History of Transistors Timeline

In 1948, Bardeen and Brattain patented at Bell Labs an insulated-gate transistor (IGFET) with an inversion layer; this concept forms the basis of CMOS technology today.

Image source: CMOS

Carl Frosch and Lincoln Derick at Bell Labs accidentally grew a layer of silicon dioxide over a silicon wafer between 1955 and 1957, observing surface passivation effects — the process by which a semiconductor surface is rendered inert and does not change properties through interaction with air or other materials.

Image source: Passivation (chemistry)

By 1957 Frosch and Derick, using masking and predeposition, were able to manufacture the first planar transistors, in which drain and source were adjacent at the same surface. Both p-channel and n-channel types were developed by Frosch and Derrick in 1957 at Bell Labs.

Image source: Planar process

Taking advantage of silicon dioxide's passivating effect on the silicon surface, Jean Hoerni proposed making transistors protected by a layer of silicon dioxide and issued a first patent in 1959 while working at Fairchild Semiconductor.

Following Frosch and Derick's passivation research, Mohamed Atalla and Dawon Kahng proposed a silicon MOS transistor in 1959, laying the groundwork for the metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor.

Image source: Mohamed M. Atalla

The MOSFET was invented at Bell Labs between 1955 and 1960, after Frosch and Derick discovered surface passivation by silicon dioxide and used their finding to create the first planar transistors. Atalla and Kahng successfully demonstrated a working MOS device with their Bell Labs team in 1960.

Image source: MOSFET

A new type of MOSFET logic, CMOS (complementary MOS), was invented by Chih-Tang Sah and Frank Wanlass at Fairchild Semiconductor, and in February 1963 they published the invention in a research paper. CMOS would go on to dominate digital electronics.

General Microelectronics introduced the first commercial MOS integrated circuits in 1964, consisting of 120 p-channel transistors, launching the MOS IC industry.

Image source: Integrated circuit

The first modern memory cells were introduced in 1965, when John Schmidt designed the first 64-bit MOS SRAM (static RAM), establishing the foundation for MOS semiconductor memory.

Image source: Static random-access memory

In 1965, the Victor 3900 desktop calculator was the first MOS LSI calculator, incorporating 29 MOS LSI chips and showcasing the potential of large-scale integration in consumer products.

Image source: Calculator

The first gallium-arsenide Schottky-gate field-effect transistor (MESFET) was made by Carver Mead and reported in 1966, extending transistor technology into high-speed compound-semiconductor applications.

Image source: MESFET

In 1967 the Texas Instruments Cal-Tech was the first prototype electronic handheld calculator, with three MOS LSI chips. It was later released as the Canon Pocketronic in 1970.

The first report of a floating-gate MOSFET (FGMOS) was made by Dawon Kahng and Simon Sze in 1967, creating the foundation for non-volatile memory technologies such as EPROM and flash memory.

Image source: Floating-gate MOSFET

The self-aligned gate (silicon-gate) MOSFET transistor was invented by Robert Kerwin, Donald Klein and John Sarace at Bell Labs in 1967. Fairchild researchers Federico Faggin and Tom Klein then used it to develop the first silicon-gate MOS IC.

Image source: Self-aligned gate

The first multi-chip microprocessors were developed with multiple MOS LSI chips: the Four-Phase Systems AL1 in 1969 and the Garrett AiResearch MP944 in 1970, predating single-chip designs.

Image source: Microprocessor

The Sharp QT-8D desktop calculator was the first mass-produced LSI MOS calculator in 1969. The follow-up Sharp EL-8, using four MOS LSI chips, became the first commercial electronic handheld calculator in 1970.

Image source: Sharp Corporation

The first commercial single-chip microprocessor, the Intel 4004, was developed by Federico Faggin, using his silicon-gate MOS IC technology, with Intel engineers Marcian Hoff and Stan Mazor, and Busicom engineer Masatoshi Shima. The Busicom LE-120A HANDY LE, released the same year with a single MOS LSI chip from Mostek, was the first true electronic pocket calculator.

Image source: Intel 4004

By 1972, MOS LSI (large-scale integration) circuits were commercialized for numerous applications, including automobiles, trucks, home appliances, business machines, electronic musical instruments, computer peripherals, cash registers, calculators, data transmission and telecommunication equipment.

Image source: Very-large-scale integration

With the arrival of CMOS microprocessors in 1975, the term 'MOS microprocessors' began to refer to chips fabricated entirely from PMOS logic or entirely from NMOS logic, contrasted with 'CMOS microprocessors' and 'bipolar bit-slice processors'.

By 2013, billions of MOS transistors were being manufactured every day, reflecting the extraordinary scale of the semiconductor industry built upon the MOSFET.

As of 2018, an estimated total of 13 sextillion (1.3×10²²) MOS transistors have been manufactured. In 2020, the MOSFET remained the dominant transistor type in use worldwide.

In late April 2023, researchers at Linköping University and KTH Royal Institute of Technology successfully developed the world's first wooden transistor, potentially paving the way for more sustainable electronics and even control of electronic plants.

Image source: Organic field-effect transistor

On August 13, 1948, Herbert Mataré and Heinrich Welker (1912–1981), working at Compagnie des Freins et Signaux Westinghouse in Aulnay-sous-Bois, France applied for a patent on an amplifier based on the minority carrier injection process which they called the 'Transistron'. As Bell Labs did not make a public announcement before June 1948, the transistron was an independent parallel discovery.

The Transistron amplifier device developed by Herbert Mataré and Heinrich Welker was shown publicly on May 18, 1949, demonstrating that European engineers had independently developed working transistor technology.

The first commercial application of transistors in telecommunication came in the fall of 1952 in tone generators for multifrequency signaling, beginning around October 1, 1951 with the point contact germanium transistor in related systems.

The first low-cost junction transistor available to the general public was the CK722, a PNP germanium small signal unit introduced by Raytheon in early 1953 for $7.60 each, opening transistor technology to hobbyists and experimenters.

Image source: CK722

A workable all-transistor radio was demonstrated in August 1953 at the Düsseldorf Radio Fair by the German firm Intermetall. It was built with four hand-made transistors based upon the 1948 invention of Herbert Mataré and Heinrich Welker.

Image source: Transistor radio

The world's first transistor computer was built at the University of Manchester in November 1953, proving that solid-state electronics could power computing machines. Metropolitan Vickers Ltd rebuilt the full 200 transistor design in 1956 using junction transistors.

Image source: History of computing hardware

Texas Instruments had demonstrated all-transistor AM radios as early as 1952, but performance lagged vacuum tube models. The TR-1 was announced on October 18, 1954, put on sale in November 1954 for US$49.95 (about US$500 in year-2020 dollars), and sold about 150,000 units.

Image source: Regency TR-1

Ibuka obtained special permission from the Japanese Ministry of Finance to pay the $50,000 license fee, and in 1955 the company introduced its own five-transistor 'coatpocket' radio, the TR-55, under the new brand name Sony. The TR-55 is often incorrectly credited as the first transistor radio.

Image source: Sony

In the April 28, 1955 edition of the Wall Street Journal, Chrysler and Philco announced they had developed and produced the world's first all-transistor car radio. The Mopar model 914HR became available as an option in Fall 1955 for new Chrysler and Imperial cars hitting showrooms on October 21, 1955.

Image source: Chrysler

It was not until 1957 that Sony produced their ground-breaking 'TR-63' shirt pocket radio, a much more advanced design that ran on a standard 9-volt battery and could compete favorably with vacuum tube portables. It was the first mass-produced transistor radio, leading to mass-market penetration of transistor radios.

The IBM 7070 (1958), IBM 7090 (1959), and CDC 1604 (1960) were the first computers sold as commercial products that were based on transistors, ushering in second-generation computing.

Image source: IBM 7090