Field-effect transistor (Lilienfeld's patent)
Transistor de efecto campo (patente de Lilienfeld)
- Date
- 1925 (patente) · confidence high
- Place
- Leipzig, Germany
- Credited to
- Julius Edgar Lilienfeld
- Field
- Matter & energy
What it is
Lilienfeld patented the concept of a field-controlled transistor two decades before the semiconductor materials needed to build it existed; no one achieved a working device from his design at the time.
Lilienfeld's patent remained unbuilt; its direct relationship to the development of the 1947 transistor is a matter of historical debate.
What it led to
- Theoretical inspiration for the research leading to the 1947 point-contact transistor
- Later development of the MOSFET transistor