What went wrong?
germanium is fucking expensive
Poor temperature stability is the biggest reason
glass breaks
>>55480062
>germanium is fucking expensive
and hard to get.
Mullard (UK) used to get theirs by refining the chimney soot from coal-burning power stations. Northumbrian coal was the best.
Whereas silicon is everywhere.
OTOH, germanium is simpler to fabricate because silicon needs higher temperatures.
>>55480906
>Poor temperature stability is the biggest reason
Thermal runaway.
The PN junctions normally leak a little but it's a positive co-efficient - more heat more leakage. More leakage, more heat.
Once a certain temperature has been reached it just keeps leaking and heating and leaking.
Leaving your new transistor radio on in the sun would be enough to kill it.
>>55480012
Germanium had a much lower forward voltage than silicon. Very important for low-voltage applications.
Silicon has higher stand-off voltages but you could find samples of germanium power transistors (eg OC36) that would work up to 400V Vce.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYdcNZHEZow
>>55481193
>So this is what a light emitting diode is
