14 Nov
2019
14 Nov
'19
11:53 a.m.
On 11/14/2019 8:08 AM, Paul Koning via cctalk wrote:
But then it takes a third party to take out of the lab make it public
like the transitor radio,or a transtorized computer or even hearing
aids. I like this place for transistor history.
http://www.semiconductormuseum.com/Museum_Index.htm
Ben.
PS X..Y... Z = Beatles (The Britsh invade America) :)
On Nov 14, 2019, at 10:00 AM, Chuck Guzis via
cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote:
On 11/14/19 6:22 AM, Paul Koning via cctalk wrote:
Nice. Thank you!
Neat. Speaking of old semiconductor history,
I'd love to see again the description (data sheet or magazine article, I'm no
longer sure) that my father had, about FETs made from copper oxide. Possibly before the
1940s, I don't remember. I've had no luck tracking any of this down.
Julius Edgar Lilienfeld filed a patent in 1925 (US 1745175) Also US 1900018 and an interesting derivative US
US1877140.
Also, Lilienfeld was the inventor of the electrolytic capacitor.
I'm not sure about the exact copper-oxide FET article, it's not a dead
topic; see: https://aip.scitation.org/doi/10.1063/1.3589374
I'm surprised that Brattain, Shockley et al. are regarded in higher
regard by the history writers, particularly because they were aware of
Lilienfeld's early work and worded their patent to avoid prior art issues.
I'd ask one of today's historians which transistor type occurs in the
greatest numbers today--I suspect it's FET by a long shot over BJT.
By a mile, for sure, given that LSI integrated circuits are mostly CMOS FET transistors.
Then again, for the first several decades bipolar transistors were pretty much all
you'd see.
There's a familiar pattern here. X does something first, but that discovery
doesn't make a real impact on history. Y does it some time later, and that one does
start a new historic trend. So Y gets most of the credit and X is either a footnote or is
generallly forgotten.
Some examples:
X = Leif Erikson, Y = Columbus (travel to America).
X = Hanso Idzerda, Y = Edwin Armstrong (FM radio).
paul