The bit about how semiconductors could only have been made in America because only America had the specific combination of freedom of speech, irreverence, pragmatism over dogmatism, meritocracy and welcoming outsiders is definitely an interesting idea, although how true that is?
No, this is false. Many of the people mentioned were born here.
Chang came because of education and stayed because of communist oppression and lack of opportunity at home. As racist as Texas was at the time, it was still better than going back to China, which is why he stayed.
Andy Grove endured the Nazis in Europe and the was almost killed by the Communists in Europe. His mother was raped and hunted by both. Tell me again why he came for the taxes?
It's genuinely so ridiculous to suggest that freedom and meritocracy (among other things) were why America was able to do this first. This stuff was before the civil rights act.
There are endless stories about Americans being sent to Europe needing to be told that they can't treat black people the way they do at home.
All of the chest thumping about being the land of the free rings hollow when considering how recent some of this history is. The current and previous president were alive when the civil rights act was passed!
I don’t follow your logic. There were racists in America, many. Some went to go fight to free Europe, and behaved racist there. So therefore we should not be proud of inventing the semiconductor? Did I follow your correctly here?
This is really inaccurate. The real reason is similar to why America was at the forefront of the other high tech sectors like aviation etc too: massive defense spending, a lot of business people (like Fairchild) willing to invest in a sector where they see the potential procurement from Pentagon, while starting to serve the civilian sector.
The origin of the semiconductor industry of USA is in the WWII military research for microwave detectors used in radars.
The vacuum diodes were no longer useful at such high frequencies, so it was attempted to make better point-contact semiconductor diodes using germanium and silicon pure crystals, instead of using natural minerals, like galena, which had poor performance and were not reproducible.
Much of this WWII research and development effort has been done at the Bell labs. The most important results were the development of technologies for purifying germanium and silicon at levels never succeeded before for other chemical substances, for growing single crystals of Ge and Si, and for doping them in a controlled way with impurities.
Before WWII, all attempts to make semiconductor devices with good performances were unsuccessful, with the exception of a few applications that had very low performance requirements, like the AC rectifiers with selenium or copper oxide. The reason is that the properties of semiconductors are hugely influenced by even very small amounts of impurities or crystal defects.
Only by the end of WWII, with the availability of pure single crystals of germanium and silicon, which were the result of radar development during the war, the research on semiconductor devices could really start.
The experimental discovery of the point-contact transistor by Bardeen and Brattain was a direct product of the Bell team trying to find other applications for the technology of making point-contact diodes that was developed at Bell during the war. Then, stimulated by the experimental results, Shockley, who was an excellent theoretical physicist, developed a theory of the electrical conduction in semiconductors that has been the basis for the invention of the other semiconductor devices during the following decades. Shockley himself has invented several semiconductor devices using his theory, the very important BJT (bipolar junction transistor) and JFET (junction field-effect transistor) and the less important PNPN diode (a.k.a. Shockley diode).
The announcement of the transistor, which was "open-sourced" by the Bell Labs triggered intense efforts of R&D in semiconductor devices at many companies in USA and all over the world.
The very quick evolution of the semiconductor industry in USA and abroad during the first decades was determined by a complete disregard for what nowadays is called "IP".
ATT and the Bell Labs licensed the semiconductor technology cheaply to anyone and even gave it for free for certain purposes (e.g. for the purpose of making hearing aids, respecting the wishes of Alexander Graham Bell, the founder of ATT).
Then, in the following years, all advances in semiconductor devices and semiconductor technology were published with complete recipes of how to reproduce them. This ensured that all innovations spread immediately to all companies active in this domain. While significant inventions were patented, at that time patents were typically still licensed fairly and non-discriminatory, instead of being used as weapons against competitors.
The semiconductor and computer industries would have never flourished and something like the Silicon Valley would have never been created in the current environment of secrecy and paranoia about "protecting IP" and of abusing the patent and copyright laws to prevent competition and reach monopoly status.
To be fair, not protecting "IP" was the right strategy when the market for the semiconductor industry was growing, because the sharing of all knowledge ensured a much faster growth of the market, which was achieved both by replacing older technologies and by creating new applications enabled by the properties of the new devices. The growth of the market ensured that sharing was a win for each company.
In a stagnant market, a company can grow only if another shrinks, so a much more adversarial attitude is needed if growth is the goal, like weaponizing the "IP".
This is an interesting point of view. I had read elsewhere the idea that the technology was moving so fast, copying was almost useless (this was in regards to why the SSR's did NOT get very far in semiconductor design . . . their strategy was to copy everything, similar to their nuclear and rocket strategy): by the time you were reading the paper the industry had moved so far beyond, it wasn't very useful.
Bell Labs was primarily funded by AT&T, a private company. Like I said, an environment with low taxes and real freedom is the source of prosperity, creativity, and innovation.
Connections suggested without supporting info. I don't buy them. Maybe there's more info in the video, but the terrible AI intro (one of the worst I've seen) did not encourage confidence.
Watched some of the video. The connection between "freedom of speech" and "shoddy logic" is that Shockley invented the transistor despite being a raging racist. This was the best supported argument of the bunch.
It's an interesting point about that time in history, but I still don't buy the argument. Does it hold up when looking at which countries lead the world in semiconductor manufacturing today?
Thanks, it’s a valid question. And certainly semiconductors is an international game at this point, I make that clear at the end of the talk.
Once the engineering was established, we were quick to take the production abroad. But the 0-1 moments mostly happened in the United States. And could not have happened anywhere else.
And even though the individual points don’t connect elegantly, I still think america is an amazing place that produces the most amazing ideas and things.
I love the talk! But I do feel something critical is missing. You can not talk about semi-conductors without at least mentioning Walter Schottky (but I think that doesn't fit the narrative because he was a German).
The theories from before WWII of Walter Schottky were indeed an important step in the development of semiconductor physics.
Besides Schottky there are a great number of other people who had critical contributions towards the development of semiconductor devices and who are not mentioned in the very short summary from the video.
For instance, Julius Edgar Lilienfeld had invented before WWII 2 kinds of field-effect transistors: metal-semiconductor FETs and depletion-mode MOSFETs. But before WWII making such devices was not reproducible, because the available semiconductor materials were too impure.
Nevertheless, the Bell team searching for methods to make semiconductor triodes was aware of these patents and they were stimulated by them to find alternative structures that worked.
The work of the team that discovered the point-contact transistor would have been completely impossible without the techniques developed during the war by some of their colleagues, e.g. by Russell Shoemaker Ohl, for making pure germanium and silicon and diodes using these materials. (During the war, Ohl has also invented the silicon solar cell, as a byproduct of the work on radar diodes.)
Thank you! And Schottky was a good catch, and there are a few European scientists I’m not paying appropriate homage to, for sure. I had to cut a lot to get this down to a 30 minute talk, to native Kazakh speakers, so I definitely tightened up a lot. I will go back and read on Schottky again.
18 comments
[ 3.6 ms ] story [ 52.0 ms ] threadWhy? Mostly because America has true individual freedom and low taxes, unlike Europe.
Chang came because of education and stayed because of communist oppression and lack of opportunity at home. As racist as Texas was at the time, it was still better than going back to China, which is why he stayed.
Andy Grove endured the Nazis in Europe and the was almost killed by the Communists in Europe. His mother was raped and hunted by both. Tell me again why he came for the taxes?
There are endless stories about Americans being sent to Europe needing to be told that they can't treat black people the way they do at home.
All of the chest thumping about being the land of the free rings hollow when considering how recent some of this history is. The current and previous president were alive when the civil rights act was passed!
The origin of the semiconductor industry of USA is in the WWII military research for microwave detectors used in radars.
The vacuum diodes were no longer useful at such high frequencies, so it was attempted to make better point-contact semiconductor diodes using germanium and silicon pure crystals, instead of using natural minerals, like galena, which had poor performance and were not reproducible.
Much of this WWII research and development effort has been done at the Bell labs. The most important results were the development of technologies for purifying germanium and silicon at levels never succeeded before for other chemical substances, for growing single crystals of Ge and Si, and for doping them in a controlled way with impurities.
Before WWII, all attempts to make semiconductor devices with good performances were unsuccessful, with the exception of a few applications that had very low performance requirements, like the AC rectifiers with selenium or copper oxide. The reason is that the properties of semiconductors are hugely influenced by even very small amounts of impurities or crystal defects.
Only by the end of WWII, with the availability of pure single crystals of germanium and silicon, which were the result of radar development during the war, the research on semiconductor devices could really start.
The experimental discovery of the point-contact transistor by Bardeen and Brattain was a direct product of the Bell team trying to find other applications for the technology of making point-contact diodes that was developed at Bell during the war. Then, stimulated by the experimental results, Shockley, who was an excellent theoretical physicist, developed a theory of the electrical conduction in semiconductors that has been the basis for the invention of the other semiconductor devices during the following decades. Shockley himself has invented several semiconductor devices using his theory, the very important BJT (bipolar junction transistor) and JFET (junction field-effect transistor) and the less important PNPN diode (a.k.a. Shockley diode).
The announcement of the transistor, which was "open-sourced" by the Bell Labs triggered intense efforts of R&D in semiconductor devices at many companies in USA and all over the world.
The very quick evolution of the semiconductor industry in USA and abroad during the first decades was determined by a complete disregard for what nowadays is called "IP".
ATT and the Bell Labs licensed the semiconductor technology cheaply to anyone and even gave it for free for certain purposes (e.g. for the purpose of making hearing aids, respecting the wishes of Alexander Graham Bell, the founder of ATT).
Then, in the following years, all advances in semiconductor devices and semiconductor technology were published with complete recipes of how to reproduce them. This ensured that all innovations spread immediately to all companies active in this domain. While significant inventions were patented, at that time patents were typically still licensed fairly and non-discriminatory, instead of being used as weapons against competitors.
The semiconductor and computer industries would have never flourished and something like the Silicon Valley would have never been created in the current environment of secrecy and paranoia about "protecting IP" and of abusing the patent and copyright laws to prevent competition and reach monopoly status.
To be fair, not protecting "IP" was the right strategy when the market for the semiconductor industry was growing, because the sharing of all knowledge ensured a much faster growth of the market, which was achieved both by replacing older technologies and by creating new applications enabled by the properties of the new devices. The growth of the market ensured that sharing was a win for each company.
In a stagnant market, a company can grow only if another shrinks, so a much more adversarial attitude is needed if growth is the goal, like weaponizing the "IP".
Watched some of the video. The connection between "freedom of speech" and "shoddy logic" is that Shockley invented the transistor despite being a raging racist. This was the best supported argument of the bunch.
It's an interesting point about that time in history, but I still don't buy the argument. Does it hold up when looking at which countries lead the world in semiconductor manufacturing today?
Once the engineering was established, we were quick to take the production abroad. But the 0-1 moments mostly happened in the United States. And could not have happened anywhere else.
And even though the individual points don’t connect elegantly, I still think america is an amazing place that produces the most amazing ideas and things.
Besides Schottky there are a great number of other people who had critical contributions towards the development of semiconductor devices and who are not mentioned in the very short summary from the video.
For instance, Julius Edgar Lilienfeld had invented before WWII 2 kinds of field-effect transistors: metal-semiconductor FETs and depletion-mode MOSFETs. But before WWII making such devices was not reproducible, because the available semiconductor materials were too impure.
Nevertheless, the Bell team searching for methods to make semiconductor triodes was aware of these patents and they were stimulated by them to find alternative structures that worked.
The work of the team that discovered the point-contact transistor would have been completely impossible without the techniques developed during the war by some of their colleagues, e.g. by Russell Shoemaker Ohl, for making pure germanium and silicon and diodes using these materials. (During the war, Ohl has also invented the silicon solar cell, as a byproduct of the work on radar diodes.)