Can you overdrive transistors in the same way you can overdrive LEDs, if you keep the duty cycle low?
I need to drive 16 LEDs through one PNP transistor, with each LED connected to a constant-current sink of up to 55mA per LED (using Maxim Max6978's to sink), for a total of 880mA through each PNP transistor. But there's a 1/16 duty cycle (this is a 16x16 matrix), so the average power disipation won't be too high.
I'd like to use 2N2907's (TO-18 case) or similar, but the datasheets say the max continuous current allowed is 600mA. The word "continuous" makes me think I could have higher peak currents, but I don't see anything in the datasheets as to what that might be (like I do with LED datasheets, where it's assumed you'll be overdriving them in multiplexed apps). Think it's ok to use the 2N2907 here, or do I need to move up to a higher-power transistor?
thanks in advance,
Eric