A good idea?

Apr 06, 2005 22 Replies

I was just working on an amp today and pulled a transistor out for testing (with the very brilliant, Atlas tester). I had a thought: Transistors could be made with a fourth lead. This lead would allow a sophisticated (but inexpensive) testers (such as the Atlas) to interrogate devices and ascertain the manufacturer/specs/etc.



Trevor Wilson www.rageaudio.com.au

"Trevor Wilson"

** But any parts made in Germany would come back with:

" We will ask the questions ..... "

Plus Arab parts would allege Atlas had committed torture and cruelty.

.......... Phil

could

Well, if that was all that would be available via the extra leg, why not just write it on the case? :-) But it's a good idea if they were to, say, store the actual parameters of that particular device so you could compare later (and I guess this is what you meant....). Hmmm, we could develop this concept, but alas, I can't see it happening. Interesting though.

Cheers.

Ken

You do see that approach with the spd on ram dimms, but I cant see it happening with transistors.

"Trevor Wilson" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@news.comindico.com.au:

Not a good idea. No-body (end-user) would want to pay for this. Anyway the single transistor would then be dozens of transistors, ie an IC which would have to be on the same substrate... nuh, not worth considering.

**Oh, I think the chances are extremely remote. However, such an approach would, for instance, make life much harder for counterfeiters.
Trevor Wilson www.rageaudio.com.au

I'm surprised no-one has suggested to put a PIC on each transistor, to monitor a whole rage of parameters in real-time. And while you are at it, why not add an ethernet port and IP-enable the whole lot? Then you could check the specs of each device remotely over the Internet ... :)

compare

But you'd only find out it was a counterfeit after you'd bought it, just like now. They wouldn't even have to make the extra leg do anything in particular.

Ken

Aussie parts would simply say ' she'll be right mate';

US parts would ask which country they should bomb next

English parts might ask does it matter if it leaks a little oil

NZ parts might say ' I naid sex ligs ta tist ut'

Irish parts might respond ' who me'?

David

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approach

Egads! I've been trying to develop such an arrangement, except for monitoring zero ohm links!!! Do you know how much the extra patents are going to cost me if I have to protect intellectual property on monitoring technology for transistors, diodes, leds, pcb pads, spst switches, dpdt switches, capacitors ...

the

would

Nice! The logical extension of it all.....

Ken

No , it would need wireless.

Quite a few of the top of the line fpgas come with ethernet in them. Xilinx vertex4 FX with up to 4 10/100/1000 ethernet macs and ppc cores

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Also altera stratix2 claims a 10GB ethernet XSBI using 16bit LVDS

Someone jokingly suggested adding wireless and one of the reps said it was being looked at for future products.

A few of you guys may be interested in XFest2005

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For cheap fpga boards (other than for XFest)

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are made by
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also for addon modules

Alex

**The cost would be insignificant. Particularly with high power devices. However, I agree that the chances of seeing would be remote.
Trevor Wilson www.rageaudio.com.au

On Wed, 06 Apr 2005 07:26:20 GMT, swanny put finger to keyboard and composed:

It doesn't seem right that a PIC can cost less than a single transistor, but that's economics ...

- Franc Zabkar

Please remove one 's' from my address when replying by email.

It'd be almost reasonable in high-power or exotic (read: expensive) parts, as distinct from common-ordinary-garden variety stuff. If it was a standard chip used in a whole swag of devices then the cost would be minimal. If, if, if (as my dad says: "If your Aunt had balls, she'd be your uncle.")

Ken

**It is usually the more expensive parts which attract counterfeiters.
Trevor Wilson www.rageaudio.com.au

If I see it happen, I'll remember I heard it here first: the Wilson Inbuilt Modular Protection device. Don't abbreviate.

Cheers.

Ken

Yeah right. They'd just counterfeit the 4th leg.

Its a stupid idea - add cost to every single part, so that if a device fails, each component can be interrogated to find out what it was. A colossal waste of money. Not to mention the fact that you only really care about the *faulty* component, and if its faulty whats to stop the fault from interfering with the ID. Murphy ensures that will always occur.

Best not to think about the reason for service manuals and BOMs....

Cheers Terry

**They could, but it may not be worth the effort. Don't forget what that 4th leg is connected to.
**That is not the only reason for the extra leg. A
**Nope.

Not to mention the fact that you only really

**Indeed. Read what I actually wrote though.
**And again.
Trevor Wilson www.rageaudio.com.au

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