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The Case of the Smashed Schottkys - RF Cafe Forums
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| Kirt Blattenberger
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Post subject: The Case of the Smashed Schottkys
Posted: Tue Jan 05, 2010 10:48 am
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Joined: Sun Aug 03, 2003 2:02 pm
Posts: 878
Location: Erie, PA |
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Greetings:
For some reason I happened to think of a humorous event from back
in 1989 when I was working for General Electric Aerospace Division, in Utica, NY. It
was not quite so funny at the time.
I was assigned to design the front end for
a multi-channel L-band airborne electronic warfare receiver. This being my first job
after having recently graduated with my BSEE, I was scrambling trying to come up to
speed on all the new terms and formulas for receivers with their attendant filters,
amplifiers, limiters, couplers, switches, etc. An experienced engineer from another
GE division lent some expertise on building a simple power level detector for the ALC
circuit, using a couple Schottky diodes. The schedule was getting a bit tight, so he
volunteered to part with a handful from his own stash and put half a dozen of them in
the mail for me.
Well, a few days later the much-anticipated diodes arrived in
the mail... in a standard business envelope... with no padding. They were all pulverized
into sand-like particles, with the readily identifiable black diode specs and gold bond
wires mixed in.
He was genuinely surprised when I call to tell him of the damaged
diodes.
_________________
- Kirt Blattenberger
RF Cafe Progenitor & Webmaster
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Posted 11/12/2012/span>
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