EEVblog Electronics Community Forum
Electronics => Projects, Designs, and Technical Stuff => Topic started by: MathWizard on May 04, 2021, 02:51:24 pm
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Hi I have a decent enough collection of TO-92 sized BJT's, but I hardly have anything bigger, I have few random TO-220 pulls from junk, and a few fake 3055's
So I don't have any real power transistor's for motor's or pass transistor's, etc. So today I'll try some S8050 TO-92 NPN's rated up to 700mA, for a little H-bridge DC motor tester (I probably have mosfets and a few Darlington's in TO-220).
Can anyone recommend some common TO-220 sized BJT's to have around ? Thanks
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TIP31/32, MJE13007, 2SC5044
We keep these in stock as GP replacements.
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So, just general purpose linear power stuff?
TIP31C, MJE15020 and friends, anything rated for audio/servo amp duty (esp. by ON Semi and Sanken). Some of these get pretty fast, beware of parasitic oscillation. Avoid hanging them off wires, and consider using a ferrite bead to the base if so (or sometimes while in circuit too!).
There's a couple other TIP series parts with bigger ratings (TIP35, 43? I forget), and also Darlingtons (TIP120 etc.) if you like.
The MJE13k and 18k series parts are quite cheap, good for HV switching, but not much of anything else. A couple of them astonishingly have reasonable linear power ratings, YMMV.
BTW, Motorola/ON Semi prefixes go something like, MJ = TO-3, MJE = TO-220 or whatever that big TO-126 / TO-3P like thing was; MJF = TO-220F, MJW = TO-247, etc. I think.
Oh, checking I see MJE1502x aren't so common anymore, 29 is still around but eh maybe just barely? Shopping is probably the way to go.
I did some shopping recently, for somewhat different criteria and found these:
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/projects/why-are-mosfets-used-as-pass-elements-in-linear-power-supplies/msg3531820/#msg3531820 (https://www.eevblog.com/forum/projects/why-are-mosfets-used-as-pass-elements-in-linear-power-supplies/msg3531820/#msg3531820)
YMMV
Recommend avoiding TO-3s, they're old and cumbersome. Flat tab looking things are so much easier to mount. I forget if I saw any BJTs in such packages, but MAX-247 and similar are interesting -- extremely good performance, at the cost of not having a screw hole! MOSFETs and IGBTs are more common in these I think, and they can get very big indeed (>10kVA switching capacity in a single device). These are easy to mount: use a screw-down spring clip (e.g. MAX07NG), or a one of those heatsinks with the snap-in or cam-lock springs.
Even if you have the screw hole, these can be valuable -- particularly true for TO-220s, the tab is off center, which can lift the device body off the heatsink giving poor results -- a clip against the body does the perfect job.
And for lower power but still more than general purpose jellybeans, low-Vce(sat) types are really nice, being efficient and fast; they're usually in SMT packages, mind. The DPAKs can handle pretty good power (make your own breakout boards and solder an extended copper tab onto 'em), and the SOT-223 or 89s will do a watt or two with wide enough copper pours. Example, PBSS303NX and -PX.
Tim
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There is also the TIP3055, which replaces the popular 2N3055 (NPN).
And the TIP2955 (PNP).
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Ok so I only need a few types more anyways, for now I found some TIP41/42's so I'm using them w/ a Darlington setup for a motor controller.
I better get some proper heatsinks for too TO-220 also
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If you want larger MOSFETs for your stock of 2N7000, I have IRF540N / IRF9540N and their IRL540N / IRL9540 variant. Those power MOSFETs are intended to serve as power switches instead of linear components though. There are also a lot of high power switching MOSFETs in small-ish SOIC-8 and TO-252 surface-mount packages too. On the other end of the spectrum, switching MOSFETs and IGBTs also comes in large, high voltage high current modules, capable of switching MW's or even GW's of power. (The Minhang HVDC Conversion Station in Shanghai converts the TW's of HVDC energy from Three Gorges Dam into three-phases AC using six huge stacks of those IGBT modules in its valve hall. Since currently almost all Chinese HVDC installations uses IGBT, it is capable of cold booting a downed local grid.)
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I have TIP41/42, BD911/912 and BDX33/34(darlington) in TO220, TIP35/36 in TO247 and I also keep BD139/140 in TO126. All are fairly jellybean and inexpensive.
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So general purpose TO-220 and maybe smaller bipolar power transistors? At the top of my list are the D44VH10/D45VH10 which are the most common TO-220 ring emitter transistors useful for linear and switching applications. The MJE182/MJE172 are similar but in the smaller TO-225 package.
These transistor combine high current gain, high Ft (50 MHz), and good secondary breakdown.