> On Oct 25, 2025, at 3:34 PM, Paul Koning via cctalk <[email protected]>
> wrote:
>
>
>
>> On Oct 24, 2025, at 10:37 PM, ben via cctalk <[email protected]> wrote:
>>
>> On 2025-10-24 6:29 p.m., Murray McCullough via cctalk wrote:
>>> I had forgotten that 75 years ago, Oct. 3, 1950, the transistor was
>>> invented leading to integrated circuits making possible personal computers
>>> and the interest of our love of computing. Where would we be without
>>> Bardeen's, Brattain's and Shockley's invention?
>>
>> I HAVE NO idea.
>>
>> When did the point contact diode come out? Radar was the big tech then
>> so any use of solid state diodes would be Secret Information.
>
> According to "200 Meters and down" by Clinton B. DeSoto, the silicon and
> carborundum "detector" were both invented in 1906, ...
"carborundum" is better known as silicon carbide. It has been a niche
semiconductor material for quite a while; I remember reading about its use for
blue light lasers, back around 1980. Nowadays it's mainstream for certain
application areas, like high power devices or high temperature operation.
There are also silicon carbide resistors, very nice for high power
non-inductive applications. Ham Radio people know of these for "dummy loads".
I have one that happily takes 100 watts for minutes on end, and if I were to
dunk it into transformer oil for cooling it could take a kilowatt.
paul
