3 ms·
You can make a razor blade diode or a pyrite diode, so I wonder if there's some way to make a make a transistor out of household junk...
by 13of40 10y ago
You can make a razor blade diode or a pyrite diode, so I wonder if there's some way to make a make a transistor out of household junk...
- mrob 10y agoJeri Ellsworth has built working transistors at home. Point contact germanium BJT: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmotkjMSKnI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmotkjMSKnI Etched silicon FET: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdcKwOo7dmM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdcKwOo7dmM The rusty razorblade + pin point contact diode doesn't need anything special because it's a Schottky diode, with a metal/N-type semiconductor junction. If you probe lots of places you can find an N-type region where the dopant is random impurities. But the transistor needs both N and P-type regions, so I don't see any way to build one with common junk. Jeri's point contact example works by diffusing phosphorus from phosphor bronze into commercially produced N-type germanium using a high current to heat it. Phosphor bronze is arguably household junk but I don't think germanium diodes are.