24 May
2024
24 May
'24
10:26 a.m.
On 5/24/24 09:52, Paul Koning wrote:
I once ran into a pre-WW2 data sheet (or ad?) for a transistor, indeed an FET that used
selenium as the semiconducting material. Most likely that was the Lilienfeld device.
Could also have been a device from Oskar Heil in the 1930s.
What really made the difference in the case of transistors of any
stripe, was the adoption of zone refining: (1951) William Gardner Pfann.
Pfann knew Shockley and devised one of the early point-contact
transistors, from a 1N26 diode. Zone-refining removed one of the
bugaboos that plagued early semiconductor research--that of getting
extremely pure material.
Pfann was a quiet, shy individual which perhaps explains why he doesn't
get the historical applause.
Something akin to the Tesla-Steinmetz treatment.
--Chuck