On 19/01/2020 8:11 am, Cursitor Doom wrote:
Gentlemen,

How reliable are the old 'tin-can' encapsulated op-amps from say 40
years ago? I'm talking about the ones that look like large transistors
and have typically 8 leads in the TO5-8 package. I'm unable to provide
a part number as these don't have one as such. Could be a 741 perhaps
but I can't be certain. Are they known to fail?


**No. Provided supply Voltages remain within the limits set by the
manufacturer, metal can OP amps, transistors, etc are phenomenally
reliable. For a long time, all MIL-spec semiconductors were metal can
only. They might still be, but I doubt it. In the early days of plastic
encapsulation, some problems were notable. Mostly with power devices.
Things have improved markedly over the years, but you will likely never
approach the reliability of a metal can device by using plastic.


--
Trevor Wilson
www.rageaudio.com.au