Wikinventia — Atlas of discoveries and inventions · Industrial Age

Junction transistor — scalable architecture — William Shockley

1948 AD · Transmission: Global
ElectronicsInventionNorth American

William Shockley developed the junction transistor in 1948 as a response to the point-contact transistor built by Bardeen and Brattain. The p-n junction architecture proved more robust, reproducible, and industrially scalable, and became the foundation on which the semiconductor industry was built. Shockley is also known for founding Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory in Silicon Valley in 1956, whose staff would spawn the "traitorous eight" who founded Fairchild Semiconductor and, later, Intel. His impact on the history of technology exceeds the junction transistor: he was the unwitting catalyst of the Silicon Valley ecosystem.

InstitutionBell Laboratories
Historical regionMurray Hill, New Jersey, United States
Primary sourceShockley, W. — "The Theory of p-n Junctions in Semiconductors and p-n Junction Transistors" (Bell System Technical Journal, 1949). Concept developed in 1948.
Secondary sourceRiordan, M. & Hoddeson, L. — Crystal Fire (Norton, 1997)
Original languageEnglish
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