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From November 17, 1947 to December 23, 1947, John Bardeen and Walter Brattain at AT&T's Bell Labs in the United States, performed experiments and observed that when two gold point contacts were applied to a crystal of germanium, a signal was produced with the output power greater than the input.[8] Solid State Physics Group leader William Shockley saw the potential in this, and over the next few months worked to greatly expand the knowledge of semiconductors. The term transistor was coined by John R. Pierce as a portmanteau of the term "transfer resistor".[9][10] According to Lillian Hoddeson and Vicki Daitch, authors of a biography of John Bardeen, Shockley had proposed that Bell Labs' first patent for a transistor should be based on the field-effect and that he be named as the inventor. Having unearthed Lilienfeld's patents that went into obscurity years earlier, lawyers at Bell Labs advised against Shockley's proposal because the idea of a field-effect transistor that used an electric field as a "grid" was not new. Instead, what Bardeen, Brattain, and Shockley invented in 1947 was the first point-contact transistor.[6] In acknowledgement of this accomplishment, Shockley, Bardeen, and Brattain were jointly awarded the
1956 Nobel Prize in Physics "for their researches on semiconductors and their discovery of the transistor effect."[11]
The irrefutable PBS:
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The Line is Drawn: January 1948
William Shockley had some strong ideas about inventions. He felt that the person who had the original idea was the sole inventor and should be the only name on the patent. When Walter Brattain and John Bardeen developed the first transistor, Shockley believed that the original ideas had been his own. Never mind that their transistor didn't work anything like the one Shockley had envisioned.
In January, Shockley called Bardeen and Brattain into his office separately, to announce he fully intended to be the only person on the transistor's patent. Each man responded in a fairly characteristic way. The quiet Bardeen said little and stormed out. The boisterous Brattain snapped: "Oh hell, Shockley, there's enough glory in this for everybody!"
The Patent Lawyers Have Their Say: Spring 1948
Determined to be the only person on the transistor patent, Shockley turned to the Bell Labs lawyers. Bell administration usually supported Shockley's endeavors since he was the leader of the group -- and a productive one. But as the lawyers began to formulate their patent application, they found something disturbing. In the 1930s, a man named Julius Lilienfeld had filed a patent for a device almost identical to Shockley's original idea. Since the transistor built by Bardeen and Brattain was undeniably different, Bell decided to file solely on their work -- dismissing Shockley's ideas completely.
Shockley had wanted to be listed as the sole inventor of the transistor; he was now not to be on the patent at all. Bardeen and Brattain were vindicated; Shockley extremely distressed. A wedge had been firmly driven between the three men, and it was only to get worse.
Four Patents Filed, Two Accepted: Summer 1948
In the end, Bell's attorneys filed four patents on the initial solid state amplifier. Two were on the initial work Bardeen, Brattain and Gibney had done exploring Shockley's field effect transistor, one was for the Bardeen/Brattain device, and one for Shockley's improved version which he called a junction transistor. These were all filed by the summer of 1948, just before Bell announced the invention to the press.
The first two were rejected quickly in November of the same year. The US Patent Office said they were too similar to the Lilienfeld work done almost
20 years before. But the second two -- for the point contact transistor and the junction transistor -- were deemed acceptable. Final score: Bardeen and Brattain got a patent for their work, while Shockley got a patent for a different invention with only his own name at the top -- fcas he'd desired.
It's Not Over 'Til It's Over: 1970
Arthur Torsiglieri, one of Bell's patent lawyers, tells a story showing that the patent battle smouldered within William Shockley for years. In the
1970s, Shockley called up Torsiglieri trying to override the Bardeen/Brattain patent. Shockley pointed out that there was some overlap between the three men's patents -- one figure in his patent suggested he had had similar ideas as to how to build a point-junction transistor long before Bardeen and Brattain did.
As it was, Shockley was not able to prove that his earlier research was successful. Having similar ideas was not enough, he had to show that he had ideas that would have worked.
Last but certainly not least, Lilienfield's patent for a device with results described herein:
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DEVICE FOR CONTROLLING ELECTRIC CURRENT Filed March 28. 1928 avwemto'c t/uZzusEdyarLz'ZzenfZd v 33313 M alien 1' March 7, 1933. J, N 1,900,018
DEVICE FOR CONTROLLING ELECTRIC CURRENT Filed March 28. 1928 3 Sheets-Sheet
3 avwwwoz Julius EdgarL ilz'enfield The dielectric layer may readily be attained of this minute thickness by electrolytic or by purely chemical methods, e. g. heat oxidation, sulfurization, .etc., forming the same of and directly on the metal base; and a dielectric layer consisting of the oxide of aluminum thus formed directly of an under lying solid conducting base of aluminum has been found very satisfactory for the purpose. Over this layer is to be provided the superposed coating of substantially greater 0011- ductivity than the dielectric, and suitable provision is to be made for affording electrical connection on the one hand with the base element and on the'other hand with the conducting coating located about the intermediate dielectric.
In many cases, very satisfactory results are had with the superposed coating consistingpartly or wholly ofa compound of certain metals and this may be attained in different ways. For instance, if a metal, e.v g. copper, electrode is used in spattering, layers of different natures may be obtained according to the gas filling'of the spattering container as well as to the electrical conditions prevailing therein. Thus, either a pure metallic layer, (Cu), layer of a compound (Cu O) or, preferably, a mixture of both may be produced directly by the spattering process.