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What role did Walter H. Brattain play in the invention of the transistor?
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transistor
NMOS transistor
Negative-channel metal-oxide semiconductors (NMOS) employ a positive secondary voltage to switch a shallow layer of p-type semiconductor material below the gate into n-type. For positive-channel metal-oxide semiconductors (PMOS), all these polarities are reversed. NMOS transistors are more expensive, but faster, than PMOS transistors.
Walter H. Brattain was an experimental physicist at Bell Laboratories whose work was instrumental in the invention of the transistor in 1947.1
Brattainās contributions included:
- Early Experimental Research: He collaborated with William B. Shockley as early as 1939 to attempt the fabrication of a solid-state amplifier, though these initial efforts were unsuccessful due to the limitations of contemporary semiconductor theory.2
- Surface-State Breakthrough: Following World War II, Brattain worked within a research group led by Shockley. In November 1947, while investigating the behavior of "surface-state" electrons, Brattain discovered a method to neutralize their blocking effect, which allowed an electric field to penetrate deep into a semiconductor.2
- Point-Contact Transistor: Building on this discovery, Brattain and John Bardeen worked closely to invent the first successful semiconductor amplifier, the point-contact transistor, on December 16, 1947.2
For these developments, Brattain, Bardeen, and Shockley were jointly awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1956.13