Can I use a Transistor BC547 instead of BC548?

Can I use a Transistor BC547 instead of BC548?

Quora

In most cases you could. BC547 and BC548 are essentially the same but BC547 has a higher breakdown voltage whereas BC548 has low noise. These are the most general purpose NPN silicon transistors and changing one with the other does not noticably (or otherwise) affect the circuit. I once used one BC547 and one BC548 for the basic astable multivibrator circuit and there were no problems. There, I gave you a hands-on example!

Quora.com Navin Kumar Oct. 4th, 2017

StackExchange

You will be fine with BC548, BC547 or 2N3904 your application is not demanding.
According to semiconductor physics gain and breakdown voltage are interchangeable. High voltage transistors tend to have lower gain and low voltage transistors tend to have higher gain. The gain differences are not huge when comparing the 547 & 548.

Stackexchange Nov27th, 2015

Fairchild Datasheet tells you all about BC54x family of transistors

  • High Voltage: BC546, VCEO=65V
  • Low Noise: BC549, BC550
  • VCEO Collector-Emitter Voltage :
  • BC546 : 65V
  • BC547/550 : 45V
  • BC548/549: 30V

BC546/547/548/549/550 is made from the same process (the same silicon die) but just different screening based on different parameters. It just like screening eggs with different sizes.

Conclusion

You can definitely use BC547 instead of BC548 as everything are the same and BC547 has a better VCEO rating of 45V.

However, the manufacturer will probably sell BC547 at a high price than BC548 because for better rating and maybe lower yield rate (number of units per silicon wafer).

The author was the global business manager of the Discrete division of National Semiconductor in Silicon Valley in the late ’80s.

To buy BC547 or BC548 at a low price and good quality, you can go to 1N4148.com

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