Julius Edgar Lilienfeld: The True Inventor of the Field-Effect Transistor in 1925
By
todsacerdoti
The bagel they save for the regulars. Don't skim, savour.
Summary
The article challenges the conventional narrative about the invention of the transistor, arguing that Julius Edgar Lilienfeld actually invented the field-effect transistor (FET) in 1925, two decades before Bell Labs' 1948 point-contact transistor. It presents evidence that Lilienfeld's FET designs worked and that his metal oxide semiconductor FET (MOSFET) patent from 1928 forms the basis for nearly all modern transistors used in computers and smartphones today. The article also mentions German engineer Oskar Heil's 1934 FET variant, positioning Lilienfeld as the true pioneer of transistor technology.
Key quotes
· 4 pulledOn 22 Oct 1925, Julius Edgar Lilienfeld (a Polish professor in Germany) patented the field-effect transistor (FET).
Lilienfeld's designs worked.
The much later point-contact transistor (Bell Labs, 1948) was a dead end: today, almost all of the billions of trillions of transistors in our computers and smartphones are FETs of the Lilienfeld type.
In 1934, German engineer Oskar Heil patented another FET variant.
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