Many times I know the parameters of a part to choose and find hundreds of them, but I don't know which ones I would have to order, which ones I am likely to found in a local electronic parts store, and which ones are likely to be in every parts store and are much cheaper than the previous ones.
Say I need an NPN BJT with collector-emitter voltage of 1,5 kV, collector current of 2 A, collector peak current of 10 A and dissipated power of 6 W. Searching suitable transistors and checking each one whether it's present in a local store's price list takes a very long time. So how do I choose a suitable transistor that's likely to be found in most electronic parts stores?
Best Answer
In this case the decision is fairly easy. Try a major supplier's part selector and select the parameters of interest.
As an example I went to Farnell to set the selector for Vceo=1.5kv.
It's not an option.
So you're not looking for a "widespread" part at all. By all means keep looking and if you find a suitable part, buy it regardless of source. (If you have any doubts about the source, consider doing a lifetime buy.)
Or learn from this little experiment and change the design approach.
There are ways of operating devices in series to achieve higher voltage : they are complex and relatively difficult to get right (for obvious reasons...)
There are devices with higher breakdown voltage (even from Farnell); but they are not BJTs.
Or you may find another approach such as restricting the working voltage to 1kv.