Inventors: John Bardeen, Walter Brattlain, William Shockley

The transistor is an electronic device that can amplify electric signals, or function as an electronic switch. John Bardeen and Walter Brattlain created the first transistor, a “point contact” transistor. William Shockley developed the first junction transistor. The three men received the nobel prize in physics for their development of the transistor. The transistor had a huge effect on all fields in electronics, especially when developments were made to make entire chips of transistors (an integrated ciruit). These chips made faster and smaller computers possible.

*Pictures from http://www.pbs.org/transistor/background1/events/eventspix/470_ptcntglory.jpg and http://www.pbs.org/transistor/science/info/scinfopix/501_firstjnc.jpg

Sources:
Nobel e-Museum. The Transistor: A History. 13 October 2003. <http://www.nobel.se/physics/educational/transistor/history/>

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