Who invented the transistor?
Latest update time：2023-01-31 20:22
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Happy New Year everyone, I am Xiao Zaojun.
The first original article after the Spring Festival, I am going to fill in the gaps and finish the sequel to the article "What is an electron tube (vacuum tube)" ( link ) from years ago, which is today's article - "What is a transistor".
In the last article, I mentioned to you that although electronic tubes can achieve detection and amplification, they have many shortcomings, such as large size, high failure rate, easy damage (glass tubes), high heat generation, high energy consumption, etc.
Because of these shortcomings, experts have been thinking about whether there are components with better performance and fewer shortcomings that can replace electron tubes and support the long-term development of the electronics industry.
After thinking about it, they set their sights on the ore detector.
█Ore
detector—the world’s earliest semiconductor device
Ore detectors have a longer history than vacuum tubes. It utilizes the one-way conduction characteristics of some natural ores (metal sulfides) (see the previous article for details).
This feature is actually not new. This property was discovered many, many years ago.
In 1782, the famous Italian physicist
Alessandro Volta
discovered through experiments that solid matter can be roughly divided into three types:
The first type, metals such as gold, silver, copper, and iron, can easily conduct electricity and are called
conductors
;
The second type, materials such as wood, glass, ceramics, mica, etc., are not easy to conduct electricity and are called
insulators
;
The third type, between a conductor and an insulator, discharges slowly.
Volta named the third material's unique properties
"Semiconducting Nature"
, which means
"semiconductor properties"
. This is the first time in human history that the term "semiconductor" has appeared.
Alessandro Volta
Later, many scientists discovered some semiconductor properties, intentionally or unintentionally.
For example:
In 1833, Michael Faraday discovered that the resistance of silver sulfide decreases when the temperature increases (the heat-sensitive property of semiconductors).
In 1839, French scientist Alexandre Edmond Becquerel discovered that illumination can produce a potential difference across certain materials (the photovoltaic effect of semiconductors).
In 1873, Willoughby Smith discovered that the conductivity of selenium materials increases when exposed to light (photoconductivity effect of semiconductors).
…
No one could explain these phenomena at the time, and they did not attract much attention.
In 1874,
German scientist
Karl
Ferdinand Braun discovered the one-way conduction property of natural ores (metal sulfides) mentioned above. This is a huge milestone.
Karl Braun
Unfortunately, Braun did not pay attention to this discovery and instead turned to research on cathode ray tubes (also known as CRTs, which are the basis of modern display technology).
Later, Heinrich Rudolf Hertz successfully demonstrated the existence of radio electromagnetic waves, and Braun turned back to radio research. He collaborated with Marconi to significantly improve early wireless communication systems. The two jointly won the 1909 Nobel Prize in Physics.
In 1906, American engineer
Greenleaf Whittier Pickard
invented the famous
crystal detector
based on chalcopyrite crystals
, also known as the "cat's whisker detector" ( The detector has a probe that looks like a cat's whiskers, hence the name).
Ore detector
The ore detector is the earliest semiconductor device in mankind. Its emergence is an "eureka moment" for semiconductor materials. Although it had some flaws (poor quality control, unstable operation because the ore was not of high purity), it was a powerful catalyst for the development of radio communications. Radio products based on mineral geophones have become popular in large numbers, greatly enhancing the transmission of human information.
People use ore detectors, but they still can't figure out how it works. In the following 30 years, people have repeatedly thought about why there are semiconductor materials? Why can semiconductor materials conduct electricity in one direction?
People use ore detectors, but they still can't figure out how it works. In the following 30 years, people have repeatedly thought about why there are semiconductor materials? Why can semiconductor materials conduct electricity in one direction?
In the early days, many people even doubted whether semiconductor materials really existed. The famous physicist
Pauli
once said: "People should not study semiconductors. It is a dirty mess. Who knows whether semiconductors exist."
█Quantum
mechanics - the theoretical cornerstone of semiconductors
In 1904, the world's first electron tube (vacuum tube) was born, marking the entry of mankind into the era of electron tubes. The rise of electronic tubes has reduced people's enthusiasm for mineral detectors and semiconductor technology.
Later, with the birth and development of quantum mechanics, the theoretical research on semiconductors finally made a breakthrough.
In 1928, Max Karl Ernst Ludwig Planck, a German physicist and one of the founders of quantum mechanics
,
first proposed the solid energy band theory when applying quantum mechanics to study metal conduction problems.
Planck, the father of quantum theory
He believes that under the action of an external electric field, semiconductor conductivity is divided into conduction involving holes (i.e., P-type conduction) and conduction involving electrons (i.e., N-type conduction). Many of the strange properties of semiconductors are determined by "holes" and electrons. (Limited by space limitations, detailed technical principles will be introduced later.)
The emergence of band theory explained for the first time from a scientific perspective why solids can be divided into insulators, conductors, and semiconductors.
In 1931, British physicist
Charles
Thomson Rees Wilson proposed a physical model of semiconductors based on energy band theory, laying the theoretical foundation for the semiconductor discipline.
In 1939, Soviet physicist
А.С. Davydov
, British physicist
Nevill
Francis Mott, and German physicist
Walter
Schottky
Hermann Schottky), have contributed to the basic theory of semiconductors. Davydov was the first to recognize the role of minority carriers in semiconductors, and Schottky and Mott proposed the famous "diffusion theory."
Based on the contributions of these big guys, the basic theoretical building of semiconductors has gradually been laid.
█Bell
Labs—a place where miracles are created
To promote the development and application of semiconductors, theory alone is not enough, and technology must also keep up.
After the birth of the ore detector, scientists discovered that the performance of this detector is closely related to the purity of the ore. The higher the purity of the ore, the better the detector performance.
Therefore, many scientists have conducted research on the purification of ore materials (such as lead sulfide, copper sulfide, copper oxide, etc.), and the purification process has been continuously improved.
Here, I would like to mention Bell Labs
, the greatest laboratory in human history
.
In the previous article, I introduced that the American company AT&T acquired
De Forest's triode patent in order to build a long-distance telephone network.
Later, recognizing the value of basic research such as electronic tubes, AT&T acquired the research department of Western Electric in 1925, and based on this, "Bell Labs" was specifically established.
Bell Labs Building (1925)
In the 1930s, Bell Labs scientist
Russell Shoemaker
Ohl
proposed that detectors made of purified crystal materials would completely replace electronic diodes. (You know, at that time, vacuum tubes were in absolute market dominance.)
Russell Orr, father of modern solar cells
After testing more than 100 materials one by one, he believed that silicon crystal is the most ideal material for making detectors. In order to verify his conclusion, he
extracted a high-purity silicon crystal fusion with the help of
his colleague
Jack Scaff
.
Because Bell Labs did not have the ability to cut silicon crystals, Orr sent the fusion to a jewelry store to be cut into crystal samples of different sizes. Unexpectedly, one end of one of the samples behaved as positive and the other end behaved as negative after being illuminated.
Orr
named them P zone and N zone respectively. In this way, Orr invented the world's first semiconductor PN junction (p–n junction).
Orr's discovery shocked the director of Bell Labs,
Mervin J. Kelly
.
Mervyn Kelly
Mervyn Kelly is an important figure in the history of semiconductor development. In 1917, he joined AT&T and engaged in electronic tube research.
In the late 1930s, electron tube research gradually reached a bottleneck.
Mervyn Kelly discovered
that semiconductor crystal materials are the future development direction.
Mervyn Kelly's
influence
was not limited to Orr.
In September 1939, World War II broke out. In order to cooperate against Germany, Britain comprehensively strengthened its technical cooperation with the United States. Among them, an important cooperation topic brought by the United Kingdom is the radar technology they invented in 1935.
Britain's early radar network played a huge role
Radar technology is actually an extension of radio technology. The performance of radar is closely related to electronic devices. At that time, electronic tubes were the mainstream in the industry, but they had poor signal-to-noise ratio, unstable operation, and were prone to breakage, so they were disliked by the military.
During World War II, Western Electric, a subsidiary of AT&T, manufactured a batch of silicon crystal diodes based on purified semiconductor crystals. These diodes were small in size and had a low failure rate, greatly improving the performance and reliability of the Allied radar system.
Orr's invention of the PN junction and the outstanding performance of silicon crystal diodes strengthened
Mervyn Kelly's determination to develop transistor technology. He secretly decided to lead Bell Labs, all in semiconductors.
In July 1945, World War II was coming to an end. In order to adapt to the adjustment of research directions after the war, Bell Labs reorganized various research departments.
At that time, Mervyn Kelly was already the executive vice president of Bell Labs. Under his promotion, Bell Labs established three research groups. One of them is
the Solid State Physics Research Group
.
According to
Mervyn Kelly's vision,
the purpose of establishing the Solid State Physics Research Group is to "find physical and chemical methods to control the arrangement and behavior of atoms and electrons constituting solids under the guidance of solid state physics theory to produce new useful properties".
To put it bluntly, it is actually the development of transistors.
The solid state physics research group is divided into two groups: semiconductor and metallurgy. The leader
of the semiconductor group is
William Shockley
, a Ph.D. from MIT
.
William Shockley
Shockley is a legendary person. He was born in London, England, on February 13, 1910. He was later admitted to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the United States to study quantum physics.
In 1936, after Shockley received his Ph.D., he was
specially invited by Mervyn Kelly to join
Bell Labs and engage in solid-state physics research. In 1939, Shockley proposed the very important
"field effect" theory
based on the Mott-Schottky rectification theory and his own experimental results
.
In 1942, Shockley briefly left Bell Labs and joined the Army Research Institute, where he worked on depth charges and radar bombsights.
It is particularly worth mentioning that at the end of World War II, Shockley was invited by the U.S. government to make a casualty assessment report on the attack on the Japanese mainland. This report greatly influenced the subsequent U.S. strategy toward Japan and indirectly influenced the U.S. decision to drop the atomic bomb.
After the end of World War II, in recognition of Shockley's contribution, the U.S. government awarded him the "National Meritorious Medal", which is the highest medal of honor that an American civilian can receive. Later, with a lot of honor, Shockley returned to Bell Labs.
In addition to Shockley, Bell Labs' solid state physics research group also has many experts, such as semiconductor expert
GLP
Pearson, physical chemist
RBGibney
, electronic circuit expert
HR
Moore
, theoretical physics Scientist
John Bardeen
(J. Bardeen), experimental physicist
Walter H. Brattain
(Walter H. Brattain).
By the way, this Walter Brattain
was born in Xiamen, China in 1902 (both parents are Americans), and returned to the United States in 1903.
Walter Bratton
Semiconductor experts Russell Orr
(the one mentioned earlier) and
Gordon
Kidd
Teal
,
who have been working on the purification process of silicon and germanium crystals
, also supported the related work of the solid state physics research group.
The team's early work was not smooth. In the year after its establishment, they conducted a large number of experiments based on Shockley's theoretical assumptions, but achieved little results.
In 1946, John Bardeen proposed the "surface state" theory based on Shockley's field effect theory, which solved a problem that had troubled everyone for a long time.
John Bardeen
Later, John Bardeen and Walter Bratton groped their way forward (the process was extremely bumpy and tortuous). Finally, on December 23, 1947, they made
the world's first semiconductor triode amplifier
. That is, the following thing looks very strange and crude:
The world's first transistor (based on
germanium semiconductor
)
In the experimental notes, Bratton suppressed his inner excitement and wrote meticulously: "Voltage gain 100, power gain 40, current loss 1/2.5..."
Pearson, Moore, Shockley and others observed their experiments on site and signed Bratton's notes to express their approval and proof.
At the time of naming, Bardeen and Brattain believed that the reason why this device can amplify signals is because of its resistance transformation characteristics, that is, the signal goes from "low resistance input" to "high resistance output". So, they named it trans-resistor (conversion resistor). Later, the abbreviation was
transistor
.
Qian Xuesen, a famous Chinese scientist, defined its Chinese translation as
transistor
.
Let me summarize, the semiconductor property is a special ability to conduct electricity (affected by external factors). Materials with semiconductor properties are called semiconductor materials. Silicon and germanium are typical and important semiconductor materials.
Microscopically, substances that are neatly arranged according to certain rules are called crystals. Silicon crystals come in single crystal, polycrystalline, amorphous crystal and other forms.
The crystal morphology determines the energy band structure, and the energy band structure determines the electrical properties. Therefore, silicon (germanium) crystal, as a semiconductor material, has such great application value.
Diodes, transistors, and tetrodes are named based on their functions. Electron tubes (vacuum tubes) and transistors (silicon transistors, germanium transistors) are named based on their principles.
Later, based on transistors, circuits became smaller and smaller, and they were integrated on semiconductor materials such as silicon (without wires), and they were called integrated circuits. Integrated circuits are becoming smaller and smaller, and the scale of circuits is getting larger and larger (large-scale integrated circuits), which has become the chip that everyone on the road now knows.
Semiconductor materials are the backbone of the modern electronics industry
█Shockley
’s counterattack
After Bardeen and Bratton invented the transistor, one man had mixed emotions.
This person is Shockley.
Shockley was the leader of the group and an important theoretical founder. However, he basically did not participate in the later critical stages of Bardeen and Bratton's research work. In fact, he once believed that Bardeen and Brattain would not have succeeded without his help.
After being slapped in the face, Shockley fell into a rather embarrassing situation - he believed that he was one of the inventors of the transistor and should have the right to sign the patent. Most other people believe that Shockley has little direct relationship with this invention and should not be signed. Even when later applying for a patent, the team made a special request to the lawyer: "Shockley must be excluded."
Why is it so unpleasant? Here, Xiao Zaojun must explain Shockley's peculiar character.
shockley
Shockley was a scientific genius. In the technical field, he has undoubted knowledge and ability. However, he has great deficiencies in dealing with people and team management. According to current parlance, it means "
high IQ but low emotional quotient
".
He is proud of his talent, has an eccentric temper, and is very mean to his colleagues and subordinates. Therefore, many people avoid him. There are very few people who can maintain a good relationship with him.
With such poor interpersonal relationships and the fact that he did not participate in any team work, Shockley's request for patent signature naturally did not receive support from everyone. Even the top executives of Bell Labs warned Shockley, which dealt him a big blow.
In anger, Shockley decided: "Since you won't let me play, then I will play by myself."
The transistor invented by Bardeen and Brattain should actually be called
a point-contact transistor
. As can also be seen from the picture below, this design is too crude. Although it achieves the amplification function, its structure is fragile, sensitive to external vibrations, not easy to manufacture, and does not have the ability for commercial applications.
Shockley spotted this flaw and began studying new transistor designs in isolation. On January 23, 1948, after more than a month of hard work, Shockley proposed a new transistor model with a three-layer structure and named it
the Junction Transistor
. On June 26 of this year, Shockley got his wish and obtained a patent with only his own name (Patent No.: US2569347A).
Shockley's patent was widely questioned at first, and many people believed that the model was unachievable. Later, in 1950, Shockley's colleagues and friends
Morgan Sparks
and
Gordon
Till
collaborated. After a series of attempts, they successfully used the Czochralski method to produce
a physical NPN transistor
, which was considered a success for Shockley
.
Klee's name.
Shockley holding a transistor
In November of this year, Shockley published a book "Electrons and Holes in Semiconductors" that discussed the principles of semiconductor devices, theoretically elaborating on the principles of junction transistors.
At the beginning of 1951, the indicators of junction transistors surpassed that of point contact transistors. Shockley's contribution to the invention of the transistor was finally unanimously recognized by Bell Labs (at least on a technical level).
█The
semiconductor industry breaks out and the research team disbands
The birth of the transistor is of extremely important significance to the development of human science and technology. It has the capabilities of electronic tubes but overcomes their shortcomings. From the moment it was born, it was determined that it would completely replace the electronic tube.
In the 1950s, transistor development entered a blowout period. Crystal purification technology, photolithography technology, etc. have exploded in an all-round way, and it can be said that they are changing with each passing day.
In terms of industrial implementation, AT&T's manufacturing arm Western Electric Company quickly achieved mass production of transistors. It is widely used in telephone routing equipment, circuit oscillators, hearing aids, and television signal receivers.
Workers producing transistors
In 1953, the first battery-operated transistor radios were put on the market. After being launched on the market, it was warmly welcomed by people and sales were booming.
In 1954, the world's first transistor computer,
TRADIC,
was put into use in the U.S. Air Force. Its operating power consumption does not exceed 100W and its volume does not exceed 1 cubic meter. It is very different from the ENIAC of the year.
TRADIC, known as the supercomputer
From 1954 to 1956, a total of 17 million germanium transistors and 11 million silicon transistors were sold in the United States, worth approximately $55 million.
It is worth mentioning that at the beginning, Bell Labs was the patent owner of transistor technology and the main master of the technology. Later, due to U.S. antitrust laws, Bell Labs proactively licensed semiconductor patents to other manufacturers. This further promotes the popularity of semiconductor technology.
Later, the growing family of transistors
In 1956, Shockley, Bardeen, and Brattain simultaneously won the Nobel Prize in Physics for their invention of the transistor.
Three big guys, their names go down in history
In fact, by this time, the founding team of Bell Labs' transistor had already fallen apart.
After the transistor was successfully developed, Walter Bratton applied to transfer departments and went to another research group because he was unhappy with Shockley's suppression.
In 1951, John Bardeen resigned from Bell Labs and went to the University of Illinois to become a professor. Later, he won another Nobel Prize for his contribution to the field of superconductivity.
In 1952, Gordon Thiel left and joined Texas Instruments, helping the company become the semiconductor giant it would become in the future.
In 1954, Shockley could no longer stay at Bell Labs and went to teach at Caltech. Later, in 1956, he came to Mountain View, California, in the western United States, and established the "Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory" in a small city called Palo Alto (later part of Silicon Valley) and started his own New business.
No one expected that a few years later, Shockley would relapse into his old habits and force his eight apprentices away, leaving him alone again.
His eight apprentices
are
also
known
as
the
"
Eight Traitors
".
Fairchild Semiconductor
,
established
after the "Eight Traitors" left
,
not only created the world's semiconductor
industry
,
but also
changed
the direction of human history.
(
For their story, you can read here:
The Legend of Fairy Child
)
"Eight Traitors", the eight masters of the chip industry
Okay, that’s the story about the birth of the transistor. Due to space limitations, this article does not introduce the technical details of transistors in detail. I will look for opportunities to introduce them later.
The content is quite long, thank you for your patience in reading. In the next article, Xiao Zaojun will tell you about
the birth of
the integrated circuit
and the patent war between Noyce and Kilby. stay tuned!
——Full text ends——
references:
1. "A Brief History of Semiconductors", Machinery Industry Press, Wang Qi and Fan Shuqin;
2. "A Milestone in the Development of Electronic Technology—The Invention of the Transistor", Science 24 Hours;
3. "Chip Breaker: Tracking the "Miracle" from Vacuum Tubes to Transistors", Brain Body;
4. "The Past of the Invention of the Transistor: Accidents, Enmities, Shared Nobel Prizes", James, Qubits;
5. "
The Story Behind the First Transistor
", Hu Bugui from the University of Science and Technology of China;
6. Related entries in Baidu Encyclopedia and Wikipedia.
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