![]() In his work, Lilienfeld describes an electronic component that has the properties of an electron tube and is comparable in the broadest sense to the component now known as a field-effect transistor (FET). Julius Edgar Lilienfeld applied for the first patents on the principle of the transistor in 1925. The Practical Realisation of the Semiconductor Transistor Instead of using electrons in vacuum, scientists began to consider how one might control electrons in solid materials, like metals and semiconductors. These problems lead scientists and engineers to think of other ways to make three terminal devices. The tubes also required so much power that big and complicated circuits were too large and took too much energy to run. The vacuum tubes tended to leak, and the metal that emitted electrons in the vacuum tubes burned out. As the electric circuits became more complicated, one needed more and more triodes. The vacuum tube triode also helped push the development of computers forward a great deal, but the limits of these tubes were soon reached. In 1906, Lee De Forest made the vacuum tube triode, or audion as he called it, a three terminal device that served as the basis of an amplifier for audio signals enabling AM radio. The Vacuum Tube TriodeĪt the same time as physicists were trying to understand what cathode rays were, engineers were trying to apply them to make electronic devices. Thus, Thomson had discovered the electron, for which he received the Nobel Prize in physics 1906.Ī replica of the first working transistor. He showed that the cathode rays were really made up of particles that were contained in all material. Joseph John Thomson developed a vacuum tube to carefully investigate the nature of cathode rays already at the end of the 19th century. The vacuum tube triode preceded the transistor by nearly 50 years. But, the transistor was not the first three terminal device that could be used for amplifying or switching circuits. By cascading these switches (switches that control switches that control switches, etc.) very complicated logic circuits can be designed. With the three-terminal transistor one can also make an electric switch that can be controlled by another electrical switch. This three terminal character of the transistor is what allows us to make an amplifier for electrical signals, like the one in our radio. In a three terminal device one can control electric current or voltage between two of the terminals by applying an electric current or voltage to the third terminal. The transistor is a three terminal, solid state electronic device. Vacuum Tubes as Predecessor of Transistors On December 22, 1947, John Bardeen, Walter Brattain and William Shockley at ATT‘s Bell Labs developed the first transistor, the key active component in practically all modern electronics. By 1947, advances in germanium semiconductors made it possible for Bardeen and Brattain to make the first working point contact transistor.John Bardeen, William Shockley and Walter Brattain at Bell Labs If he did, they would not have worked very well due to the state of germanium and silicon crystal growth at that time. Although Julius Edgar Lilienfeld successfully patented a number of field-effect transistor configurations starting in 1925 and into the 1930’s, there is no indication that he ever produced any working models. The invention of the first working transistor set the stage for all subsequent solid-state device developments. It’s hard to imagine any field of human endeavor where it has not had a profound positive impact from communications, computing, transportation, medical, etc. ![]() The transistor has been cited as the most important invention of the 20th Century. The innovation revolutionized the electronics field and eventually ushered in the information age via small, low power electronic devices and eventually low cost integrated circuits. This was beginning of solid state electronics which quickly reduced the size and power requirements of existing electronic tube-based electronic devices. Shockley - discovered the principle of the transistor and developed and demonstrated a point-contact germanium transistor. Bardeen - under the direction of William B. From 17 November to 23 December 1947, Walter H.
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