On Sat, 20 Sep 2003 17:09:01 -0400, "Bob Morein"
wrote:

Can anyone point me in the direction of devices/manufacturers/data sheets
for a transistor capable of operating with extreme low power?

Something with a small die. 2N5210 maybe?
http://www.fairchildsemi.com/ds/2N/2N5210.pdf
However most of the power dissipation is in the way the circuit is
designed. In the 70s, most smoke detectors were made using discretes,
either bipolar or the CMOS 4007 chip, and the batteries still lasted a
long time. I have schematics for a number of these and will post some
day.
You can use diodes as pullup resistors too. see:
http://members.shaw.ca/novotill/Sola...otor/index.htm
for an example of this.