transistor: Invention and Uses of the Transistor

The invention of the transistor by American physicists John Bardeen, Walter H. Brattain, and William Shockley, later jointly awarded a Nobel Prize, was announced by the Bell Telephone Laboratories in 1948; it was also independently developed nearly simultaneously by Herbert Mataré and Heinrich Welker, German physicists working at Westinghouse Laboratory in Paris. Since then many types have been designed. Transistors are very durable, are very small, have a high resistance to physical shock, and are very inexpensive. At one time, only discrete devices existed; they were usually sealed in ceramic, with a wire extending from each segment to the outside, where it could be connected to an electric circuit. The vast majority of transistors now are built as parts of integrated circuits. Transistors are used in virtually all electronic devices, including radio and television receivers, computers, and space vehicles and guided missiles.

See microelectronics.

Sections in this article:

• Introduction
• Invention and Uses of the Transistor
• The Field-Effect Transistor
• The Junction Transistor
• Types of Transistors

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