History of Solid-State Physics
1905 Quantum revolution begins in Europe (Sommerfeld, Bohr, Einstein, Plank, Heisenberg, Shrodinger, de Broglie..). A very philosophical group. John Fleming designs a "tube" in which electrons flow in 1 direction only (in Great Britain)-rectifier is invented. Western Union rejects a proposal by A. Bell for communicating with voice instead of Morse code. The "device" could send a voice about 100 m away. Bell Telephone Company (AT&T) is formed. 1930 Davisson and Gremer worked on scattering of electrons from Ni surfaces (fundamental science) and also built high quality vacuum tubes for communication. AT&T becomes a communications giant. AT&T sees the value of fundamental science. Hires physicists from top physics programs (William Shockley, John Bardeen). AT&T scientists find unusual rectification in Ge and Si but results are completely unreproducable. 1937 Davisson and Gremer win Nobel Prize. Shockley convinces AT&T management to start a program to look into solid state rectification. Shockley heads the group with John Bardeen and Walter Brattain (a skilled senior experimentalist) Discussion groups formed to discuss the relationship between quantum mechanics and solid-state rectification. Bardeen explains the importance of surface electrons in semiconductors-the reason for a lot of experimental failures. 1947 John Bardeen and Walter Brattain, working shoulder-to-shoulder show Shockley the first working solid-state rectifier- a point contact transistor July 1, New York Times pg. 46. "A device called a transistor, which has several applications where a vacuum tube is ordinarily employed, was demonstrated for the first time at Bell Telephone Laboratory." Shockley feels he deserves more credit, makes life difficult for Bardeen and Braittain. Bardeen departs to U. Illinois. Brattain reassigned.
Chemical engineers (William Pfann and Jack Scaff) play a crucial role in purification of Si and Ge. Invent zone refining. 1951 Applications for transistors were mainly military-related (out of the public eye).
Jack Kilby travels to Maquette University to hear John Bardeen's seminar on the solid state.
1953 Shockley believes he can do better. Shockley envisions a junction transistor and the field-effect transistor. Leaves Bell Labs to form Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory on 391 San Antonio Road (lease was $325 per month). The first technological enterprise in the San Francisco bay. Recruits Robert Noyce (MIT), Gordon Moore (Johns Hopkins), William Happ (Raytheon), Victor Jones (Berkeley), Jay Last (MIT), Sheldon Roberts (RPI, Dow). Only Roberts was over 30. Masaru Ibuka and Akio Morita purchase license from AT&T to produce transistors. Made the first commercial success from transistors-the pocket transistor radio. Founded a company called Sony even though the word "sohn-ee" in Japenese means "to lose money". World’s First Transistor (600 Murray Hill, NJ) 1956 Bardeen, Brattain, and Shockley win the Physics Nobel Prize. Bardeen was reluctant to travel because with Robert Schreiber and Leon Cooper (post doc and student) he is close to discovering the origin of superconductivity.
Noyce et al. figure out that SSL is really a company where you try to do what Shockley thinks is important (P-N-P-N transistors). The entire founding group of SSL resigns on September 18.
Noyce, Last and Roberts forms Fairchild Semiconductor and Silicon Valley is born. Plant still operational in Mountain View.
Kilby fabricates an integrated circuit (monoliths-no clumsy wires) at Texas Instruments.
1965 Moore delivered a prophetic paper in 1965 in Electronics magazine. He noted that the number of components per cm2 was doubling every year since 1962. It was clear to him that this trend would continue into the foreseeable future because there were no scientific blockades. He also heads a start-up called Intel in 1968.
Motion of electrons in semiconductors and superconductors is mediated by lattice vibrations-phonons (phonon-coupling). World’s First Integrated Circuit (Texas Instruments)
Kilby, 2000 Nobel Prize in Physics