back in, it never works very well after resealing.
 
Guess I missed the late April Fool's joke. :p
 
My lab smells of magic smoke.
I even have a magic smoke detector.
 
My lab smells of magic smoke.
I even have a magic smoke detector.
If your making such small amounts, that you need a detector..........Your not working hard enough!! I can easily fill a shed with smoke inside an hour, no detector needed!
 
Ah yes, but is it magic smoke?, if so you ought to be making ic's from it.
 
Ah yes, but is it magic smoke?, if so you ought to be making ic's from it.
Of course its magic! Proved by things only working when its inside! As soon as you let it out they dont work any more.
 
My car exhaust smokes when its cold.
I asked my mechanic is the smoke was magic, nope.
The engine is pants.
 
That's quite an achievement, making an engine out of pants. I think a little smoke can be forgiven in this instance.
 
The largest release of magic smoke I ever caused was a motor driver. The device was connected properly as far as I can tell but it had been dropped. When I connected 48V from the battery the two Multiwatt15 packaged chips on the board exploded, first one then the other. Sending a miniature mushroom cloud up, complete with counter-circulating rings like the ones in bomb test movies, only the size of a bowling pin.
 
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