Transistor Museum Early Silicon Power Transistor History by Joe Knight General Electric Page 6

A SURVEY OF EARLY POWER TRANSISTORS

by Joe Knight

GE 1950s SILICON POWER TRANSISTORS

The final verse in the saga of this unusual GE power transistor series is that besides suddenly dropping this new series from their own Transistor Manuals, GE apparently may never have actually produced any of these "2N451-454" output devices. To date, these transistors have not shown up in any applications or in any collections (will someone out there please prove us wrong?). Did GE over-rate the power handling capability of this series and so pulled the plug, rather than starting over and redesigning them? Or, was the basing design so different from the accepted TO-3 design that no end-user wanted the hassle of trying to use them on new circuit board designs? Or, and also as likely, was the whole semiconductor industry rush to silicon power devices a clear signal to GE they should look to develop more unique fields of device applications such as their just released Silicon Unijunction transistors and in pursuing their own new field of SCR products. Whatever their reasons, GE must have led a lot of the electronics industry right up to the edge but then never took the last step to finally having real Power Transistors in their product inventory. It appears that for some time GE did not venture into this product field again but left it up to the competition to squabble over, with many not surviving the next decade with rising costly investments and shrinking profit margins. By the end late 1960's GE was back in the market place with their D40 - D42 Power Tab Silicon Power Transistors.

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Joe Knight Early Power Transistor History – GENERAL ELECTRIC Page 6