R. Paul McCarty <rpmc@troi.cc.rochester.edu> wrote: >> ESD doesn't always involve a noticeable zap. The least >> noticeable discharge is several hundred volts. Many electronic >> devices can be discombobulated by just a couple of hundred >> volts. GaAs transistors can be destroyed but as little as >> 100 volts, but I doubt your keyboard controller has any of >> those in it. > >Probably not; its dated 1980 on the ceramic case. GaAs devices have been around a lot longer than that. My point was they're really expensive and not necessary for something slow like a keyboard controller. They're mostly used for microwave RF amplifiers. They're more rad-hard than silicon, so they are also used for some military logic devices. Wow. 1980. I wonder what electromigration has done to it by now. Probably not a whole lot, considering the traces on the chip would be about 10 microns wide... --Blair "This message will self-destruct in 30 days."
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