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Development of the transistor

Development of the transistor

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The development of the transistor may be conveniently considered to have occurred in two phases. Firstly, the decade 1952-1962 encompassed the period from the invention of the grown junction transistor to the advent of the planar process and was one of rapid technical transition. During this time, a wide variety of methods of construction followed each other in rapid succession. Furthermore, improvements in import ant electrical parameters such as reverse junction breakdown voltage, frequency response and power handling capacity established the transistor as a viable alternative to the thermionic valve, which, in spite of further miniaturisation, began to be replaced over an increasingly wide range of applications. A fundamentally important development which occurred was the replacement of germanium by silicon as the basic semiconductor material for device manufacture. This change was made principally because of the ability of silicon to operate over a much wider temperature range, this factor being of particular interest to the military. The introduction of the planar transistor towards the end of the decade gave a further stimulus to the use of silicon. This was because the planar process could not be adapted to the fabrication of germanium devices. The second phase began with the development of planar technology which established the basis for the development and manufacture of the integrated circuit, and already by the latter period of the decade was being used for the construction of both bipolar and field-effect transistors. It was at the end of this period, therefore, that the basic technology was developed upon which subsequent improvements in semiconductor manufacture have been made. What follows is an account of the major advances in device technology, starting with the grown junction transistor and leading to the development of the silicon integrated circuit. Next, a brief survey outlines further developments which have arisen as a consequence of the impact of the integrated circuit. The three final sections of this chapter consider the evolution of the small signal semiconductor diode, the power rectifier and the thyristor.

Inspec keywords: thermionic tubes; elemental semiconductors; rectifiers; thyristors; semiconductor diodes; bipolar transistors; germanium; field effect transistors; MMIC; semiconductor device manufacture; silicon

Other keywords: semiconductor device manufacture; frequency response; thermionic valve; electrical parameters; bipolar transistors; thyristor; semiconductor material; planar transistor; germanium device fabrication; integrated circuit; power rectifier; power handling capacity; reverse junction breakdown voltage; transistor development; field-effect transistors; grown junction transistor; semiconductor diode; silicon

Subjects: Bipolar transistors

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