Transistor Arrays - whats going on!

[Magnus Danielson]

>>>>> "RT" == Roy Tate <roytate at ionet.net> writes:

Hi Roy!

 RT> I just talked to Mouser, and they told me the CA3046, CA3086 
 RT> and CA3096 are "non-catalog items."  They offered to sell me 
 RT> 525 of the CA3046s (minimum order quantity), but I declined.  :)
 RT> This _apparently_ reflect Mouser's desire to stock only higher 
 RT> volume items, as I couldn't find anything at www.semi.harris.com
 RT> mentioning the death of the CA3046.

Obviously isn't Mouser's interested in having you as a customer for
CA3046s.

 RT> So now would be a good time to figure out a scheme for matching 
 RT> transistors.  I know Sean Costello has Moog's method on his web 
 RT> page (see my links.), but several members of Synth-DIY felt this 
 RT> matching was sub-optimal.  What tests would be best?
 RT> How about if I ...
 RT> * Use a precision current source
 RT> * Measure voltage at two current levels
 RT> ... And independantly select for low noise in a noise circuit.
 RT> (That last is just a wild idea ...)

That would be a good start...

A good matching would concentrate on some key parameters which is
important to a specific application. If it is antilog amplifiers you
want some parameters to be close, but are less importance in other cases.

One thing that you do miss with not having an array is that you loose
the relatively tigth termical connection between the transistors, this
can be more catastrofic than some other parameters.

Cheers,
Magnus