First transistor trial#

So it was time to find a replacement, and Bell Labs had just the idea of where to start, with some newly found semiconductor materials. Vacuum tubes used way too much power, pumped out a ton of heat, and were unreliable. But this solution wasn’t without its problems. Īmerican inventor Lee De Forest – wonder if he had any idea how far phones would progress? ( Image source)ĪT&T quickly gobbled up all of the patents for De Forest’s invention and set into motion their transcontinental plans, making it possible for Americans to have a phone conversation from one coast to the other. AT&T’s solution? Create a complete transcontinental telephone service. As Alexander Graham Bell’s telephone patents began its slow creep into expiration, there was a huge surge in competition to fill the gap with something novel and new to drive the industry forward. Our story had its beginning in 1906, and it’s here where we find a significant shift in the history of the telecommunications industry. So here’s the complete story, the tale of a battle of the tech titans, and how Texas Instruments and Bell Labs forever changed the world of electronics that we know today.

First transistor trial#

It took years of trial and error as we slowly transitioned from vacuum tubes to germanium transistors and finally to the silicon transistors of today. After all, the transistor didn’t just appear overnight. While it’s common knowledge in the engineering community just how much transistors changed the world, what might not be as well known is the history and humanity behind the scenes. After all, being able to place a million transistors in a square centimeter is a bit more efficient than dealing with a whole room of vacuum tubes, right? This was the reality we lived in the 1950s, but things were poised to change when the transistor rolled around. They’d take years to make, often costing millions in the process, with everything being powered by the mighty vacuum tube.

The germanium acted as a semiconductor so that a small electric current entering on one side of the gold strip came out the other side as a proportionately amplified current.How Transistors Changed Electronics Foreverīattle of the Tech Titans How TI and Bell Labs Changed Electronics Forever with the TransistorĪ long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away there existed computers the size of an entire room. A strip of gold was wrapped around the point of the triangle with a tiny gap cut into the gold at the precise point it came in contact with the germanium crystal. It consisted of a plastic triangle lightly suspended above a germanium crystal which itself was sitting on a metal plate attached to a voltage source. The picture on the left above shows the first point contact transistor built by Walter Brattain. Although video was possible with vacuum tube equipment, as was the case with the Ampex VRX-1000, without the transistor video products would never have gotten very small. Prior to the transistor the only alternative to its current regulation and switching functions (TRANSfer resISTOR) was the vacuum tube, which could only be miniaturized to a certain extent, and wasted a lot of energy in the form of heat. This was perhaps the most important electronics event of the 20th century, as it later made possible the integrated circuit and microprocessor that are the basis of modern electronics. The first transistor was invented at Bell Laboratories on Decemby William Shockley (seated at Brattain's laboratory bench), John Bardeen (left) and Walter Brattain (right). Previous Image | Next Image | Slide Show Index | CED M a g i c Home 1947: Invention of the Transistor