I am doing a study into the early use of silicon diodes in radar and communication equipment during the Second World War.
What I would be interested in is as follows:
-type numbers of the diodes
-name/type number of radar/communication equipment
-technical infor on those systems
-info on producers
-pictures of actual diodes, also "in" the circuits
-anecdotal stories about the actual use
-anything else!
The information will be used for an on-going study project related to practical application of minerals (i.e. quartz) in industry and technology.
So, since this is an aspect of a broader study, other quartz-related info would be most appreciated, especially about early use of piezoelectric quartz crystals in electronic equipment.
Probably you could start by finding information about this gear but there would have to be someone on the team who can understand German:
formatting link
Many such sites have links to British and American gear but often also in German. Another option are senior centers. A few of the EEs from those days are still alive but there won't be much time left.
--
Regards, Joerg
http://www.analogconsultants.com/
"gmail" domain blocked because of excessive spam.
Use another domain or send PM.
Then you want to find a copy of "The Invention That Changed the World" by Robert Buderi), which is about radar development during WWII, but also about how that need for radar pushed electronics further (and how that push helped electronics to move along after the war).
You have it wrong, silicon diodes weren't used in radar, radar caused development of semiconductor diodes so they could be used in radar.
They had to use increasingly higher frequencies to get the fine detail they needed/wanted, and that stretched the limit of vacuum tubes at the time. Hence they flashed back to the early days of radio, looked at "cat's whisker" detectors, and compacted that into more reliable and small devices. Gone were the finicky adjustment for the hot spot, they got it right once and then sealed it all up.
But, those early diodes were point contact like the cat's whisker detectors, and as far as I know, they were germanium.
But they were seeing use not as detectors like in "crystal radios" but as mixers to get the microwave frequencies down to where tubes could amplify the signals.
It sure seems like you are looking in the wrong direction, expecting semiconductor diodes to exist before the war, when really the war caused them to be developed.
Scratch any piece of equipment that did use semiconductor diodes in WWII, and you are most likely to find that the development of the equipment involved development of semiconductor diodes.
After the war you see trends moving away from that scenario, where general diodes were developed independent of specific use, which in turn caused electronics to move forward which also in turn caused the need for semiconductors to develop.
The case has been made that the development of the transistor was based on that work on semiconductor diodes during the war.
Then you've completely missed the one thing that people will think of when they think "quartz".
Quartz is used in crystals, ie frequency determining elements. Going back to at least the 1920s. Blanks of quartz sliced thin and then ground to resonate at a certain frequency. INitially not that much more than a novelty, then it saw a lot of use, and it continues today, even though nowadays it's levelled off as frequency synthesis allows a single crystal to generate multiple frequencies, unlike WWII or even into the early seventies where you needed a single crystal for every frequency you wanted to generate (some of that WWII equipment was loaded with crystals).
Indeed, you don't hear much about quartz used to make semiconductor devices, so I'm not even sure if your premise on that account is correct.
I read the book "The entangled history of silicon" where they mention the use of silison in diodes for use in radar. The silicon was imported from the USA (was it from Bell Laboratories? Don't remember right now and I don't have the book here).
Indeed, those were point contact diodes.
No, they existed before the war too, but it was the demand for better radar (i.e. higher frequencies) that speeded up the development.
See for instance:
formatting link
Quartz is extensively used in semiconductor devices as isolator between the individual components.
But I am basically interested in anything related to the use of quartz in technology, and therefor also in silicon. They belong together.
In which case it was likely used in the FPS19 radar or/and the Tropo systems if my memory isn't fractured. But the early Projects were begun in the 50s.
John's post reprogrammed my erroneous thought that the 1N23 is germanium. It is the 1N21 that is germanium, and likely existed in the 40s.
Volume 15 of the MIT RadLab books, "Crystal Rectifiers" 440 pages, is all about that. History, theory, parts, applications. Appendix D lists the common mixer types. The history part mentions early mineral-based rectifiers.
Some interesting sections are one which notes that some diodes have power gain when used as mixers, and a suggestion that semiconductor triodes should be possible, and some interesting 100-volt welded-junction "power" diodes.
Volume 16, "Microwave Mixers" has some more stuff.
These books show up on ebay, or a used-book thing like Alibris.
I think Bliley Corp may have some papers on the history of quartz crystals. They, along with the point-contact diode, helped to win the war.
Ah, Norway. Then you might even find some WW-II veterans from the German side. I've met a few when I was younger. Some had been stationed there and liked it so much that they later moved to Scandinavia or bought a summer house there. One friend of mine would have known a lot about these Radars but unfortunately he passed away. He went on vacation to Norway pretty much every year.
In contrast to today the guys at the sites were intimately familiar with the circuitry because they had to repair this stuff on the component level.
--
Regards, Joerg
http://www.analogconsultants.com/
"gmail" domain blocked because of excessive spam.
Use another domain or send PM.
The WECo L4 SSB Carrier System was an exception to that. It was designed pre-war, and the "long haul" system was in service in many areas of the US prior to 1950. I didn't get my hands into one until 1955.
It used a synchronized (motor driven capacitor) 4kHz oscillator driving a harmonic generator from which crystal filters picked off the desired harmonic for the chores of channel generation, and the frequency stacking of channel groups into the modules of Groups and Supergroups creating systems of 420, 600, or 720 channels extending from 64kHz to 3.096 Mhz, depending on vintage and service needs.
The west coast was synchronized from Sacramento using a 64kHz pilot "tone."
--- Not exactly. What you're talking about there is amorphous silicon dioxide, which is silicon dioxide, just like quartz, but it has no crystal structure and it isn't piezoelectric.
---
--- Then you should be equally interested in oxygen, since it's the other constituent of quartz.
I thought at that point in time, practical diodes were all germanium point contact types, at least the ones used for RF detection. But I see from some web searching that I was wrong about that. The series of articles at this site may be interesting:
formatting link
That page mentions that the P-N junction was discovered by a researcher using purified silicon in 1940. Robert Buderi's book, "The Invention that Changed the World: How a small group of radar pioneers won the Second World War and launched a technological revolution," might be a good place to do some research too. I'd have a look in it to see what he says about silicon diodes, but my copy is at my office at the moment.
Quartz crystals for frequency control were used somewhat before that. This paper:
formatting link
says that a piece of quartz was used to control the frequency of an oscillator in 1919. Perhaps that is the first. I know there was a lot of interest in quartz crystals among amateur radio operators/builders in the 1930's. If you can find copies of QST or other ham magazines from that era, I'll bet you can find articles about quartz crystals.
OK, thanks for the titles, will definitely look for them on eBay or Amazone. Alibris is new to me, but I'll check.
I will definitely try Bliley!
But otherwise, yes, that is one of the important issues I want to document: to what extent where these components decisive for the outcome of the war. Interesting stuff, good for the museum expositions I am working on!
Also look into mica capacitors, and the use of mica as structural insulators in vacuum tubes and as a filler in phenolic sockets and such. Mica is unique: it's a good dielectric, a great high-temperature insulator and support, and naturally fractures into high-quality transparant sheets of nearly any desired thickness, yet is easily sheared and punched.
I've a R1359 UHF receiver. It formed part of the UK's 'Home chain' radar network. Tuning is via a diode stuck in the end of what looks a circular Lecher line. Diode is marked with the military designation 'CV364' and is same package as the IN23 series. I never found any data on this diode but for curiosity took it out and measured it. Germanium!.
ElectronDepot website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here.
All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.