{"id":210,"date":"2012-06-08T12:27:02","date_gmt":"2012-06-08T19:27:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.circuitspecialists.com\/?p=210"},"modified":"2024-01-04T21:26:10","modified_gmt":"2024-01-05T04:26:10","slug":"germanium-diode-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.circuitspecialists.com\/blog\/germanium-diode-history\/","title":{"rendered":"Germanium Diode History &#038; Cat&#8217;s Whisker Detectors"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The germanium diode has an interesting and important role in the history of\u00a0radio transmission. \u00a0In the early years of radio, information was transmitted by telegraphy, by turning the transmitter on and off with a switch called a telegraph key. This would spell out messages in Morse code, which consist of dots and dashes. Therefore, early radios only had to detect the the radio signal, there was no need to change it into audio. This device was known as the detector, and the most successful detector was the crystal detector. The crystal detector began to replace the magnetic and electrolytic detectors in the early 1900\u2019s and when AM radio transmissions were introduced, the crystal detectors were able to pick up these transmissions as well.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">In 1906 G.W Pickard worked to develop the cat\u2019s whisker diode by using a silicon crystal, this was later patented. Later as the cat\u2019s whisker diodes became more popular Pickard began testing over 30,000 different combinations or crystals and wires. Another Pickard patent was the use of silicone as a detector, also patented in 1906.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Following World War II the <a title=\"germanium diode\" href=\"https:\/\/www.circuitspecialists.com\/1n34a.html\">germanium diode<\/a> was created, and began to replace the cat\u2019s whisker detectors.\u00a0The number of crystal radios being made were drastically reduced. Even today many people still collect cat\u2019s whisker detectors for personal use. They are often obtained by antique radio hobbyists and other historical enthusiasts.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.circuitspecialists.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/Leaf_spring_crystal_detector.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-211 size-medium\" title=\"crystal_detector\" src=\"https:\/\/www.circuitspecialists.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/Leaf_spring_crystal_detector-300x243.png\" alt=\"cat's whisker replaced by germanium diode\" width=\"300\" height=\"243\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.circuitspecialists.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/Leaf_spring_crystal_detector-300x243.png 300w, https:\/\/www.circuitspecialists.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/Leaf_spring_crystal_detector.png 423w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The germanium diode performs well at lower temperature and voltage applications. \u00a0For RF applications, germanium has greater power transfer than silicon thanks to the lower voltage drop, and better switching speed. \u00a0This is due to higher carrier mobility and lower diode capacitance than\u00a0silicon.Hobbyists looking for a germanium diode can find the <a title=\"1n34a germanium diode\" href=\"https:\/\/www.circuitspecialists.com\/1n34a.html\">1N34A<\/a> here.<\/p>\n<p>If you&#8217;re interested in learning more about the electrical properties of germanium vs silicon George State University has a good resource <a href=\"http:\/\/hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu\/hbase\/Solids\/sili.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The germanium diode has an interesting and important role in the history of\u00a0radio transmission. \u00a0In the early years of radio,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_layout":"default_layout","footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-210","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-diodes"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.8.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Germanium Diode History &amp; Cat&#039;s Whisker Detectors | Simply Smarter Circuitry Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The germanium diode has a very interesting history. 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