Transistor Museum Oral History Ralph Greenburg "The Early Years" Page 4

EARLY TRANSISTOR HISTORY AT MOTOROLA

“THE EARLY YEARS”

By Ralph Greenburg

I still have a copy of Technical Report No. PL-29, prepared by Andy Jacobsen (my boss) and myself, approved by R.E. Samuelson, Chief Engineer of the research Lab and dated 8/31/54. There were six different versions in breadboard form. Three were constructed into complete instruments that were used in final test, life rest and for lab experiments.

The auto radio guys liked the performance of the stud version but wanted a more compact package and one with stiff base and emitter pins that could be inserted into a socket. The production engineer who had designed the stud package was given the assignment to design a package that would meet the auto radio needs. He fairly quickly came up with the diamond shaped package that eventually became the industry standard TO-3. Rumor had it that his inspiration for the design came when he closed a vertical sliding window and noticed the diamond shaped locking mechanism. The TO-3 was the last link to make a practical hybrid auto radio.

So now I was a power transistor “expert”. As the census of the semiconductor group and the military research group expanded we out grew the 56^th street facility and the plans to go into serious production of transistors and rectifiers required a new facility. Construction for the 52^nd street semiconductor plant was started in 1955 and all of the semiconductor personnel headed by Dr. Virgil Bottom moved to the new quarters in the summer of 1956.

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A Transistor Museum™ History of Transistors Publication

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