12/1/2023 0 Comments First transistor 1947There would be a layer of electrons on the surface that would prevent the field from getting inside and influencing what was happening with the electrons and holes. But there was a problem with field-effect transistors. And in fact, in modern life, all the billions of transistors on at least my microchips in this computer, are field-effect transistors. Shockley was trying to come up with what is called a field-effect transistor. IRA FLATOW: Now, the interesting part of that story, if I recall, is that Brattain and Bardeen created a transistor that Shockley was not looking for, right, a different transistor than he had in mind? And Shockley gathered not just physicists but chemists and engineers– electrical engineers in particular– into a multidisciplinary group to study solid state physics and how it might improve communications.Īnd out of that group, two of them, physicists John Bardeen and Walter Brattain, came up with the first transistor, the point-contact transistor, on December 23, 1947. So he set up a solid state physics group at Bell Labs just after World War II, headed by the theoretical physicist William Shockley. MICHAEL RIORDAN: So they were looking for something to get beyond these switches and vacuum tubes, and thought that the solution would occur in solid state physics. In fact, I think he projected that, if they did nothing else, using their old electromechanical switches, that they would need to hire all the women in the United States to serve as operators. MICHAEL RIORDAN: Well, led by Mervin Kelly, who was then the vice president of Bell Labs, they could see that, after World War II, there would be an enormous need for telephones. Why was Bell Labs, the phone company, interested in creating a transistor at this time? They used to say necessity is the mother of invention. IRA FLATOW: Yeah, we celebrated the 50th anniversary. MICHAEL RIORDAN: Yes, it’s been about 25 years, if remember correctly. He’s a physicist, science historian, author of several books, including Crystal Fire: The Invention of the Transistor and the Birth of the Information Age, co-authored with Lillian Hoddeson. Here to help put that anniversary in context is Michael Riordan. Your cell phone today likely has billions– with a B– billions of transistors in it, and soon to have trillions inside. And that device, and the ones that followed and improved on, would become an essential part of modern life. A voltage in one part of the device could control the electrons in another part of the transistor. But that early transistor had a magical property. It was a clunky looking thing, with two gold contacts on a plastic wedge pressed against a crystal of germanium. I’m Ira Flatow.ħ5 years ago this month, December 23, saw the creation and unveiling of what some call the greatest invention of the 20th century, the transistor, unveiled at Bell Labs, the research arm of Ma Bell. Michael Riordan, a physicist, science historian, and coauthor of “Crystal Fire: The Invention of the Transistor and the Birth of the Information Age,” joins Ira to look back on the invention, the scientists who got credit for the device, and where transistor technology has gone since 1947. The three researchers credited with the invention of the transistor, William Shockley, John Bardeen, and Walter Brattain, went on to share the Nobel Prize in Physics -but they saw limited financial gain from their creation, and had a rocky personal relationship. In fact, the transistor has become so ubiquitous that one estimate puts the number of transistors on the planet as about three million per square foot. An ordinary cell phone today likely has billions of transistors in it. From the first transistor radios to modern computers, hearing aids, and more, transistors are everywhere, in great numbers. That device and the ones that followed and improved on it would become an essential part of modern life. But that early device had a magical property: A voltage in one part of the device could control the flow of electrons in another part of the transistor. That first transistor was a clunky looking thing, with two gold contacts on a plastic wedge pressed against a crystal of germanium. Some call it the greatest invention of the 20th century. Credit: Shutterstockħ5 years ago this month, research scientists working at Bell Labs first created, then unveiled to the world a new device-the point contact transistor.
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