HISTORY:
Sustainability is the name of the game! Anything (that has been tested and still functioning properly) should be repurposed creating saving in wasted Ee and reducing the poisoning our environment when items are buried in the earth at the local tip needlessly.
Never heard of Ee? It is a concept that creates a measurement of ALL things (not just electronics) that humans have made and the energy used in obtaining the raw material, processing the materials right through to a finished product and even should include the shipping of the item to the distributors/retailers.
If you would like to know more about Ee values, please take a look HERE
Another "early days" Japanese semiconductor, from the 1970's
Well, Matsushita (National Panasonic) was (and still is) a big time manufacturer in the world of semiconductors and this was one of their devices.
How long since you've seen some Germanium transistors? These were in common use way back when I was a teenager in the late 1960's, I cut my teeth on devices similar to this one - this was the beginnings of the "new fan-dangled" semiconductor technology
Up until this time in the 1960's valves were the "the main stream", then along came the world of semiconductors
MATSUSHITA - Germanium Transistor
Made in Japan
Circa 1970's
Type: 2SA101
Vcb -40V
Veb -0.7V
Ic 10mA
Pt 60mW
PNP
Germanium junction semiconductor
Case is TO-1
The legs are tin plated wire
WARNING!
If ever the new owner was considering using this device, NEVER bend the leads less than 1.5mm from the body. The packaging used in the early days of transistors was often quite delicate and if you make a bend in the lead which is too close to the body, the lead is likely to snap off!
COSMETIC CONDITION:
Amazing after all these years sitting in my spare parts drawers quite frankly!
NO physical damage
Legs are straight(ish) 8.5mm length each (quite short but useable)
TESTING:
It would have been nice to test these with a semiconductor curve tracer to get a much better idea about suitable circuit design but alas, my curve tracer has already found a new workshop to live in! Best I can do is test it with a simple transistor tester to determine the basic characteristics of Hfe and device type.
I currently have 2 of these devices,
Hfe results were 33 & 68
All are confirmed as PNP Germanium transistors
I have written in VERY SMALL numbers the Hfe for each device under test, black pen on the top of the packaging
