The History of Transistors
The transistor is considered by many historians to be the greatest invention of the 20th century. Not only did it miniaturize many electronic devices, it accelerated the development of semiconductors, which led to high-speed computers. The word transistor is a hybrid of the words "transfer" and "resistor." The transistor is an electronic component that acts as an on-off switch or amplifier in a device such as a radio. The three terminals on a transistor are the emitter (input), base (controller) and collector (ouput).
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Vacuum Tubes
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The vacuum tube was developed in 1897 by Joseph John Thomson, who went on to win a Nobel Prize in Physics in 1906 for his discovery of the electron. That same year Lee DeForest created the triode, which amplified sound, paving the way for AM radio. The triode was a three-terminal component that had functions similar to those of the transistor, except it was used in the bigger more heat-sensitive vacuum tubes. Early light bulbs used triodes.
Early Patents
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An invention similar to the transistor came two decades earlier than the Bell Labs invention. In the early 1920s Dr. J. Edgar Lilienfield was awarded patents for a Method and Apparatus for Controlling Electric Currents (#1,745,175), an Amplifier for Electric Current (#1,877,140) and a Device for Controlling Electric Current (#1,900,018). His early version of the transistor was made of thin metal insulated by glass. His experiments with transistor radio, though, did not impress the business community.
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Bell Labs
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Three Bell Labs inventors began studying the effects of electrons in 1947 to improve efficiency in electronic circuits. Those three men were John Bardeen, Walter Brattain and William Shockley. They created their first device to improve audio amplification in 1947 and were issued a patent in 1951 for the transistor. In 1956 the three men won the Nobel Prize in Physics for their invention, which led to a series of other inventions that revolutionized electronics.
Smaller, Faster, Cheaper
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Transistors had faster switch action than vacuum tubes since the series of three-terminal devices were placed closer together on a circuit board. Economy of space led to smaller components. One of the first popular devices to use a transistor was the pocket radio of the late fifties. Sony became the early leader in successfully marketing transistor radios, which arrived on the market as teens were discovering rock and roll. Transistors went on to be used in many electronic components from telephones to stereos.
Integrated Circuit
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The invention of the integrated circuit in the late fifties led to further miniaturization of electronic components. It was created by Jack Kilby of Texas Instruments and Robert Noyce of Fairchild Camera. They were able to place all the electronic components on a chip, which accelerated the development of the semiconductor industry. Researchers from Shockley's team went on to found Fairchild Semiconductor in the late fifties then Intel and AMD in the sixties, establishing Silicon Valley as the center of the tech industry.
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- Photo Credit Alex Cosper
