History of the transistor

Transistor technology timeline (summary)
Year Technology Organization
1947 Point contact Bell Labs
1948 Grown junction Bell Labs
1951 Alloy junction General Electric
1953 Surface barrier Philco
1953 JFET Bell Labs
1954 Diffused base Bell Labs
1954 Mesa Bell Labs
1959 Planar Fairchild
1959 MOSFET Bell Labs

A transistor is a semiconductor device with at least three terminals for connection to an electric circuit. In the common case, the third terminal controls the flow of current between the other two terminals. This can be used for amplification, as in the case of a radio receiver, or for rapid switching, as in the case of digital circuits. The transistor replaced the vacuum-tube triode, also called a (thermionic) valve, which was much larger in size and used significantly more power to operate. The first transistor was successfully demonstrated on December 23, 1947, at Bell Laboratories in Murray Hill, New Jersey. Bell Labs was the research arm of American Telephone and Telegraph (AT&T). The three individuals credited with the invention of the transistor were William Shockley, John Bardeen and Walter Brattain. The introduction of the transistor is often considered one of the most important inventions in history.[1][2]

Transistors are broadly classified into two categories: bipolar junction transistor (BJT) and field-effect transistor (FET).[3]

The principle of a field-effect transistor was proposed by Julius Edgar Lilienfeld in 1925.[4] John Bardeen, Walter Brattain and William Shockley invented the first working transistors at Bell Labs, the point-contact transistor in 1947. Shockley introduced the improved bipolar junction transistor in 1948, which entered production in the early 1950s and led to the first widespread use of transistors.

The MOSFET was invented at Bell Labs between 1955 and 1960, after Frosch and Derick discovered surface passivation by silicon dioxide and used their finding to create the first planar transistors, the first in which drain and source were adjacent at the same surface.[5][6][7][8][9][10] This breakthrough led to mass-production of MOS transistors for a wide range of uses, becoming the basis of processors and solid memories. The MOSFET has since become the most widely manufactured device in history.

  1. ^ Gaudin, Sharon. "The transistor: The most important invention of the 20th century?". ComputerWorld.
  2. ^ "History of the Transistor". www.sjsu.edu. Retrieved 17 January 2021.
  3. ^ "Types of Transistors – Junction Transistors and FETs". Electronics Hub. 23 April 2019. Retrieved 17 January 2021.
  4. ^ "What is a FET: Field Effect Transistor » Electronics Notes". www.electronics-notes.com. Retrieved 16 January 2021.
  5. ^ US2802760A, Lincoln, Derick & Frosch, Carl J., "Oxidation of semiconductive surfaces for controlled diffusion", issued 1957-08-13 
  6. ^ Frosch, C. J.; Derick, L (1957). "Surface Protection and Selective Masking during Diffusion in Silicon". Journal of the Electrochemical Society. 104 (9): 547. doi:10.1149/1.2428650.
  7. ^ KAHNG, D. (1961). "Silicon-Silicon Dioxide Surface Device". Technical Memorandum of Bell Laboratories: 583–596. doi:10.1142/9789814503464_0076. ISBN 978-981-02-0209-5.
  8. ^ Lojek, Bo (2007). History of Semiconductor Engineering. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg. p. 321. ISBN 978-3-540-34258-8.
  9. ^ Ligenza, J.R.; Spitzer, W.G. (1960). "The mechanisms for silicon oxidation in steam and oxygen". Journal of Physics and Chemistry of Solids. 14: 131–136. doi:10.1016/0022-3697(60)90219-5.
  10. ^ Lojek, Bo (2007). History of Semiconductor Engineering. Springer Science & Business Media. p. 120. ISBN 9783540342588.