I found an oral history from someone who was involved in the research at the time (Art Uhlir Jr.). It is a bit scattered, but very close to this discussion:
Bottom of page 10 gets to the 1N23.
I still have a few 1N21 and 1N23 diodes used as mixers in ancient X-band radar receivers. 2K25 klystron for a local oscillator.
Anyway, they're both silicon, not germanium. See:
Corroborates my thought that they were probably point-contact.
...Jim Thompson
According to the Henney's Radio Engineering Handbook 4th ed (1950),
1N25 and 1N26 silcon point contact 'crystals' for use in UHF and SHF converters (1 to 25 GHz) are discussed in commercial publications by Cornelius in 1945; 1N34 and 1N38 germanium 'crystals' for use at VHF (~200mHz) appear in publications the following year.Waritime radar operated in the 195MHz-10,000MHz range.
1N21B 'crystal' mixers were used by GE in commercial 2GHz relay service before 1948 and similar parts were used by Bell in multiplex telephone and television relay systems at 4GHz around the same time.RL
On Apr 26, 5:04 pm, JosephKK wrote: ...
WTF??!! YOU are the one, a day before my posting quoted above, who pondered in a post directly in the thread above mine about where to get Schottky diodes with Vf below 0.2V. I would suppose you weren't asking there about parts from the 40's or 50's. Don't complain about drift into new areas after willing taking part in the drift yourself. Please have the grace to not complain about answers to the very questions you've asked. Alternatively, just ignore the drift. To some of us, the side issues become more interesting than the original topic.
First, Si diodes were not used in WW II. The PN SI diode wasn't invented yet.
Selenium wafers and sticks were the power types and point or whisker diodes for RF. [ I have some of these in lead cans ]
In the 60's it was still that way.
Silicon diodes were developed by bell labs for internal telephone use but semiconductor had to be invented first.
Look at the date of the transistor. Silicon diode and Germanium diode.
I know Radar in B52's were using Selenium and Germanium for RF.
Silicon came later since it was hard to use and Ge was the center of it all.
Mart> Hi!
Nearly all the radar first mixer diodes were silicon point-contact types, essentially silicon schottky diodes.
See the MIT Rad Lab book, volume 15, "Crystal Rectifiers" for a bunch of WWII (and pre-war) stuff about diode development. This is from that book:
ftp://jjlarkin.lmi.net/RadDiode2.JPG
ftp://jjlarkin.lmi.net/RadLabDiodes.JPG
Funny, I recall using lots of silicon PN diodes (and SCRs, and transistors, and tunnel diodes) in the early 1960's. Tek was using GaAs diodes in their sampling scopes ca 1964.
No. See the RadLab book.
Selenium was never used in RF or radar, except maybe power supplies. Far too slow.
John
I thought selenium rectifier stacks were pretty cool when I was a kid, though....those big orange heat sinks made them look like some strange arthropod. Fortunately I never toasted one, because I certainly wouldn't have known that you have to leave the room ASAP.
Cheers
Phil Hobbs
It was certainly used in the power supplies. Not maybe. I actually owned a radar unit that was commissioned for navy service in 1944. Nice selenium series stacks used as diodes in at least some of the power supplies. Also used vacuum tube VR150's for regulators.
Jon
VR150 is not a vacuum tube - it's gas filled (argon/neon), cold cathode.
Chris
Because it just appeared in s.e.b.
Donno. Emails are by convention top, usenet is bottom. I do a lot of emails, twenty or so yesterday, and sometimes I forget.
What facts do you dispute? Wanna argue with my RadLab books, or my
1964 Allied catalog, or my shelves of radio books going back to 1918?OK, let's go: when was the first junction transistor made? By whom?
John
Because I hadn't had coffee yet, and because I've got used to you harassing me.
John
Which is why you remind me so much of Miss Denton, my matronly 6th grade teacher.
John
I don't know exactly when, but the announcement of a working tranistor was Big News at the time - I was about 8, which would make it about
1957-ish; I know that transistor radios were popular in the late '50s- early '60s; interestingly, that seems to coincide with the rising popularity of Rock-n-Roll.I'm pretty sure that Bardeen, Brattain, and Schockley made the first _point-contact_ transistor at Bell Labs, but I'd have to look up the date.
Oh, heck, I couldn't stop myself:
It's the first hit at:
Hope This Helps! Rich
Sorry. My mistake. Looked like one, and of course you are correct.
Jon
According to the Computer History Museum, it was another invention from Bell Las:
Have something to add? Share your thoughts — no account required.
Ask the community — no account required