On Thu, 14 Feb 2008 11:49:42 -0600, msg wrote:

James Sweet wrote:

"Camsid" wrote in message ...

I have tons of 2N5038 150V 30Amps, many other TIP32x. Wiki said NPN is so
much better than PNP's I know that but I still want to do some experiment.

I wonder what wiki?

One is not "better" than the other, but rather some applications call for
NPN, some for PNP, and others require both. It depends what you're doing.

Depending on the wiki, perhaps the reference was historical; in the late
1950's - early 1960's there was a lot of buzz about new 'mesa' NPN transistors
which had hugely improved characteristics over previous mostly PNP processes.

Michael

Stille there are some small differences. Compare the end 70's
transistors like BC547/BC557, and you will see that the NPN one
usually has somewhat more bandwidth or other better parameters. I was
taught that the NPN's tend to be (this is not a rule) a little more
robust when you overload them. I haven't check the latest transistors.

Pieter