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(December 13, 2007) SAN JOSE, CA — The Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) today hailed the transistor as the greatest invention of the 20th century. The first working transistor was created 60 years ago, on December 16, 1947, at Bell Laboratories in New Jersey. The inventors — William Shockley, John Bardeen, and Walter Brattain — were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1956 for their invention.
"The invention of the transistor 60 years ago launched a transformation of our world that is still unfolding," said SIA president George Scalise. "The importance of this historic milestone cannot be overstated. The transistor is the key building block of countless electronics products that have revolutionized virtually every aspect of human life. This year the worldwide microelectronics industry will produce 900 million transistors for every man, woman, and child on earth, a total of 6,000,000,000,000,000,000 (6 quintillion) transistors.
"The invention of the transistor marked the beginning of US leadership in technology," Scalise continued. "For nearly 60 years, leadership in technology has driven exponential improvements in the productivity of American workers, enabled world-leading economic growth, contributed to significant improvements in our standard of living, and ensured our national security."
Scalise noted that while the worldwide semiconductor industry continues to produce billions of discrete transistors every year, the overwhelming proportion of transistors today are in integrated circuits. "The invention of the solid-state transistor was an essential precursor to the subsequent invention of the integrated circuit. The brilliant work of William Shockley, John Bardeen, and Walter Brattain laid the foundations for the worldwide semiconductor industry that will surpass $257 billion in sales this year," Scalise continued.
Scalise cautioned, however, that the innovation leadership America has enjoyed since this landmark discovery is in jeopardy if key policies are not quickly adopted by Congress. "The invention of the transistor 60 years ago did not happen in isolation. It was the result of a world-class American workforce, a culture that encouraged daring and entrepreneurialism, and government policies that embraced investment in research. We need to replicate that model today if we want the invention of the next fundamental world-changing technology to be on our shores."
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