Nanolog - Clipping.... thingy

[somnif]

Noticed that Smallbear was now carrying these fascinating little devices. Essentially behave like a pair of clipping diodes, but.... odd.

Trying to shovel through the buzzwords on their website is an entertaining exercise, but in short: quirk of quantum physics means that rather than suddenly turning "on" (sudden drop in resistance from very high to very low) when they hit a specific forward-voltage (like a diode) they more gradually lower in resistance as the voltage is increased. (ok so its more specifically a change in current flow through the device as the voltage increases but whatever).

What does this mean? ....um, its different than.... um, other.... things?

Honestly it all looks interesting, but I'm not sure if the still quite high price is worth what would probably be a fairly minor component in a given design. Currently 15$ a piece for the things (used to be much higher, admittedly, now they're tiny scraps of PCB rather than TO-5).

The academic article: https://www.chem.ualberta.ca/~mccreery/RLM%20publication%20PDFs/mccreery248%20musical%20molecules%20molecular%20junction.pdf

The Website (prepare for buzzwords!): https://www.nanologaudio.com/

The thingy:


So, anyone played with them? Anyone WANT to play with them?

[jubal81]

I've been working with the N2 for about 6 months. It's interesting. Somewhere between a silicon and germanium diode. Huge knee.


THing to look out for is it's very leaky. I wouldn't use it in any feedback clipping arrangement. Best spot is hard clipping after an opamp or something else that can drive a load.

For example, it'd be something to try in a klon if you use it for low distortion.

Designed a new OD circuit to make the most of it and I'm really excited about it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MeqAX4Atuek


Poop. Can't get youtube embed working...

[somnif]

Poop. Can't get youtube embed working...

The trick is to take the "s" out of "https://..."

[EBK]

quirk of quantum physics means that rather than suddenly turning "on" (sudden drop in resistance from very high to very low) when they hit a specific forward-voltage (like a diode) they more gradually lower in resistance as the voltage is increased. (ok so its more specifically a change in current flow through the device as the voltage increases but whatever).

What does this mean? ....um, its different than.... um, other.... things?

Is that just a tunnel diode? 

[somnif]

(Full disclosure, quantum mechanics was not my strong suit. Thank god for a curve in that class)

The paper does describe the device operating via a tunneling mechanism, but "tunnel diodes" classically have a negative portion of their I/V curve, where increasing voltage results in decreasing current (for part of the curve anyway).

This thing never seems to go negative. It flattens out either side of the 0V mark, but that's all.

I need to dig through the citations to read up on the subject, but its 5am and I've not slept yet so I think that may have to wait a little while....

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/232787225_Rectification_and_stability_of_a_single_molecular_diode_with_controlled_orientation

[thesmokingman]

looks like gooped tunnel diodes to me

[EBK]

I wouldn't necessarily dismiss the idea of finding new musical uses for old tech.  When the NuTube people resurrected vacuum fluorescent displays as pseudo-vacuum tube amps, that was pretty clever (never tried them, but I liked the spirit behind the idea).  These tunnel devices may be different from off the shelf tunnel diodes in some useful way if they ever become cost effective to use.

[crashguitar]

I have been waiting for someone to post about these.

I know that Tom at Spiral Effects is using them in his pedals. He was also behind the revival of DOD pedals.

http://www.spiralelectricfx.com/

I am curious what people find in using these.

[alanp]

I am curious what people find in using these.

Me also. I want to know if they make as big a difference as Ge vs Si clipping diodes, or if it's more 1n4148 vs 1n4001.