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May 10, 2018

Quite a “Shock”: William Shockley’s Imprint on Silicon Valley

Machines have been a part of our world for many years now. There is a notion that machines must be able to control themselves, when in fact, some of the best machines are controlled and operated by a human. Machines can range from many sizes, from phones and computers to assembly line robots of a factory. Those who use computers know that they use electricity, but what the everyday users do not know is how so much power can be maintained in such a small space. The key is the transistor, a small piece of hardware that amplifies the electrical current that is imputed. This is important because in order to get the same output, electrical current would have to run through many vacuum tubes that take up a large sum of space.1 In 1947, William Shockley managed a solid state physics team at Bell Laboratories that focused mainly on the properties of semiconductors. A semiconductor is a solid or a liquid that can conduct electricity better than an insulator, but not as well as an actual metal. With the addition of impurities and heat, semiconductors can potentially reach the conductivity level of a metal. Before we can see Shockley’s contribution on the world of semiconductors, we must go back to why he began working with semiconductors.

Automation was an important topic of conversation in the early 1940’s. Automation is a broad topic that covers machines or robots and automatic responses. After World War II, the idea for a factory to become fully automated with an assembly line and machines that work themselves was tossed around many times. The automated machines would have to be controlled by something that could continuously enter input and manipulate the system, a computer. The problem was that the computer and machine did not use electricity efficiently due to the unreliability of vacuum tubes. These tubes were either made of glass or steel and used a vacuum to allow the electrons within the tubes to move freely. The tubes amplified the current, but they consumed a large amount of space and were unreliable.2 There was a need for a device that could heighten the electrical current in an efficient amount of space. William Shockley believed that the answer was lying in solid state physics.3

Vacuum Tube Radio Parts | Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

It was at Bell Labs where two members, John Bardeen and Walter Brattain, observed the effects of electricity on a piece of germanium.4 Bardeen and Brattain observed that when applied to the germanium crystals, the output was much higher than the input, meaning the electricity was amplified. Amplification occurs when the strength and integrity of the electrical current is heightened.5 This discovery led to the invention of the point-contact transistor. In the 1940’s, many people were listening to the radio any chance they could. Before the transistor was invented, radios used vacuum tubes, which meant that radios were large and not very portable. These radios weighed seven pounds and if they were portable, they needed a battery that weighed seven pounds. But they worked well and people did not mind, until the transistor allowed for radios that were much more portable, ones that could fit in your shirt pocket. For their amazing discovery, the Bell Labs team was awarded the Nobel Prize in physics.

Before transistors, the vacuum tubes were the best device to use to amplify electricity as needed. These tubes relied heavily on high power input such as heat, which made them unreliable because the tubes could break or the amplification would not be high enough. Machines would have to have a low usage of power due to the limitations of vacuum tubes. With a transistor, a low voltage input could be amplified much higher than the best vacuum tube. Since they relied on semiconductors, transistors could operate at higher temperatures, making them the obvious choice over vacuum tubes.

Transistor Radio Ad | Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

The point-contact transistor relied on holes around the first contact of the current. This allowed an amplification of the base current.6 Shockley was quite a competitive man and searched for a way to stamp his name on the development of the transistor. He turned to the quantum physics of semiconductors, where he increased the understanding of the point contact transistor and the electrical fields that the transistors made; but he needed more than that.

During his studies, Shockley found that by sandwiching crystals and impurities, the amplification could become much stronger and more reliable. With point contact transistors, the amplification is highly dependent on the surface material. Shockley’s new project, however, used two junctions in a single crystal semiconductor.7 This type of transistor became known as the junction transistor and created a new market. After he successfully patented his invention, many companies crafted their own variations of the junction transistor to sell. The junction transistor was extremely commercially successful and allowed for higher computation abilities on machines. His invention underlies the entire consumer electronics industry because transistors are used in a variety of machines and products.8

With the success of his product, in 1956 Shockley left Bell Labs to found his own semiconductor laboratory in San Francisco; he brought the silicon to Silicon Valley. His goal was to produce a silicon transistor, which had not been done due to the efficiency of germanium. However, silicon could offer more than germanium; in theory, silicon could operate at higher temperatures, allowing for increased reliability on the product. Shockley hired a group of young scientist to help him accomplish his goal. Unfortunately, he also had to teach them the extensive knowledge he knew about semiconductors. Shockley’s competitive nature made it hard for the group to be completely efficient. He would keep some important information from the members of his staff that he suspected to be undermining the project. Despite Shockley’s horrible management style, real progress was being made. The members of the group started to disappear as Shockley became too much to deal with, and when a few of the remaining members tried to have him removed, he abandoned the project and a few members left to start their own laboratory to accomplish what Shockley could not. Even though Shockley did not directly invent the silicon transistor, he enabled those who did.9

Modern Transistor | Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Those who split from Shockley Semiconductor formed Fairchild Semiconductor, which was much more successful. Within a few years, Fairchild dominated the industry with its planar transistor and integrated circuit. The planar transistor, which was made mostly of silicon, was more efficient than the simple junction transistor. With their success, the employees left Fairchild to create “Fairchildren” – many spin-off companies that also had huge success. These fairchildren formed the backbone of today’s industry sectors of computer hardware and software.10 So, from his complete lack of great interpersonal skills, William Shockley adversely created Silicon Valley.

The transistor is a staple in the computer industry; it has changed the way computers are operated and maintained. With transistors, computers are more efficient and use less space. In the modern computers used today, the hardware relies heavily on the use of transistors. Inside a micro processing chip, the chip that runs and maintains the computer, there can be many miniature transistors. A laptop is designed to be space efficient, while still having the computing power of an average personal computer, this would be impossible without transistors and the power that they bring to the table. One of Intel’s newest releases, the i7 core processor has over 100 million transistors inside of it, and that is just one piece that goes into a collection of parts within a computer.  Without William Shockley and the team at Bell Labs, the computer world would not be the same.

 

  1. Funk & Wagnalls New World Encyclopedia, 2017, s.v. “Transistor.”
  2. Funk & Wagnalls New World Encyclopedia, 2017, s.v. “Vacuum Tubes.”
  3. David C. Brock, “From automation to Silicon Valley: the automation movement of the 1950s, Arnold Beckman, and William Shockley,” History & Technology vol. 28: 378-379.
  4. Gordon Moore, “William Shockley,” Time vol. 153 (1999): 160.
  5. Salem Press Encyclopedia of Science, 2013, s.v. “Amplification.”
  6. D.N. Bose, “Transistors — From point contact to single electron,” Resonance vol. 2 (1997): 46.
  7.  D.N. Bose, “Transistors — From point contact to single electron,” Resonance vol. 2 (1997): 46.
  8.  Gordon Moore, “William Shockley,” Time vol. 153 (1999): 160.
  9.  Gordon Moore, “William Shockley,” Time vol. 153 (1999): 160.
  10. Cyrus Mody, “Makers of the Microchip: A Documentary History of Fairchild Semiconductor,” Isis vol. 103 (2012): 210-211.

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Recent Comments

Nathan Alba

I always knew Silicon Valley had some sort of technological importance behind its name. But I figured it had to do with Apple or Google, or some other current big name brand. I had no idea that it came from a type of technology that was created so long ago. I thought the article did well to tell the story of Shockley and found it ironic how he was unable to be successful due to his managing skills. It’s also crazy to think that from the invention of the transistor would lead to today where laptops would have 100 million transistors themselves.

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02/09/2018

4:29 pm

Mariana Valadez

It is amazing how one person can influence a whole industry. This article does a great job in capturing all of the skills Shockley had to make his invention possible. The transistor has been a great invention that has changed technology for the better. With Shockley’s management skills he was able to accomplish many great things. I am someone with little knowledge in the world of circuits and this article did a good job making me understand.

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12/09/2018

4:29 pm

Didier Cadena

This was a very interesting article. Before reading this article, I had never heard about who William Shockley, so it was nice to read a little bit about him. The amount that he was able to do for those who would go on and try and perfect the silicon transistor is a great feat. The article does a great job of putting all of the information together and still make it interesting to read.

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16/09/2018

4:29 pm

Jasmine Rocha

This essay was very straightforward and interesting how the Silicon Valley was based on one invention. How this was created due to people noticing that there was a problem with having old technology taking too much space but not having great results. Then they noticed that there was another material that did a better work with electricity that took way less space and now that is how we have small radios and technologies that work well and fit in our palm. This was the story of transistors.

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16/09/2018

4:29 pm

Damian Jennings

I tend to either over simplify things or over complicate things. In this instance and my knowledge of technology I’m sure we can all agree that we do over simplify the components underneath our computers, phones, laptops, etc. Shockley’s work was incredible, it was so incredible that he was awarded Nobel Prize in physics for the company Bell Labs. The concepts that Shockley introduced during the 1900s influence the structure of our technology to this day.

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16/09/2018

4:29 pm

Robert Rees

First off, this article is very informative. Lately I have been interested in learning what were some of the ground breaking inventions that allow for technology like our smartphones to exist today. I also think that the use of images is very done as it creates a nice flow showing how electronics such as radios have evolved. My only critique would be that the second line about how some of the best machines are those controlled by people, feels somewhat out of place in an article discussing the history of transistors. Other than that minor critique, this is a job well done.

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20/09/2018

4:29 pm

Hailey Stewart

It is astonishing to me to read about people who just invent things. Inventors are a different breed of people. William Shockley saw a need, and filled it with the foundation of what would become Silicon Valley. This was a very interesting read!

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30/09/2018

4:29 pm

Cameron Lopez

This was a great article to read, I never heard of William Shockley until now but its nice that I know a little about him now. The ones who went for it all and tried to perfect the silicon transistor is great. The article does a good job on its storyline and attention to detail. Great article overall.

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20/03/2019

4:29 pm

Eliezer Leal

Wow reading this article was an eye opener for me considering I do not know much about technology and how it came to be. Obviously technology is not what it used to be it is intricate and very delicate, more now than ever. We are in the golden age of technology right now, through the years technology was very bulky and difficult to carry around, but look where we are now, a super computer doubles as a communication device that fits in our pockets, the article itself gives the example that Intel’s i7 core possessor has over 100 million inside of it which insane to think about considering breakthroughs in technology are being announced on a regular basis.

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08/09/2019

4:29 pm

Abbey Stiffler

It was interesting to learn a little bit about William Shockley as I had never heard of him before reading this article. As it generates a beautiful flow and demonstrates how electronics like radios have grown, I also believe that the usage of photos in this article is really well done. This essay did a wonderful job of explaining circuits to someone like me who knows very little about them. It is incredible how one person can have an impact on an entire business.

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09/04/2023

4:29 pm

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