On Oct. 3, 1950, three scientists at Bell Labs in New Jersey received a U.S. patent for what would become one of the most important inventions of the 20th century — the transistor. John Bardeen, ...

Quantum technology has reached a turning point, echoing the early days of modern computing. Researchers say functional ...

The telephone company had problems with vacuum tubes, too, and hoped to find something else to use for switching telephone calls. The idea of somehow using semiconductors (solid materials such as ...

The first transistors were point contact devices, not far from the cats-whiskers of early radio receivers. They were fragile and expensive, and their performance was not very high. The transistor ...

Probably the most important invention of the 2oth Century was the transistor. The first point contact transistor shown below was made at Bell Laboratories. The workbench of John Bardeen and Walter ...