BC108 family information

The BC107, BC108 and BC109 are general-purpose low power silicon NPN bipolar junction transistors found very often in equipment and electronics books/articles from Europe, Australia^[1] and many other countries from the 1960s. They were created by Philips and Mullard in 1963 and introduced in April 1966. Initially in metal (TO-18) packages, the range expanded over time to include other package types, higher voltage ratings, and a better selection of gain (h_FE and h_fe) groupings, as well as complementary PNP types. Some manufacturers have specified their parts with a higher power dissipation rating (P_tot) than others.

The BC548 is an example of the modern low-cost member of this family, still in a through-hole package, while the BC848 is the surface-mount version.