![]() The transistor proved to be a viable alternative to the vacuum tube. ![]() The three men received the 1956 Physics Nobel Prize for their joint invention. The transistor was invented in 1947 by three American physicists at the Bell Telephone Laboratories, John Bardeen, William Shockley, and Walter Brattain. However, it took many years before the three terminal solid state device - the transistor - was discovered. These point-contact diodes were used to rectify signals, and make simple AM radio receivers (crystal radios). Instead of using electrons in vacuum, scientists began to consider how one might control electrons in solid materials, like metals and semiconductors.Īlready in the 1920's, scientists understood how to make a two terminal device by making a point contact between a sharp metal tip and a piece of semiconductor crystal. The problems with vacuum tubes lead scientists and engineers to think of other ways to make three terminal devices. In the late 1940's, big computers were built with over 10,000 vacuum tubes and occupied over 93 square meters of space. The tubes were too big, not reliable and required so much power that big and complicated circuits took too much energy to run. However, the metal that emitted electrons in the vacuum tubes burned out. The vacuum tube helped push the development of telephony, radio and computers forward a great deal. In 1906 the American physicist Lee De Forest invented the vacuum tube triode which was the first three terminal device and enabled amplification and switching of electrical signals. "The transistor was probably the most important invention of the 20th Century, and the story behind the invention is one of clashing egos and top secret research." The first transistor ever made, built by John Bardeen, William Shockley and Walter H. John Bardeen, William Shockley, and Walter Brattain
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