https://spectrum.ieee.org/point-contact-transistor [ ] IEEE.orgIEEE Xplore Digital LibraryIEEE StandardsMore Sites Sign InJoin IEEE The December 2022 issue of IEEE Spectrum is here! 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Learn more - CREATE AN ACCOUNTSIGN IN JOIN IEEESIGN IN Close Access Thousands of Articles -- Completely Free Create an account and get exclusive content and features: Save articles, download collections, and talk to tech insiders -- all free! For full access and benefits, join IEEE as a paying member. CREATE AN ACCOUNTSIGN IN SemiconductorsTopicDecember 2022MagazineTypeHistory of Technology Opinion The Device That Changed Everything Transistors are civilization's invisible infrastructure Harry Goldstein 01 Dec 2022 3 min read A triangle of material suspended above a base This replica of the original point-contact transistor is on display outside IEEE Spectrum's conference rooms. Randi Klett transistorsengineeringengineering historypoint-contact transistor I was roaming around the IEEE Spectrum office a couple of months ago, looking at the display cases the IEEE History Center has installed in the corridor that runs along the conference rooms at 3 Park. They feature photos of illustrious engineers, plaques for IEEE milestones, and a handful of vintage electronics and memorabilia including an original Sony Walkman, an Edison Mazda lightbulb, and an RCA Radiotron vacuum tube. And, to my utter surprise and delight, a replica of the first point-contact transistor invented by John Bardeen, Walter Brittain, and William Shockley 75 years ago this month. I dashed over to our photography director, Randi Klett, and startled her with my excitement, which, when she saw my discovery, she understood: We needed a picture of that replica, which she expertly shot and now accompanies this column. --------------------------------------------------------------------- This article is part of our special report on the 75th anniversary of the invention of the transistor. What amazed me most besides the fact that the very thing this issue is devoted to was here with us? I'd passed by it countless times and never noticed it, even though it is tens of billions times the size of an ordinary transistor today. In fact, each of us is surrounded by billions, if not trillions of transistors, none of which are visible to the naked eye. It is a testament to imagination and ingenuity of three generations of electronics engineers who took the (by today's standards) mammoth point-contact transistor and shrunk it down to the point where transistors are so ubiquitous that civilization as we know it would not exist without them. Of course, this wouldn't be a Spectrum special issue if we didn't tell you how the original point-contact transistor worked, something that even the inventors seemed a little fuzzy on. According to our editorial director for content development, Glenn Zorpette, the best explanation of the point-contact transistor is in Bardeen's 1956 Nobel Prize lecture, but even that left out important details, which Zorpette explores in classic Spectrum style in "How the First Transistor Worked" on page 24. The best explanation of the point-contact transistor is in Bardeen's 1956 Nobel Prize lecture, but even that left out important details. And while we're celebrating this historic accomplishment, Senior Editor Samuel K. Moore, who covers semiconductors for Spectrum and curated this special issue, looks at what the transistor might be like when it turns 100. For "The Transistor of 2047," Moore talked to the leading lights of semiconductor engineering, many of them IEEE Fellows, to get a glimpse of a future where transistors are stacked on top of each other and are made of increasingly exotic 2D materials, even as the OG of transistor materials, germanium, is poised for a comeback in the near term. When I was talking to Moore a few weeks ago about this issue, he mentioned that he's attending his favorite conference just as this issue comes out, the 68th edition of IEEE's Electron Devices Meeting in San Francisco. The mind-bending advances that emerge from that conference always get him excited about the engineering feats occurring in today's labs and on tomorrow's production lines. This year he's most excited about new devices that combine computing capability with memory to speed machine learning. Who knows, maybe the transistor of 2047 will make its debut there, too. This article appears in the December 2022 print issue. [svg] The Transistor at 75 The past, present, and future of the modern world's most important invention How the First Transistor Worked Even its inventors didn't fully understand the point-contact transistor The Ultimate Transistor Timeline The transistor's amazing evolution from point contacts to quantum tunnels The State of the Transistor in 3 Charts In 75 years, it's become tiny, mighty, ubiquitous, and just plain weird 3D-Stacked CMOS Takes Moore's Law to New Heights When transistors can't get any smaller, the only direction is up The Transistor of 2047: Expert Predictions What will the device be like on its 100th anniversary? The Future of the Transistor Is Our Future Nothing but better devices can tackle humanity's growing challenges John Bardeen's Terrific Transistorized Music Box This simple gadget showed off the magic of the first transistor From Your Site Articles * John Bardeen's Terrific Transistorized Music Box > * How Europe Missed The Transistor > * How the First Transistor Worked > Related Articles Around the Web * 1947: Invention of the Point-Contact Transistor | The Silicon Engine ... > transistorsengineeringengineering historypoint-contact transistor Harry Goldstein Harry Goldstein is Acting Editor in Chief of IEEE Spectrum. The Conversation (0) portrait of an elderly man in a a red tie and blazer with a bookcase in the background The InstituteTopicArticleType Paying Tribute to Computer Science Pioneer Frederick Brooks, Jr. 2h 3 min read A close-up photograph of small bubbles on a surface of liquid metal RoboticsTopicTypeNews Video Friday: Liquid Metal Bubble Actuator 3h 4 min read green text bubbles on an orange background Artificial IntelligenceTopicTypeComputingNews Hello, ChatGPT--Please Explain Yourself! 4h 9 min read Related Stories History of TechnologyTopicDecember 2022MagazineArticleType SemiconductorsSpecial Reports John Bardeen's Terrific Transistorized Music Box History of TechnologyTopicTypeSemiconductorsGuest ArticleSpecial Reports The Future of the Transistor Is Our Future TopicSemiconductorsNewsType A Diamond "Blanket" Can Cool the Transistors Needed for 6G SemiconductorsTopicDecember 2022MagazineTypeFeatureSpecial Reports The Transistor at 75 The past, present, and future of the modern world's most important invention Samuel K. Moore 29 Nov 2022 2 min read A photo of a birthday cake with 75 written on it. Lisa Sheehan LightGreen Seventy-five years is a long time. It's so long that most of us don't remember a time before the transistor, and long enough for many engineers to have devoted entire careers to its use and development. In honor of this most important of technological achievements, this issue's package of articles explores the transistor's historical journey and potential future. This article is part of our special report on the 75th anniversary of the invention of the transistor. In "The First Transistor and How it Worked," Glenn Zorpette dives deep into how the point-contact transistor came to be. Then, in "The Ultimate Transistor Timeline," Stephen Cass lays out the device's evolution, from the flurry of successors to the point-contact transistor to the complex devices in today's laboratories that might one day go commercial. The transistor would never have become so useful and so ubiquitous if the semiconductor industry had not succeeded in making it small and cheap. We try to give you a sense of that scale in "The State of the Transistor." So what's next in transistor technology? In less than 10 years' time, transistors could take to the third dimension, stacked atop each other, write Marko Radosavljevic and Jack Kavalieros in "Taking Moore's Law to New Heights." And we asked experts what the transistor will be like on the 100th anniversary of its invention in "The Transistor of 2047." Meanwhile, IEEE's celebration of the transistor's 75th anniversary continues. The Electron Devices Society has been at it all year, writes Joanna Goodrich in The Institute, and has events planned into 2023 that you can get involved in. So go out and celebrate the device that made the modern world possible. [svg] The Transistor at 75 The Transistor at 75 The past, present, and future of the modern world's most important invention How the First Transistor Worked Even its inventors didn't fully understand the point-contact transistor The Ultimate Transistor Timeline The transistor's amazing evolution from point contacts to quantum tunnels The State of the Transistor in 3 Charts In 75 years, it's become tiny, mighty, ubiquitous, and just plain weird 3D-Stacked CMOS Takes Moore's Law to New Heights When transistors can't get any smaller, the only direction is up The Transistor of 2047: Expert Predictions What will the device be like on its 100th anniversary? The Future of the Transistor Is Our Future Nothing but better devices can tackle humanity's growing challenges John Bardeen's Terrific Transistorized Music Box This simple gadget showed off the magic of the first transistor From Your Site Articles * How the First Transistor Worked > * The Transistor of 2047: Expert Predictions > * The State of the Transistor in 3 Charts > Related Articles Around the Web * History of the transistor - Wikipedia > * 1956 Nobel Prize in Physics - John Bardeen, Walter H Brattain and ... > Keep Reading |Show less