Strange Case Negative Violet?

I have this weird diode that has been sitting on my work table for the past few months. It's
really strange. It has a photodiode and is case negative. On the back there is a single red
dot next to the positive pin. There is no bar code or other markings.

Has anyone seen anything like this before? I scoured the forums looking for graphs or drive
current recommendations and can't find anything about it. I'd take a picture, but it's buried
underneath a driver at the moment.

Where'd you get it?

Also did you try applying positive power to the supposed photodiode pin?

I remember reading a while back about combined red + violet combo diodes. Perhaps this is one of those.

I don't remember exactly. I thought it came out of a GGW-H20L, but I looked in my diode tray again
and found one with a barcode on the back, so that is probably the GGW.

When power is applied to the other pin, nothing happens, and shining light into it gives about 500mV on
that pin, so it has to be a photodiode.

I think I found the sled it came from. It is all plastic and the other diode was a 4 pin dual red/IR, so
maybe it was a disc player box. It's weird. I don't remember extracting it at all.

The Lightning Stalker said:

I don't remember exactly. I thought it came out of a GGW-H20L, but I looked in my diode tray again
and found one with a barcode on the back, so that is probably the GGW.

When power is applied to the other pin, nothing happens, and shining light into it gives about 500mV on
that pin, so it has to be a photodiode.

I think I found the sled it came from. It is all plastic and the other diode was a 4 pin dual red/IR, so
maybe it was a disc player box. It's weird. I don't remember extracting it at all.

Click to expand...

Who says alcohol and lasers don't mix?

Seriously though, I dunno, if it's from a player you can't expect any respectable output from it, 20-30mW maybe? That's how far the diodes from PS3 and such went.

Diode is a standard 5.6mm package?

Eudaimonium said:

Who says alcohol and lasers don't mix?

Click to expand...

:crackup: Yeah, though I don't drink, it makes me sick. :beer:

Eudaimonium said:

Seriously though, I dunno, if it's from a player you can't expect any respectable output from it, 20-30mW maybe? That's how far the diodes from PS3 and such went.

Click to expand...

It was running happily at 125mA for a minute or two. I didn't measure it on the LPM, but
might give it a try later since it's no longer in a module.

Eudaimonium said:

Diode is a standard 5.6mm package?

Click to expand...

Yes.

Here are some pictures of the sled (or what's left of it).


:thanks:

Nothing that I recognize... sorry

Well if you have the diode running, there's no problems then. Though, I would go easy on the current... it may not be long before it gives up on PHR-level currents.