[sdiy] Cheapest Matched Pair

[ijfritz at earthlink.net]

Joe, Oren etal --

The CA3046 is indeed speced to 5 mV matching, but in practice it is usually
much better due to improvements in Si technology in the years since the device
originally came out.

Also the beta is usually much better than speced.

The main drawback of this array is the relatively high emitter series
resistance.  This needs to be compensated for in critical converter
applications.

If you can find it, the CA3083 is quite a bit better than the CA3046 in this
regard.

Seasons greetings to all!

  Ian


On Tue, 24 Dec 2002 13:30:03 -0800 oleavitt at ix.netcom.com wrote:

> There is the CA3046 array - about US$1.00, or
> less, a piece.
> The differential pair in this is matched to
> within 5 milli volts, which is
> looser than the 50 micro volt match for the
> LM394, but good enough for many
> applications.
> 
> I beleive there have been others mentioned on
> the List some weeks back...
> 
> Best Holiday wishes, Oren
> 
> 
> On Tue, 24 Dec 2002 12:51:00 -0800 Joe Kramer 
> wrote:
> 
> > Hi Friends,
> >     What's the cheapest and most readily
> > available NPN matched pair for
> > general purpose?  Digikey carries the LM394
> for
> > $5.58 each.  This seems
> > somewhat reasonable; I'd prefer Mouser, but
> > they don't carry the LM394.  Are
> > there any others that someone could suggest? 
> > Thanks.
> > 
> > Regards,
> > Joe Kramer
> > 
> > 
> 
>