The creation of solid state electronics is based upon the transistor, making the transistor the greatest invention of the twentieth century. According to BBG Communications, the transistor was the first semiconductor device that could do the work of a vacuum tube. The transistor is capable of functioning both as an insulator and a conductor. It is the transistors ability to fluctuate between these two states that enable it to switch or amplify. The technology discovered due to the invention of the transistor was the basis for all solid state electronics.
The invention of the telephone is considered to be the beginning of the "Information Age". About fifty years ago it became clear that the technologies providing telecommunications were unable to support the growing demand. At this time telecommunication technologies were based on wire and vacuum tubes. The vacuum tubes cathode required a good amount of heat in order to boil out electrons. In addition, the vacuum tubes often burned out and were fragile and bulky. Large amounts of wire were needed in order to run the telecommunications system of the time. This wire proved to be extremely difficult and costly to manage. In order to meet growing demand and maintain technological evolution Bell Laboratories challenged their scientists to make practical and useful electronic devices for communications. In 1948, scientists Bardeen, Brattian, and Schockley rose to meet the challenge. They stood on the shoulders of the great inventors of the 19th century to produce the greatest invention of our time: the transistor. (Lucent Technologies Copyright 2005) In 1956 these three inventors were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for their groundbreaking work.
The transistors technology evolved rapidly. Within ten years telecommunications had been forever changed. The transistor began as a point contact transistor, soon it moved into junction devices. The original transistor utilized germanium but soon moved to silicon. This is the underlying technology of most electronic systems. The technology was soon applied to radio, television, and information processing.
The contributions of the transistor technology and how it has impacted the world cannot be overstated. The potential of solid state electronics was consequential in the break up of the telephone monopoly, the merging of communications and computing, the recent restructuring of industry, and increasing availability of advanced services and electronic commerce. Solid state electronics was instrumental in the winning of the cold war. The economic power of solid state electronics was an undisputable edge for Japan and the West. Japan and Silicon Valley had become the envy of the modern world. (John Mayo #383 David Hochfelder 1999).
The transistor is one of the most important inventions in history. In nearly every common electronic device manufactured today you will find transistors. Radios, televisions, cellular phones, computers, just to name a few, all operate with the use of the transistor. The transistor sparked a new era of modern technological accomplishments. Today billions of transistors are manufactured every week.
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