75 Years of the Transistor Patent: An Invention That Changed Humanity

Smooth 75 years ago three scientists from Bell Labs - John Bardeen, Walter Brattain и William Shockley — received transistor patent, which marked the beginning of the third industrial revolution. This modest-looking element with three electrodes became the basis of the silicon era, which still shapes modern business, technology and society.

The first working prototype was demonstrated in 1947, but patent for a "three-electrode semiconductor element" scientists only received it on October 3, 1950. The scale of the transistor's influence was not immediately realized - it took years to appreciate its revolutionary role in accelerating computing, increasing energy efficiency and miniaturization technology. It was transistors that made it possible to create integrated circuits and processors, where they work today hundreds of billions of elements on an area smaller than a fingernail.

Before transistors were used vacuum tubes — fragile, bulky, and power-hungry. Today, they remain only in niche applications—guitar amplifiers, studio acoustics, and specialized military or scientific equipment. The main advances have advanced far beyond that, and now we're waiting for chips with a trillion transistors, which once seemed like science fiction.

One of the milestones in history was the year 1965 – the birth Moore's law, put forward by Intel co-founder Gordon Moore. He predicted that the number of transistors in chips will double every two years, which has become a guiding principle for the entire industry. Despite doubts, many engineers and companies still believe that Moore's Law is alive, and its spirit is the basis of the current race for artificial intelligence and a new level of machine thinking.