Motorola: Vintage Transistors / Diodes Collection

This site contains my collection of vintage transistors and diodes, most of them included with their original package or sleeves. The devices are produced in the late fifties and early sixties except the MOSFET's from Sony they where made in 1975. Enjoy the collectables and click on the picture links for more details. Suggestions regarding these transistors are welcome. I'm always looking for new semiconductor items to complete my collection, so if you would like to sell or exchange something, please contact me, jan@transparentsound.com. Thanks Mr. Alvin H. Nichter for you comment on the 2N173 and 2N174.

FYI, starting sometime in the 1960's, semiconductor manufacturers started putting date codes on their products.  Typically, they were of the format "YYWW", where "YY" was the last two digits of the year, and "WW" was the week of manufacture in that year (1-52).  (Sometimes, especially after the 1960's, only the last digit of the year was used, so a three-digit number was present: "YWW".)  Based on this, the 2N173 transistor pictured on your page was manufactured in the 39th week of 1974, and the 2N174A was manufactured in the 48th week of 1965. 

The 2N174A has a "JAN" designation.  (In parts catalogs, the part would sometimes be listed as "JAN2N174A".)  "JAN" stands for Joint Army Navy, which is a set of specs that combine the needs of both of those armed services branches, thereby simplifying manufacture and procurement, and possibly reducing cost.  It's not the most stringent set of Mil-spec standards, but it's typically better than commercial grade in terms of such things as operating temperature range and reliability.