B3. The transistor

Year: 1947/54
Zone: Hardware & Architecture
Band: inner
Tier: Built

Bell Labs built the first transistor in 1947 from germanium, and Morris Tanenbaum made the first silicon one there in 1954. A switch with no filament to burn out. Flip the base and watch current flow.

First transistorBell Labs, 1947
First siliconBell Labs, 1954
Nobel Prize1956

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A transistor is a switch · base OFF

A small current at the base lets a large one flow from collector to emitter.

The same job, three generations

Vacuum tube, 1940s
Silicon transistor, 1954
Modern transistor, nanometres wide

Icons in the prototype show relative size only loosely. The real gap is wider: today's chips pack billions of transistors into the space of a fingernail.

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Caveat

The label 'first' refers to the transistor of 1947 and the silicon transistor of 1954.

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