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Properties

Variable electrical conductivity

Homojunctions
Excited electrons
Light emission
High thermal conductivity
Thermal energy conversion
Materials

Preparation of semiconductor materials

Physics of semiconductors

Energy bands and electrical conduction

Charge carriers (electrons and holes)
Carrier generation and recombination
Doping
Amorphous semiconductors
Early history of semiconductors

Early transistors
See also
References
Further reading
External links
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For devices using semiconductors and their history, see Semiconductor device. For
other uses, see Semiconductor (disambiguation).

An ingot of monocrystalline silicon

Semiconductor
device
fabrication

MOSFET scaling
(process nodes)
20 μm – 1968
10 μm – 1971
6 μm – 1974
3 μm – 1977
1.5 μm – 1981
1 μm – 1984
800 nm – 1987
600 nm – 1990
350 nm – 1993
250 nm – 1996
180 nm – 1999
130 nm – 2001
90 nm – 2003
65 nm – 2005
45 nm – 2007
32 nm – 2009
28 nm – 2010
22 nm – 2012
14 nm – 2014
10 nm – 2016
7 nm – 2018
5 nm – 2020
3 nm – 2022
Future
2 nm ~ 2025
1 nm ~ 2027
Half-nodes
Density
CMOS
Device (multi-gate)
Moore's law
Transistor count
Semiconductor
Industry
Nanoelectronics
vte
A semiconductor is a material with electrical conductivity between that of a
conductor and an insulator.[1] Its conductivity can be modified by adding
impurities (“doping”) to its crystal structure. When two regions with different
doping levels are present in the same crystal, they form a semiconductor junction.

The behavior of charge carriers, which include electrons, ions, and electron holes,
at these junctions is the basis of diodes, transistors, and most modern
electronics. Some examples of semiconductors are silicon, germanium, gallium
arsenide, and elements near the so-called "metalloid staircase" on the periodic
table. After silicon, gallium arsenide is the second-most common semiconductor and
is used in laser diodes, solar cells, microwave-frequency integrated circuits, and
others. Silicon is a critical element for fabricating most electronic circuits.

Semiconductor devices can display a range of different useful properties, such as

passing current more easily in one direction than the other, showing variable
resistance, and having sensitivity to light or heat. Because the electrical
properties of a semiconductor material can be modified by doping and by the
application of electrical fields or light, devices made from semiconductors can be
used for amplification, switching, and energy conversion. The term semiconductor is
also used to describe materials used in high capacity, medium- to high-voltage
cables as part of their insulation, and these materials are often plastic XLPE
(Cross-linked polyethylene) with carbon black.[2]

The conductivity of silicon is increased by adding a small amount (of the order of
1 in 108) of pentavalent (antimony, phosphorus, or arsenic) or trivalent (boron,
gallium, indium) atoms.[3] This process is known as doping, and the resulting
semiconductors are known as doped or extrinsic semiconductors. Apart from doping,
the conductivity of a semiconductor can be improved by increasing its temperature.
This is contrary to the behavior of a metal, in which conductivity decreases with
an increase in temperature.[4]

The modern understanding of the properties of a semiconductor relies on quantum

physics to explain the movement of charge carriers in a crystal lattice.[5] Doping
greatly increases the number of charge carriers within the crystal. When a
semiconductor is doped by Group V elements, they will behave like donors creating
free electrons, known as "n-type" doping. When a semiconductor is doped by Group
III elements, they will behave like acceptors creating free holes, known as "p-
type" doping. The semiconductor materials used in electronic devices are doped
under precise conditions to control the concentration and regions of p- and n-type
dopants. A single semiconductor device crystal can have many p- and n-type regions;
the p–n junctions between these regions are responsible for the useful electronic
behavior. Using a hot-point probe, one can determine quickly whether a
semiconductor sample is p- or n-type.[6]

A few of the properties of semiconductor materials were observed throughout the

mid-19th and first decades of the 20th century. The first practical application of
semiconductors in electronics was the 1904 development of the cat's-whisker
detector, a primitive semiconductor diode used in early radio receivers.
Developments in quantum physics led in turn to the invention of the transistor in
1947[7] and the integrated circuit in 1958.

Properties
Variable electrical conductivity
Semiconductors in their natural state are poor conductors because a current
requires the flow of electrons, and semiconductors have their valence bands filled,
preventing the entire flow of new electrons. Several developed techniques allow
semiconducting materials to behave like conducting materials, such as doping or
gating. These modifications have two outcomes: n-type and p-type. These refer to
the excess or shortage of electrons, respectively. A balanced number of electrons
would cause a current to flow throughout the material.[8]
Homojunctions
Homojunctions occur when two differently doped semiconducting materials are joined.
For example, a configuration could consist of p-doped and n-doped germanium. This
results in an exchange of electrons and holes between the differently doped
semiconducting materials. The n-doped germanium would have an excess of electrons,
and the p-doped germanium would have an excess of holes. The transfer occurs until
an equilibrium is reached by a process called recombination, which causes the
migrating electrons from the n-type to come in contact with the migrating holes
from the p-type.[9] The result of this process is a narrow strip of immobile ions,
which causes an electric field across the junction.[5][8]

Excited electrons
A difference in electric potential on a semiconducting material would cause it to
leave thermal equilibrium and create a non-equilibrium situation. This introduces
electrons and holes to the system, which interact via a process called ambipolar
diffusion. Whenever thermal equilibrium is disturbed in a semiconducting material,
the number of holes and electrons changes. Such disruptions can occur as a result
of a temperature difference or photons, which can enter the system and create
electrons and holes. The processes that create or annihilate electrons and holes
are called generation and recombination, respectively.[8]

Light emission
In certain semiconductors, excited electrons can relax by emitting light instead of
producing heat.[10] Controlling the semiconductor composition and electrical
current allows for the manipulation of the emitted light's properties.[11] These
semiconductors are used in the construction of light-emitting diodes and
fluorescent quantum dots.

High thermal conductivity

Semiconductors with high thermal conductivity can be used for heat dissipation and
improving thermal management of electronics. They play a crucial role in electric
vehicles, high-brightness LEDs and power modules, among other applications.[12][13]
[14]

Thermal energy conversion

Semiconductors have large thermoelectric power factors making them useful in
thermoelectric generators, as well as high thermoelectric figures of merit making
them useful in thermoelectric coolers.[15]

Materials
Main article: List of semiconductor materials

Silicon crystals are the most common semiconducting materials used in

microelectronics and photovoltaics.
A large number of elements and compounds have semiconducting properties, including:
[16]

Certain pure elements are found in group 14 of the periodic table; the most
commercially important of these elements are silicon and germanium. Silicon and
germanium are used here effectively because they have 4 valence electrons in their
outermost shell, which gives them the ability to gain or lose electrons equally at
the same time.
Binary compounds, particularly between elements in groups 13 and 15, such as
gallium arsenide, groups 12 and 16, groups 14 and 16, and between different group-
14 elements, e.g. silicon carbide.
Certain ternary compounds, oxides, and alloys.
Organic semiconductors, made of organic compounds.
Semiconducting metal–organic frameworks.[17][18]
The most common semiconducting materials are crystalline solids, but amorphous and
liquid semiconductors are also known. These include hydrogenated amorphous silicon
and mixtures of arsenic, selenium, and tellurium in a variety of proportions. These
compounds share with better-known semiconductors the properties of intermediate
conductivity and a rapid variation of conductivity with temperature, as well as
occasional negative resistance. Such disordered materials lack the rigid
crystalline structure of conventional semiconductors such as silicon. They are
generally used in thin film structures, which do not require material of higher
electronic quality, being relatively insensitive to impurities and radiation
damage.

Preparation of semiconductor materials

Almost all of today's electronic technology involves the use of semiconductors,
with the most important aspect being the integrated circuit (IC), which are found
in desktops, laptops, scanners, cell-phones, and other electronic devices.
Semiconductors for ICs are mass-produced. To create an ideal semiconducting
material, chemical purity is paramount. Any small imperfection can have a drastic
effect on how the semiconducting material behaves due to the scale at which the
materials are used.[8]

A high degree of crystalline perfection is also required, since faults in the

crystal structure (such as dislocations, twins, and stacking faults) interfere with
the semiconducting properties of the material. Crystalline faults are a major cause
of defective semiconductor devices. The larger the crystal, the more difficult it
is to achieve the necessary perfection. Current mass production processes use
crystal ingots between 100 and 300 mm (3.9 and 11.8 in) in diameter, grown as
cylinders and sliced into wafers. The round shape characteristic of these wafers
comes from single-crystal ingots usually produced using the Czochralski method.
Silicon wafers were first introduced in the 1940s.[19][20]

There is a combination of processes that are used to prepare semiconducting

materials for ICs. One process is called thermal oxidation, which forms silicon
dioxide on the surface of the silicon. This is used as a gate insulator and field
oxide. Other processes are called photomasks and photolithography. This process is
what creates the patterns on the circuit in the integrated circuit. Ultraviolet
light is used along with a photoresist layer to create a chemical change that
generates the patterns for the circuit.[8]

The etching is the next process that is required. The part of the silicon that was
not covered by the photoresist layer from the previous step can now be etched. The
main process typically used today is called plasma etching. Plasma etching usually
involves an etch gas pumped in a low-pressure chamber to create plasma. A common
etch gas is chlorofluorocarbon, or more commonly known Freon. A high radio-
frequency voltage between the cathode and anode is what creates the plasma in the
chamber. The silicon wafer is located on the cathode, which causes it to be hit by
the positively charged ions that are released from the plasma. The result is
silicon that is etched anisotropically.[5][8]

The last process is called diffusion. This is the process that gives the
semiconducting material its desired semiconducting properties. It is also known as
doping. The process introduces an impure atom to the system, which creates the p–n
junction. To get the impure atoms embedded in the silicon wafer, the wafer is first
put in a 1,100 degree Celsius chamber. The atoms are injected in and eventually
diffuse with the silicon. After the process is completed and the silicon has
reached room temperature, the doping process is done and the semiconducting wafer
is almost prepared.[5][8]

Physics of semiconductors
Energy bands and electrical conduction
Main articles: Electronic band structure and Electrical resistivity and
conductivity

Filling of the electronic states in various types of materials at equilibrium.

Here, height is energy while width is the density of available states for a certain
energy in the material listed. The shade follows the Fermi–Dirac distribution
(black: all states filled, white: no state filled). In metals and semimetals the
Fermi level EF lies inside at least one band.
In insulators and semiconductors the Fermi level is inside a band gap; however, in
semiconductors the bands are near enough to the Fermi level to be thermally
populated with electrons or holes. "intrin." indicates intrinsic
semiconductors.edit
Semiconductors are defined by their unique electric conductive behavior, somewhere
between that of a conductor and an insulator.[21] The differences between these
materials can be understood in terms of the quantum states for electrons, each of
which may contain zero or one electron (by the Pauli exclusion principle). These
states are associated with the electronic band structure of the material.
Electrical conductivity arises due to the presence of electrons in states that are
delocalized (extending through the material), however in order to transport
electrons a state must be partially filled, containing an electron only part of the
time.[22] If the state is always occupied with an electron, then it is inert,
blocking the passage of other electrons via that state. The energies of these
quantum states are critical since a state is partially filled only if its energy is
near the Fermi level[citation needed] (see Fermi–Dirac statistics).

High conductivity in material comes from it having many partially filled states and
much state delocalization. Metals are good electrical conductors and have many
partially filled states with energies near their Fermi level. Insulators, by
contrast, have few partially filled states, their Fermi levels sit within band gaps
with few energy states to occupy. Importantly, an insulator can be made to conduct
by increasing its temperature: heating provides energy to promote some electrons
across the band gap, inducing partially filled states in both the band of states
beneath the band gap (valence band) and the band of states above the band gap
(conduction band). An (intrinsic) semiconductor has a band gap that is smaller than
that of an insulator and at room temperature, significant numbers of electrons can
be excited to cross the band gap.[23]

A pure semiconductor, however, is not very useful, as it is neither a very good

insulator nor a very good conductor. However, one important feature of
semiconductors (and some insulators, known as semi-insulators) is that their
conductivity can be increased and controlled by doping with impurities and gating
with electric fields. Doping and gating move either the conduction or valence band
much closer to the Fermi level and greatly increase the number of partially filled
states.[citation needed]

Some wider-bandgap semiconductor materials are sometimes referred to as semi-

insulators. When undoped, these have electrical conductivity nearer to that of
electrical insulators, however they can be doped (making them as useful as
semiconductors). Semi-insulators find niche applications in micro-electronics, such
as substrates for HEMT. An example of a common semi-insulator is gallium arsenide.
[24] Some materials, such as titanium dioxide, can even be used as insulating
materials for some applications, while being treated as wide-gap semiconductors for
other applications.[citation needed]

Charge carriers (electrons and holes)

Main article: Electron hole
The partial filling of the states at the bottom of the conduction band can be
understood as adding electrons to that band. The electrons do not stay indefinitely
(due to the natural thermal recombination) but they can move around for some time.
The actual concentration of electrons is typically very dilute, and so (unlike in
metals) it is possible to think of the electrons in the conduction band of a
semiconductor as a sort of classical ideal gas, where the electrons fly around
freely without being subject to the Pauli exclusion principle. In most
semiconductors, the conduction bands have a parabolic dispersion relation, and so
these electrons respond to forces (electric field, magnetic field, etc.) much as
they would in a vacuum, though with a different effective mass.[23] Because the
electrons behave like an ideal gas, one may also think about conduction in very
simplistic terms such as the Drude model, and introduce concepts such as electron
mobility.

For partial filling at the top of the valence band, it is helpful to introduce the
concept of an electron hole. Although the electrons in the valence band are always
moving around, a completely full valence band is inert, not conducting any current.
If an electron is taken out of the valence band, then the trajectory that the
electron would normally have taken is now missing its charge. For the purposes of
electric current, this combination of the full valence band, minus the electron,
can be converted into a picture of a completely empty band containing a positively
charged particle that moves in the same way as the electron. Combined with the
negative effective mass of the electrons at the top of the valence band, we arrive
at a picture of a positively charged particle that responds to electric and
magnetic fields just as a normal positively charged particle would do in a vacuum,
again with some positive effective mass.[23] This particle is called a hole, and
the collection of holes in the valence band can again be understood in simple
classical terms (as with the electrons in the conduction band).

Carrier generation and recombination

Main article: Carrier generation and recombination
When ionizing radiation strikes a semiconductor, it may excite an electron out of
its energy level and consequently leave a hole. This process is known as electron-
hole pair generation. Electron-hole pairs are constantly generated from thermal
energy as well, in the absence of any external energy source.

Electron-hole pairs are also apt to recombine. Conservation of energy demands that
these recombination events, in which an electron loses an amount of energy larger
than the band gap, be accompanied by the emission of thermal energy (in the form of
phonons) or radiation (in the form of photons).

In some states, the generation and recombination of electron–hole pairs are in

equipoise. The number of electron-hole pairs in the steady state at a given
temperature is determined by quantum statistical mechanics. The precise quantum
mechanical mechanisms of generation and recombination are governed by the
conservation of energy and conservation of momentum.

As the probability that electrons and holes meet together is proportional to the
product of their numbers, the product is in the steady-state nearly constant at a
given temperature, providing that there is no significant electric field (which
might "flush" carriers of both types, or move them from neighbor regions containing
more of them to meet together) or externally driven pair generation. The product is
a function of the temperature, as the probability of getting enough thermal energy
to produce a pair increases with temperature, being approximately exp(−EG/kT),
where k is the Boltzmann constant, T is the absolute temperature and EG is bandgap.

The probability of meeting is increased by carrier traps – impurities or

dislocations which can trap an electron or hole and hold it until a pair is
completed. Such carrier traps are sometimes purposely added to reduce the time
needed to reach the steady-state.[25]

Doping
Main article: Doping (semiconductor)
Doping of a pure silicon array. Silicon based intrinsic semiconductor becomes
extrinsic when impurities such as Boron and Antimony are introduced.
The conductivity of semiconductors may easily be modified by introducing impurities
into their crystal lattice. The process of adding controlled impurities to a
semiconductor is known as doping. The amount of impurity, or dopant, added to an
intrinsic (pure) semiconductor varies its level of conductivity.[26] Doped
semiconductors are referred to as extrinsic.[27] By adding impurity to the pure
semiconductors, the electrical conductivity may be varied by factors of thousands
or millions.[28]

A 1 cm3 specimen of a metal or semiconductor has the order of 1022 atoms.[29] In a

metal, every atom donates at least one free electron for conduction, thus 1 cm3 of
metal contains on the order of 1022 free electrons,[30] whereas a 1 cm3 sample of
pure germanium at 20 °C contains about 4.2×1022 atoms, but only 2.5×1013 free
electrons and 2.5×1013 holes. The addition of 0.001% of arsenic (an impurity)
donates an extra 1017 free electrons in the same volume and the electrical
conductivity is increased by a factor of 10,000.[31][32]

The materials chosen as suitable dopants depend on the atomic properties of both
the dopant and the material to be doped. In general, dopants that produce the
desired controlled changes are classified as either electron acceptors or donors.
Semiconductors doped with donor impurities are called n-type, while those doped
with acceptor impurities are known as p-type. The n and p type designations
indicate which charge carrier acts as the material's majority carrier. The opposite
carrier is called the minority carrier, which exists due to thermal excitation at a
much lower concentration compared to the majority carrier.[33]

For example, the pure semiconductor silicon has four valence electrons that bond
each silicon atom to its neighbors.[34] In silicon, the most common dopants are
group III and group V elements. Group III elements all contain three valence
electrons, causing them to function as acceptors when used to dope silicon. When an
acceptor atom replaces a silicon atom in the crystal, a vacant state (an electron
"hole") is created, which can move around the lattice and function as a charge
carrier. Group V elements have five valence electrons, which allows them to act as
a donor; substitution of these atoms for silicon creates an extra free electron.
Therefore, a silicon crystal doped with boron creates a p-type semiconductor
whereas one doped with phosphorus results in an n-type material.[35]

During manufacture, dopants can be diffused into the semiconductor body by contact
with gaseous compounds of the desired element, or ion implantation can be used to
accurately position the doped regions.

Amorphous semiconductors
Some materials, when rapidly cooled to a glassy amorphous state, have
semiconducting properties. These include B, Si, Ge, Se, and Te, and there are
multiple theories to explain them.[36][37]

Early history of semiconductors

See also: Semiconductor device § History of semiconductor device development, and
Timeline of electrical and electronic engineering
The history of the understanding of semiconductors begins with experiments on the
electrical properties of materials. The properties of the time-temperature
coefficient of resistance, rectification, and light-sensitivity were observed
starting in the early 19th century.

Karl Ferdinand Braun developed the crystal detector, the first semiconductor
device, in 1874.
Thomas Johann Seebeck was the first to notice that semiconductors exhibit special
feature such that experiment concerning an Seebeck effect emerged with much
stronger result when applying semiconductors, in 1821.[38] In 1833, Michael Faraday
reported that the resistance of specimens of silver sulfide decreases when they are
heated. This is contrary to the behavior of metallic substances such as copper. In
1839, Alexandre Edmond Becquerel reported observation of a voltage between a solid
and a liquid electrolyte, when struck by light, the photovoltaic effect. In 1873,
Willoughby Smith observed that selenium resistors exhibit decreasing resistance
when light falls on them. In 1874, Karl Ferdinand Braun observed conduction and
rectification in metallic sulfides, although this effect had been discovered
earlier by Peter Munck af Rosenschöld (sv) writing for the Annalen der Physik und
Chemie in 1835; Rosenschöld's findings were ignored.[39] Simon Sze stated that
Braun's research was the earliest systematic study of semiconductor devices.[40]
Also in 1874, Arthur Schuster found that a copper oxide layer on wires had
rectification properties that ceased when the wires are cleaned. William Grylls
Adams and Richard Evans Day observed the photovoltaic effect in selenium in 1876.
[41]

A unified explanation of these phenomena required a theory of solid-state physics,

which developed greatly in the first half of the 20th century. In 1878 Edwin
Herbert Hall demonstrated the deflection of flowing charge carriers by an applied
magnetic field, the Hall effect. The discovery of the electron by J.J. Thomson in
1897 prompted theories of electron-based conduction in solids. Karl Baedeker, by
observing a Hall effect with the reverse sign to that in metals, theorized that
copper iodide had positive charge carriers. Johan Koenigsberger [de] classified
solid materials like metals, insulators, and "variable conductors" in 1914 although
his student Josef Weiss already introduced the term Halbleiter (a semiconductor in
modern meaning) in his Ph.D. thesis in 1910.[42][43] Felix Bloch published a theory
of the movement of electrons through atomic lattices in 1928. In 1930, B. Gudden
[de] stated that conductivity in semiconductors was due to minor concentrations of
impurities. By 1931, the band theory of conduction had been established by Alan
Herries Wilson and the concept of band gaps had been developed. Walter H. Schottky
and Nevill Francis Mott developed models of the potential barrier and of the
characteristics of a metal–semiconductor junction. By 1938, Boris Davydov had
developed a theory of the copper-oxide rectifier, identifying the effect of the p–n
junction and the importance of minority carriers and surface states.[39]

Agreement between theoretical predictions (based on developing quantum mechanics)

and experimental results was sometimes poor. This was later explained by John
Bardeen as due to the extreme "structure sensitive" behavior of semiconductors,
whose properties change dramatically based on tiny amounts of impurities.[39]
Commercially pure materials of the 1920s containing varying proportions of trace
contaminants produced differing experimental results. This spurred the development
of improved material refining techniques, culminating in modern semiconductor
refineries producing materials with parts-per-trillion purity.

Devices using semiconductors were at first constructed based on empirical knowledge

before semiconductor theory provided a guide to the construction of more capable
and reliable devices.

Alexander Graham Bell used the light-sensitive property of selenium to transmit

sound over a beam of light in 1880. A working solar cell, of low efficiency, was
constructed by Charles Fritts in 1883, using a metal plate coated with selenium and
a thin layer of gold; the device became commercially useful in photographic light
meters in the 1930s.[39] Point-contact microwave detector rectifiers made of lead
sulfide were used by Jagadish Chandra Bose in 1904; the cat's-whisker detector
using natural galena or other materials became a common device in the development
of radio. However, it was somewhat unpredictable in operation and required manual
adjustment for best performance. In 1906, H.J. Round observed light emission when
electric current passed through silicon carbide crystals, the principle behind the
light-emitting diode. Oleg Losev observed similar light emission in 1922, but at
the time the effect had no practical use. Power rectifiers, using copper oxide and
selenium, were developed in the 1920s and became commercially important as an
alternative to vacuum tube rectifiers.[41][39]

The first semiconductor devices used galena, including German physicist Ferdinand
Braun's crystal detector in 1874 and Indian physicist Jagadish Chandra Bose's radio
crystal detector in 1901.[44][45]

In the years preceding World War II, infrared detection and communications devices
prompted research into lead-sulfide and lead-selenide materials. These devices were
used for detecting ships and aircraft, for infrared rangefinders, and for voice
communication systems. The point-contact crystal detector became vital for
microwave radio systems since available vacuum tube devices could not serve as
detectors above about 4000 MHz; advanced radar systems relied on the fast response
of crystal detectors. Considerable research and development of silicon materials
occurred during the war to develop detectors of consistent quality.[39]

Early transistors
Main article: History of the transistor

John Bardeen, William Shockley and Walter Brattain developed the bipolar point-
contact transistor in 1947.
Detector and power rectifiers could not amplify a signal. Many efforts were made to
develop a solid-state amplifier and were successful in developing a device called
the point contact transistor which could amplify 20 dB or more.[46] In 1922, Oleg
Losev developed two-terminal, negative resistance amplifiers for radio, but he died
in the Siege of Leningrad after successful completion. In 1926, Julius Edgar
Lilienfeld patented a device resembling a field-effect transistor, but it was not
practical. R. Hilsch [de] and R. W. Pohl [de] in 1938 demonstrated a solid-state
amplifier using a structure resembling the control grid of a vacuum tube; although
the device displayed power gain, it had a cut-off frequency of one cycle per
second, too low for any practical applications, but an effective application of the
available theory.[39] At Bell Labs, William Shockley and A. Holden started
investigating solid-state amplifiers in 1938. The first p–n junction in silicon was
observed by Russell Ohl about 1941 when a specimen was found to be light-sensitive,
with a sharp boundary between p-type impurity at one end and n-type at the other. A
slice cut from the specimen at the p–n boundary developed a voltage when exposed to
light.

The first working transistor was a point-contact transistor invented by John

Bardeen, Walter Houser Brattain, and William Shockley at Bell Labs in 1947.
Shockley had earlier theorized a field-effect amplifier made from germanium and
silicon, but he failed to build such a working device, before eventually using
germanium to invent the point-contact transistor.[47] In France, during the war,
Herbert Mataré had observed amplification between adjacent point contacts on a
germanium base. After the war, Mataré's group announced their "Transistron"
amplifier only shortly after Bell Labs announced the "transistor".

In 1954, physical chemist Morris Tanenbaum fabricated the first silicon junction
transistor at Bell Labs.[48] However, early junction transistors were relatively
bulky devices that were difficult to manufacture on a mass-production basis, which
limited them to a number of specialised applications.[49]

See also
icon Electronics portal
Deathnium
Semiconductor device fabrication
Semiconductor industry
Semiconductor characterization techniques
Transistor count
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Further reading
A. A. Balandin & K. L. Wang (2006). Handbook of Semiconductor Nanostructures and
Nanodevices (5-Volume Set). American Scientific Publishers. ISBN 978-1-58883-073-9.
Sze, Simon M. (1981). Physics of Semiconductor Devices (2nd ed.). John Wiley and
Sons (WIE). ISBN 978-0-471-05661-4.
Turley, Jim (2002). The Essential Guide to Semiconductors. Prentice Hall PTR. ISBN
978-0-13-046404-0.
Yu, Peter Y.; Cardona, Manuel (2004). Fundamentals of Semiconductors: Physics and
Materials Properties. Springer. ISBN 978-3-540-41323-3.
Sadao Adachi (2012). The Handbook on Optical Constants of Semiconductors: In Tables
and Figures. World Scientific Publishing. ISBN 978-981-4405-97-3.
G. B. Abdullayev, T. D. Dzhafarov, S. Torstveit (Translator), Atomic Diffusion in
Semiconductor Structures, Gordon & Breach Science Pub., 1987 ISBN 978-2-88124-152-9
Feynman's lecture on Semiconductors
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