John N. Shive

John N. Shive
John N. Shive demonstrates his wave machine in this 1959 educational film Similarities in Wave Behavior aimed at undergraduates[1]
Born
John Northrop Shive

(1913-02-22)February 22, 1913
DiedJune 1, 1984(1984-06-01) (aged 71)
Alma materRutgers University (BS),
Johns Hopkins University (PhD)
Known forTransistor development
Phototransistor
Shive wave machine
SpouseHelen Shive
Scientific career
FieldsPhysics
InstitutionsBell Labs

John Northrop Shive (February 22, 1913 – June 1, 1984) was an American physicist and inventor. He made notable contributions in electronic engineering and solid-state physics during the early days of transistor development at Bell Laboratories. In particular, he produced experimental evidence that holes could diffuse through bulk germanium, and not just along the surface as previously thought. This paved the way from Bardeen and Brattain's point-contact transistor to Shockley's more-robust junction transistor. Shive is best known for inventing the phototransistor in 1948 (a device that combines the sensitivity to light of a photodiode and the current gain of a transistor), and for the Shive wave machine in 1959 (an educational apparatus used to illustrate wave motion).

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference film-1959 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).