The Solid State Transistor - The Planar Transistor

About this Artwork Transistors were invented in 1947 at Bell Laboratories by  John Bardeen, Walter Brattain, and William Shockley. When the invention of the Transistor was announced, it received very little attention. It was much like the a stone thrown in pond, except that the ripples became crashing economic and cultural waves.  Compared with vacuum tubes, Transistors are small, cool, reliable, durable, and cheap. In fact, Transistors are nearly immortal. Without physical or heat damage, a transistor can perform switching functions for decades, perhaps even centuries. The switching action is created by a complex interaction of semiconductor materials. Germanium, and later Silicon were the semiconductors of choice. Transistors have three electrical connections, or leads: the emitter, the base, and the collector. Electricity applied to the base acts as a switch that allows electricity to pass, or not, from the Emitter to the Collector. The four major types of transistors are the Point