Saturday, May 10, 2008

Home made transistors?

I'm inspired by the guy who is making his own film with this apparatus, and this person who makes his own triode vacuum tubes, to wonder, just how hard is it to make a transistor?

I know that there are a lot of choices out there, and silicon and germanium are the most common, but I'm just looking for something that can amplify an audio signal, or switch on and off with a beta of at least 10, and a cutoff frequency of at least 10Khz.

What are the choices if you back wayyyyy off from the state of the art? I know copper oxide, copper sulfate, and lead sulfide are all semiconductors, what other choices are there? Surely chemistry has come a long way, and this can be done in a home basement.

Questions and comments are welcome.

--Mike--

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