The Transistor: The Tiny Device Behind Modern Electronics
Electronic transistors. Wikimedia Commons.
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Modern digital life depends on the transistor, a semiconductor device capable of switching or amplifying electrical signals. The first successful point-contact transistor was demonstrated at Bell Laboratories in 1947 by John Bardeen and Walter Brattain, working in a group led by William Shockley. Transistors offered major advantages over bulky vacuum tubes: they could be smaller, more reliable and more energy efficient. Later manufacturing techniques allowed enormous numbers of transistors to be placed on integrated circuits. The relentless increase in transistor density drove dramatic improvements in computing power and helped make possible everything from pocket calculators to smartphones and data centres.
