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Who discovered the p-n junction at Bell Labs in 1940?
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semiconductor
Typical range of conductivities for insulators, semiconductors, and conductors.
The p-n junction was discovered in 1940 by the Bell Labs electrochemist Russell Ohl.1
These junctions are formed by adding different impurity elements to adjacent regions of a semiconductor, such as silicon or germanium, in a process known as doping. This discovery is fundamental to the operation of most modern semiconductor devices, including the junction transistor.1