On the Current Gain of Germanium Filamentary Transistors

It has been established by mobility measurements that injected carriers in transit down a germanium rod may be trapped and subsequently released. The trapping of minority carriers is expected to affect materially the performance of germanium devices under certain conditions. The influence of traps on the current gain of germanium filamentary transistors is described in this paper. Measurements of the variation of current gain with temperature, emitter current and signal frequency are described.