Documenting the Major Contributions by General Electric to Transistor
Development
The invention
of the transistor is credited to William Shockley, John Bardeen and Walter
Brattain at Bell
Labs in December 1947. Several major
U.S. companies responded to this initial work with large scale research and
manufacturing programs which transformed the early “lab curiosity” aspects
of the transistor into a mature, ever-evolving technology, responsible for
billions of dollars in commerce and providing the technological basis for
the modern electronics and computer industries. General Electric was an early and
substantial contributor to the development of the transistor. This webpage documents many of these
major accomplishments. Correspondences and interviews with engineers and
scientists who were involved form the basis for this material. You’ll also find photographs of prototype
and early production units, as well as a comprehensive coverage of early GE
transistor literature.
General Electric was a semiconductor
powerhouse in the 1950s and 1960s, beginning with the basic research on pn
junction diffusion at the Research Labs and the E-Labs, to the first
commercial hermetically sealed and evacuated alloy junction transistors, to
the famous and influential seven editions of the GE Transistor Manual, to
mass production (in the millions) of germanium transistors, through to a
major research and leadership role in unijunction transistors, tunnel
diodes, triacs and SCR’s. Here
you’ll discover the inside story from those who were there and made this
success possible.
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