First demonstration of the point-contact transistor | Techday, June 30th
On this TECHDAY in history, on June 30th 1948, Bell Labs publicly demonstrated the first point-contact transistor. This demonstration took place during a press conference in New York. The transistor represented a significant advance in technology and through its development in the following years, it would eventually replace the vacuum tube, the primary method of controlling electronic circuitry at the time. The use of transistors allowed the development of microchips and the integrated circuit technology. They, in turn, were vital to the rapid advance of electronic and computerized technology of the past decades.
This type of transistor was made by making direct physical contact between a wire (the point-contact) and a semiconductor material (typically germanium).
The invention of the point-contact transistor earned Bardeen, Brattain, and Shockley the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1956.
It’s worth mentioning that, despite being replaced by newer types of transistors, point-contact transistors are still used in some specialized applications, such as high-frequency microwave amplifiers, where their unique characteristics make them more suitable than other types of transistors.
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Author: Pc.gr
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