The first five articles in this series discussed early licensees of the Bell Telephone Labs (BTL) transistor patents in the US and Europe. However, one more geographic region was actively involved in transistor development during the early 1950s: Japan. This final article in the series covers the story of one Japanese company’s efforts to license, make, and use transistors based on the BTL transistor patents.

Japan’s surrender on August 15, 1945 and the subsequent signing of surrender documents on September 2 marked the end of World War II. That same month, … Read More → "The Transistor at 75: The First Makers, Part 6"

Last November, we celebrated the 75th anniversary of the announcement by Bell Telephone Labs (BTL) of the transistor’s birth. Many articles about the early transistor developments have appeared, but I started to wonder about the earliest commercial transistor vendors. In Part 1 of this article, I discussed an incomplete list of attendees at a transistor symposium that was held at BTL in 1952. That list was compiled some years ago by Bo Lojek: … Read More → "The Transistor at 75: The First Makers, Part 5"

Last November, we celebrated the 75th anniversary of the announcement by Bell Telephone Labs (BTL) of the transistor’s birth. Many articles about the early transistor developments have appeared, but I started to wonder about the earliest commercial transistor vendors. In Part 1 of this article, I discussed an incomplete list of attendees at a transistor symposium that was held at BTL in 1952. That was list compiled some years ago by Bo Lojek: … Read More → "The Transistor at 75: The First Makers, Part 4"

Last November, we celebrated the 75th anniversary of the announcement by Bell Telephone Labs (BTL) of the transistor’s birth. Many articles about the early transistor developments have appeared, but I started to wonder about the earliest commercial transistor vendors. In Part 1 of this article, I discussed an incomplete list of attendees at a transistor symposium that was held at BTL in 1952. That was compiled some years ago by Bo Lojek:

1.       Arnold Engineering
2.       Automatic Electric</ … Read More → "The Transistor at 75: The First Makers, Part 3"

Part 1 of this article discussed the spark that ignited the commercial semiconductor industry. It was the 1952 Transistor Symposium conducted by Bell Telephone Laboratories (BTL). A book published by BTL called A History of Engineering and Science in the Bell System: Electronics Technology (1925-1975) stated that twenty-six domestic and fourteen foreign transistor licensees of the BTL transistor patents attended the symposium. That’s a total of 40 licensees. However, Bo Lojek’s book titled History of Semiconductor Engineering listed only 34 companies in attendance: … Read More → "The Transistor at 75: The First Makers, Part 2"