David Bakalar Transistor Museum Historic Profile
Recognizing Significant Contributions to 20^th Century Semiconductor History and Technology
Notable Contributions
SUMMARY According to a December 21, 1959 Time magazine article entitled “CORPORATIONS: The Transistor Tycoons”, Transitron had become the third largest U.S. semiconductor producer (behind only Texas Instruments in first place and General Electric as number two).  This was a remarkable accomplishment for a 1952 startup, which demonstrated continued commercial success for over three decades, with hjgh reliability and high power semiconductor products well suited for military, data processing and industrial applications.  David Bakalar’s early and fundamental technical contributions to the design and manufacture of high performance germanium gold bonded diodes directly resulted in the phenomenal initial success of Transitron.  His continued technical leadership guided the young company into new semiconductor technologies, such as silicon diodes, silicon rectifiers, and grown junction silicon transistors – these innovative products cemented Transitron’s semiconductor leadership for many years into the future. As one of the most successful semiconductor companies in the 1950s and 1960s, Transitron designed and manufactured a wide range of innovative and historically significant devices, and David Bakalar’s technical contributions provided the foundation for these important milestones in semiconductor history.
PATENTS Below are links to semiconductor-related patents with David Bakalar listed as inventor or co-inventor (with David Navon).  The first three listed below relate directly to early Transitron success. 2832016 : “Crystal Diode” Filed - November  22, 1954 2998334 : “Method of Making Transistors” Filed - March 7, 1958 3311800 : “Means and Method of Sealing Glass Encapsulated Diodes” Filed – November 2, 1959 3404452 : “Method of Making a Memory Device Component and the Like” Filed – September 10, 1965  3461436 : “Matrix Type- Permanent Memory Device” Filed – August 6, 1965	USEFUL LINKS  The links shown below provide excellent and detailed information on the early days at Transitron. A “Google” search on this topic will also yield substantial follow up information. Joe Knight Transistor Museum Transitron History Joe’s historical and photographic coverage of Transitron early technology is unparalleled.   Highly recommended. Nick DeWolf Flickr Transitron Photo Archive Nick was the chief engineer at Transitron in the late 1950s.  After his career at Transitron, he founded Teradyne, which became a very successful automated test equipment company.  The link above is a unique album of over 200 photos taken by Nick during his time at Transitron.  What a wealth of historical information!   Computer History Museum This world class museum has established an accessible online repository of important information on early semiconductor companies and technology.  You can spend many enjoyable hours at this site.
COPYRIGHT © 2010 by Jack Ward.  All Rights Reserved.  http://www.transistormuseum.com/ TRANSISTOR MUSEUM™ HISTORIC PROFILES  –  DAVID BAKALAR           PAGE 12