Transistor

Bardeen, Brattain, Shockley, Bell Labs, USA, patent 2,524,035 of 1950. The device that replaced the vacuum tube and built the digital world.

Overview

Bell Labs' December 1947 point-contact demonstration led to Shockley's junction transistor theory and patent 2,524,035 in 1950. AT&T licensed it openly for 25,000 dollars to settle an antitrust shadow, seeding Texas Instruments, Sony's radio, and the entire semiconductor industry. The three shared the 1956 physics Nobel. Kilby and Noyce later merged many transistors into the IC on this foundation. Every chip is billions of these switches. The most consequential technology license of the century.