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Since their invention nearly 75 years ago, transistors have reshaped the world. This series of articles will cover the most interesting bits of their history and describe how manufacturing methods have changed over time. by Ian Batty
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The chip that Piet Haaijman brought from Silicon Valley to Philips’ Natlab in 1962 caused the sense of urgency needed to invest in lithography.
Compared to the US, Europe was another planet in the decades after World War II, in both economic and technological terms. Countries like England and France were putting money into defense technology, but not the billions the Americans were investing. Large industrial companies like Philips and Siemens primarily served consumers and other companies. There was barely room for tiny semiconductor startups; they lacked both the capital and the customers.
In America, it was mostly the Department of Defense that was stimulating research into the miniaturization of electronics. US companies had emerged from the war at full speed and were continuing to profit from a generous government budget for the development of military electronic applications. Modules filled with vacuum tubes and later transistors formed the new ‘brains’ in weapon