This sketch, by engineer Mort Jones, is of a grown junction silicon transistor. (The name refers to the fact that the silicon that serves as the on-off transistor is grown from a crystal.) TI had recruited Gordon Teal from Bell Labs in the 1950s to serve as its semiconductor research director. The want ad for the job was placed in the New York Times to target Bell Labs employees. In 1954, TI released the first commercial silicon transistor. Earlier, some had believed germanium might become the primary material for making transistors.
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