From: James Easton <pulsar@compuserve.com>
Date: Sat, 20 Sep 1997 22:29:31 -0400
Fwd Date: Sun, 21 Sep 1997 09:16:35 -0400
Subject: Re: Transistor from Roswell: Claims and Reality

Adding to the documentary evidence detailed by George Fergus, the
following is taken from "Out of the Crystal Maze", edited by Lillian
Hoddeson, Ernest Braun, Jurgen Teichmann and Spencer Weart.

The editors are eminent physicists, who specialise in the history of
the science.

Hoddeson notably obtained a Ph.D in physics with a dissertation in
solid-state physics and between 1974-1979, researched solid-state
advancements at Bell Laboratories which led to the development of the
transistor.

The book endeavours to document the history of solid-state physics and
contains much information which is relevant to the history of the
transistor.


These extracts are taken from various sections in the book and the
references are as originally quoted:


After the war, scientists began drifting back to civilian employment,
and industrial laboratories began to forge their plans for a big surge
of peacetime scientific and engineering progress.

The first institutional department to take the whole range of
solid-state physics as its field, and even formally as its name, was
at Bell Telephone Laboratories.

Bell Labs decided to undertake a major effort in research on
semiconducting elements, which meant in practice germanium and
silicon. The idea was, of course, one which had been around in so many
minds for so long - to produce a solid-state amplifier.

[...]

This was not, however, a development program. It was a program of
basic scientific research into the properties of germanium and
silicon, albeit undertaken in the hope of obtaining devices useful to
the Bell system. The work was to be based on knowledge gained during
the war at Bell Labs and elsewhere, and was to establish continuity
with prewar Bell activities in the field of semiconductors.


As early as 1938, far-sighted director of research, Mervin Kelly, had
established a little group in "Physics of the Solid State".

By early 1945, Kelly was explaining that with the coming of quantum
mechanics, "a unified approach to all our solid state problems offers
great promise", and in July he formed the Solid State Physics
Department. [1]

Kelly and William Shockley co-headed the division, Shockley being the
head of the semiconductor research group.


The first idea to be tried out more thoroughly was an old one - that
is, the modulation of the conductivity of a thin layer of
semiconductor material by the application of an electric field
perpendicular to the flow of current.

This "field effect" had been suggested and tried in numerous
unworkable inventions before...

[...]

Although the ultimate emergence from Bell Labs of the solid-state
amplifier - in the shape of the point contact transistor - contained
an element of serendipity, it is true to say that it was the deserved
reward for years of painstaking, knowledgeable and conscious effort.
In the late 1930s, William Shockley suggested a design for a
field-effect solid state amplifier and Brattain carried out the
experiments, but, like all other attempts of this ilk at that time,
it did not work.

In fact the number of people who tried to produce solid-state
amplifiers grows steadily as one probes further. Another Bell man,
Russell S. Ohl, recalls: "In fact, I took out a patent in which I
controlled (on paper), the electron current in a copper oxide
rectifier. This was 1927... many people had the same thought. [2]

Ohl was also one of the pioneers of the crystal detector and certainly
played an important part in the transistor story.


Ralph Bray, a young graduate student, joined the germanium effort at
Purdue in November 1943 and was given the tricky task of measuring the
spreading resistance at the metal-semiconductor contact.

[...]

Bray found a great many anomalies, such as internal high-resistivity
barriers in some samples of germanium. The most curious phenomenon was
the exceptionally low resistance observed when voltage pulses were
applied.

This effect remained a mystery because nobody realised, until 1948,
that Bray had observed minority carrier injection - the effect that
was identified at Bell Labs and made the transistor a reality. Bray
wrote:

"That was the one aspect that we missed, but even had we understood
the idea of minority carrier injection...we would have said, 'Oh, this
explains our effects.' We might not necessarily have gone ahead and
said, 'Let's start making transistors', open up a factory and sell
them... At that time the important device was the high back voltage
rectifier". [3]


Another Purdue scientist, Randall Whaley, put the matter in a
nutshell:

"The irony of the whole thing is that two or three of us were
occasionally around lunch asking ourselves, 'Why can't we put a grid
on this and make a triode of it to control the electrons?' But in the
press of getting degrees and putting detectors together for MIT, we
didn't take the next step and try this" [4]


The greatest practical success of the Purdue group was in developing
high back-voltage diodes. Seymour Benzer made a first step toward
stable diodes by accidentally welding the metal whisker to the
geranium.

[...]

This work occupied much of the time at Purdue and until the device was
handed over to Bell Labs and Western Electric for mass production in
late summer of 1944. Thus germanium detectors became a real product
and the type of material used for their production was also used for
the first transistors to emerge from Bell Labs three years later.



The required modification of theory was undertaken by John Bardeen,
at Bell Laboratories. His postulate was that the carriers included in
the semiconductor by the electrostatic field (the field effect) failed
to modulate its conductivity because they became trapped and
immobilized in surface states. Although Bardeen's suggestion proved
of decisive value and had some important novel features, it was not
without precursors.

As early as 1932, I. Tamm calculated that the termination of
one-dimensional Kronig-Penney potential led to a surface state when
a periodic structure is terminated. [5]

[...]

In 1939, Shockley postulated surface states arising if two electronic
bands within a finite periodic structure intersect. [6]


Bardeen concluded that the failure of the field-effect amplifier must
be caused by the fact that the charge carriers induced by the applied
field became immobilized in surface states, whether on a clean or a
dirty surface, and could not contribute to the conductivity.

"The novel feature was not the idea of surface states..., but to apply
the idea to understand the real surface of a semiconductor". [7]


After several further stages of experimentation, mainly by Brattain
and Bardeen, aided by the chemist Gibney, a germanium surface was
prepared by anodizing it and evaporating gold spots onto the oxide.

Transistor action was first observed on 15 December 1947, when "it was
found that current flowing in the forward direction from one contact
influenced the current flowing in the reverse direction in a
neighbouring contact in such a way as to produce voltage
amplification".

In the memorandum by W. S. Gorton [8], from which this quotation is
taken, 12 people are mentioned as directly involved in the invention
of the transistor in the Bell Laboratory.

[...]


On 15 December, Brattain used a gold spot cut into three sections.

When the points were, "very close together got voltage amp about 2 but
not power amp. This voltage amplification was independent of frequency
10 to 10,000 cycles" [9].


On 16 December, Brattain had a gadget made of polystyrene for putting
two gold leaf contacts very close together on the germanium surface.
He wrote:

"Using this double point contact, contact was made to a germanium
surface that had been anodized to 90 volts, electrolyte washed off in
H20 and then had some gold spots evaporated on it. The gold contacts
were pressed down on the bare surface. Both gold contacts to the
surface rectified nicely...

The separation between points was about 4 x 10-3 cm. One point was
used as a grid and the other point as a plate. The bias (D.C.) on the
grid had to be positive to get amplification...

power gain 1.3 voltage gain 15 on a plate bias of about 15 volts".
[10]


It turned out that the oxide was not necessary for the process, and
the gold spots were eventually replaced by other metal points. When
the electrodes were more closely spaced, it was found that power
amplification of 18 could be obtained.

On 23 December, 1947, a speech amplifier of this gain was demonstrated
by Brattain and H. R. Moore to several of their colleagues and
managers.


J. H. Pierce gave the device the name transistor because the concept
of transresistance suggested itself to him as an analogy with
transconductance in vacuum tubes. [11]


The news of the transistor was sprung on an unsuspecting and
disinterested world on 30 June 1948, at a major press conference.


References:

[1] M. J. Kelly, authorization for work, case no. 38139, 1 January
1945, Bell Labs Archives.

[2] R. S. Ohl, interview with L. Hoddeson, August 1976, Niels Bohr
Library, American Institute of Physics, New York.

[3] R. Bray, interview with P. Henriksen, 14 May 1982, Niels Bohr
Library, American Institute of Physics, New York.

[4] R. Whaley, interview with P. Henriksen, 29 October 1982, Niels
Bohr Library, American Institute of Physics, New York.

[5] I. Tamm, [1932 publication sited in German language character
set].

[6] W. Shockley, "On the Surface States Associated with a Periodic
Potential," Physical Review 56 (1939): 317-333

[7] J. Bardeen, "Surface States and Rectification at a Metal
Semi-Conductor Contact," Physical Review 71 (1947): 717-727

[8] W. S. Gorton, "Genesis of the Transistor," written in December
1949 and intended for volume 3 of A History of Engineering and Science
in the Bell System. My thanks are due to Bell Labs archives for
allowing me to see this and much other material.

[9] W. H. Brattain, entry of 15 December 1947, laboratory notebook,
case 38139-7. Bell Laboratories archives. Reproduced here by kind
permission.

[10] Brattain, entry of 16 December 1947 (ibid).

[11] This is mentioned by Brattain in an appendix to Gorton ("Genesis
of the Transistor"), and was mentioned by J. R. Pierce, interviews
with S. Macdonald and E. Braun.

[End]



Each chapter in the book contains numerous references and there seems
to be around 3000 overall.

Some of these refer to material kindly made available from the Bell
Labs archives, including laboratory notebooks, as evidenced above.


In summary, as previously asserted, the development of the transistor
has a clear genesis and provenance and there was nothing akin to a
"leap in technology".

Any actual evidence to the contrary, with a similar provenance, would
always be of course be of interest.

It would be welcome to see some of the early published material on the
development of the transistor and I have still have papers on order.


The anonymous third party allegations made by ACC, which do seem
entirely devoid of evidence and factually flawed in a number of
respects, can hopefully now be further judged in context.

It's appreciated that the ACC claims have been highlighted and that
we have the opportunity to discuss them. John White notes that,
"Twenty-five years ago, it would have been damn near impossible for
the ordinary joe/jill to check Corso's or ACC's transistor claims as
rapidly as this site has responded".

Possibly even some three years ago, John. The Internet, and latterly
the World Wide Web, have revolutionised research methodologies and
both the degree and quality of information we have access to. Has our
understanding of "the UFO phenomenon" been significantly changed as
a result?

I believe so, and yes, significantly. That's another discussion, but
your point is highly relevant.

We should be particularly indebted to Errol for managing the UpDates
list.

(See, it's not a thankless task, Errol!)



James.
E-mail: pulsar@compuserve.com