Using Silicon to Understand Silicon

Abstract

Silicon is the material of our time. We live in the age of silicon; it is all around us in terms of electronic gadgets and computers. However, it has not always been that way. There was a time before silicon. In the 1940s, transistors did not exist at all and in the early 1950s, transistors were made of germanium, not silicon. These germanium transistors were not very reliable; in particular they were difficult to package and process, and worked over a very limited temperature range. This changed by the mid-1950s. On May 10, 1954, Texas Instruments announced the invention of the silicon transistor: A revolutionary new electronic product — long predicted and awaited — became a reality today with the announcement by Texas Instruments Incorporated of the start of commercial production on silicon transistors. By using silicon instead of germanium, the initial commercial silicon transistorsimmediately raises power outputs and doubles operating temperatures! The potential application of this entirely new transistor is so great that major electronics firms have been conducting silicon experiments for some time. — Texas Instruments Press Release.¹

http://www.ti.com/corp/docs/company/history/siltransproduction.shtml.