Telstar 1 included
discrete transistors augmented by a traveling-wave-tube amplifier to reach the required 3-W transmit power.
The one-channel interface driver has a very simple construction of resistors, diodes and Darlington transistors and will replace
discrete transistors in interface circuits.
Gnauck, a scientist doing lightwave work at Bell Labs, some receivers have come very close to the best hybrids where
discrete transistors and discrete photodiodes have been put together in a receiver's front-end.
Lower frequency designs lend themselves to a single layer RF pcb design mounted onto a backplane, with SMT packaged MMICs, and drop-in devices such as circulators or packaged
discrete transistors.
The RF Micro Devices[R] RF3800 series of driver amplifiers provides up to +37 dBm of output power (P1dB), high power efficiency (> 35 percent at P1dB), high linearity (+50 dBm OIP3) and higher gain (14 to 20 dB) under linear class AB operation, as compared with alternate Si-LDMOS
discrete transistors commonly used in similar infrastructure power amplifier applications.
A technology leap has occurred recently, which compares to the one from
discrete transistors to integrated circuits.
High voltage
discrete transistors with breakdown voltages appropriate to the various national standards are used to connect the DAA chips to the telephone lines.
The splitter and required gain are commonly delivered with amplifier gain blocks or even
discrete transistors and baluns.