TRANSISTOR OMISSION
We read your article "Transistors Energize Solid-State Amplifiers" in the April edition of Microwaves & RF with both interest and disbelief, as Integra Technologies isn't mentioned oncedespite having been in business for 14 years and having advertised in your magazine on a number of occasions! Integra Technologies has substantial global sales, is arguably the worldwide leader in high power pulsed Si bipolar transistors and, so far as we know, the only company to offer not just Si bipolar transistors but also VDMOS, LDMOS, and GaN transistors.
Integra Technologies is at the cutting-edge of transistor technology. As an example, we have just released details of our 500-W GaN transistors for pulsed L-band radar and avionics applications. However, it has to be admitted that high-power pulsed transistors haven't had as much press exposure over the last few years as CW devices have for the cellular base station business.
And so, to help rectify this, we will be submitting an article to you for possible publication in your magazine that compares the various transistor technologies for high power pulsed applications, and which highlights the state-of-the-art in this exacting application area.
Dr. John Walker
European Sales Manager
Integra Technologies, Inc.
VACUUM HUMOR
Before my days working with X-Band ship radars, I worked as a repairman at my father's TV repair shop. This was during the time when every distributor was chomping at the bit to gain our vacuum tube business and ran crazy "specials" in pricing. We decided to play a joke on a salesman who seemed to have no detectable sense of humor. We secretly loaded some broken tube parts and a "wired up" large axial lead capacitor into a Five-Pack of sweep tubes. When the salesman stopped by to offer us his real sweet deal, we told him in a puzzled manner that we didn't want his brand of tubes because they often "just blew up" on our shelves.
While he was arguing that he never heard of such a thing and we must be crazy, I managed to plug the capacitor into 120vac. About 30 seconds later came a huge bang, a cloud of smoke, foil, paper and tube parts scattered everywhere. In the straightest face we could manage we said, "There, that was one just now!" He closed his briefcase and walked out without saying a word and didn't come back for almost a month.
Donald Cowey
Technician
Lord Corp., Erie, Pa.