Three American physicists-John
Bardeen, Walter H.Brattain,
and William
Shockley-invented
the transistor in 1947.
The transistor has now almost completely replaced the vacuum
tube and most of its applications. Incorporating an arrangement
of semiconductor materials and of electrical contacts, the
transistor provides the same functions as the vacuum to but at a
reduced cost, weight, size, and power consumption and with
higher reliability. Transistors revolutionized the electronics
industry, dramatically reducing the size of computers and other
equipment. Transistors were used as amplifiers in hearing aids
and pocket-sized radios and the early 1950's. By the 1960's,
semiconductor diodes and transistors had replaced vacuum tubes
in many types of equipment.
