Below are the first 10 and last 10 pages of uncorrected machine-read text (when available) of this chapter, followed by the top 30 algorithmically extracted key phrases from the chapter as a whole.
Intended to provide our own search engines and external engines with highly rich, chapter-representative searchable text on the opening pages of each chapter.
Because it is UNCORRECTED material, please consider the following text as a useful but insufficient proxy for the authoritative book pages.
Do not use for reproduction, copying, pasting, or reading; exclusively for search engines.
OCR for page 305
WILLIAM BRADFORD SHOCKLEY
February 1 3, 191 O-August 1 2, 1989
BY JOHN L. MOLL
WILLIAM BRADFORD SHOCKLEY WAS A major participant in
the physical discoveries en c! inventions that are the
basis of the transistor era en c! the twentieth-century elec-
tronics industrial revolution. Transistor circuits are basic to
almost all of our technological advances.
Shockley was born in London, England, on February 13,
1910. His parents were Americans. His father, William Hiliman
Shockley, was a mining engineer, anti his mother, the former
May BraciforcI, ha(1 been a fe(leral deputy surveyor of min-
eral lancis. In 1933 Shockley married Jean Alberta Bailey.
They hacl two sons, William ant! Richard, and a daughter,
Alison Lanelli. They (livorce(1 in 1955, and in the same year
Shockley marriecl Emmy Lanning.
When Shockley was three years oicI, the family returned
to the United States and settled in Palo Alto, California.
His parents consi(lered that they could give their son a
better education at home than in the public schools. They
therefore kept him out of school until he was eight years
oIcI. His mother taught him mathematics, and both parents
encouraged his scientific interests. Professor PerIey A. Ross,
a Stanford physicist and neighbor in Palo Alto, exerted an
especially important influence in stimulating his interest in
305
OCR for page 306
306
BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS
science. Shockley was a frequent visitor at the Ross home,
playing with the professor's two daughters and becoming a
substitute son.
When he entered high school, Shockley spent two years
at the Palo Alto Military Academy. He then enrolled for a
brief time in the Los Angeles Coaching School to stucly
physics. He f~nishecl his high school education at Holly-
wooc! High, graduating in 1927.
He started his college education the same year at the
University of California at Los Angeles. After a year at UCLA,
he enterer! the California Institute of Technology in Pasa-
clena. He had a number of outstanding teachers at CalTech.
William V. Houston taught the introductory theoretical phys-
ics course. In acictition, Richard C. Tolman and Linus PauTing
were professors. Shockley earner! his bachelor of science
degree in physics in 1932.
Shockley went to MIT on a teaching fellowship. He ob-
tainecI his Ph.D. degree in 1936. His thesis title was "Calcu-
lation of Electron Wave Functions in Soclium ChIoricle Crys-
tals." The solict-state physics he learner! at MTT prover! to
be the basis of his contributions to physics and electronics.
An account of an acquaintanceship between Frect Seitz
and Shockley has kinkily been made available by Professor
Seitz. This account covers their college days and includes
items up to Shockley's later years. ~ am inclucling it with his
permission in an almost uneclitec! form:
One of Slater's students was William Shockley whom I had known since
[my] undergraduate days. Among other things, Shockley demonstrated,
with the use of an empty lattice model, that the precise determination of
band gaps for real crystals with the use of the cellular method would re-
quire highly evolved techniques. Shockley went on to join the Bell Tele-
phone Laboratories where, along with Bardeen and Brattain, he played
such an important role in the invention of the transistor after World War
II.
OCR for page 307
WILLIAM BRADFORD SHOCKLEY
307
While on the Stanford campus in August of 1932 and in the initial
phases of making plans to return to New Jersey, Mrs. Ross approached me
to say that Mrs. Shockley, the mother of William Shockley, had called her
from Hollywood to say that her son had received an appointment at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology and was planning to drive east with
his De Soto convertible. Would I care to drive with him and share the
costs? I agreed. Thus began one of the most carefree two-week periods I
have enjoyed in the intervening decades.
Shockley, I soon realized, was then strongly influenced by the Holly-
wood culture of the time, fancying himself to be a cross between Douglas
Fairbanks, Sr. and Bulldog Drummond with perhaps a dash of Ronald
Coleman. Moreover, he accepted pronouncements of the Hollywood stars
on political, social and economic issues with the same degree of serious-
ness that I would have taken of those of Governor Rolph or President
Hoover. Moreover, he had a loaded pistol in the glove compartment. I was
then handy with a rifle but looked askance at the pistol. Shockley's special
air and the pistol eventually brought him to grief as he drove through
Newark, New Jersey on the very ancient Route l of that day, after leaving
me off at Princeton where he spent a day. He was spotted by the Newark
police who took him to be a suspicious character. The pistol clinched the
matter. He never gave me the details but he evidently had a difficult inter-
view with the Newark judge who tmade] very imaginative use of the En-
glish language.
We selected the southern route through Arizona, New Mexico, Texas
and Arkansas, eventually reaching the Lincoln Highway in Ohio. Along the
way, we visited Carlsbad Caves and the Kentucky Caves including the then
famous Floyd Collins Crystal Cave in Kentucky. This had been discovered
by Collins who, somewhat later, had been entrapped and killed in a further
attempt at cave exploration one that was featured for days in the national
press as rescuers tried in vain to reach him before he died. His presumed
body was on exhibit in a glass covered coffin, although I must admit that
the object we witnessed looked surprisingly like a dummy in a very inex-
pensive clothing store. The guide, however, assured us on its authenticity
declaring, "He was, as you can see, a very handsome man."
We also encountered torrential rains in Texas after leaving Carlsbad
Caverns in New Mexico. The rains were so heavy that the highway was
obliterated. We parked the car off the highway at a rise and spent the night
wandering through the desert. This gave Shockley an opportunity to fire
his pistol on several occasions when he decided to ward off the possibility
OCR for page 308
308
BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS
of meeting serious danger from a group of coyotes howling in the distance.
It also caused a gasoline station attendant at a nearby store to declare to us
the next morning that the local police had been alerted to the fact that two
desperadoes were loose in the area. He suggested we keep a lookout.
Both of our careers were almost cut short by an incident that oc-
curred as we were traversing the hills of Kentucky in the early evening on a
narrow, two-lane road, one lane in each direction. I was driving and had a
drop-off on my right. As we rounded a curve we found speeding down
toward us two trucks which were racing one another and taking up both
lanes. This race was evidently being run in a playful manner, typical of the
spirited, young hill folks. By the grace of the Lord, I had just enough
shoulder to squeeze by the oncoming truck with perhaps an inch to spare.
To the best of my knowledge I have never been closer to instant death than
in those few seconds.
One might ask which, if any, of the most prominent attributes which
would characterize Shockley later in life, when he was a famous scientist,
were evident at this early stage of his career. It was clear from the start, of
course, that he was unusually intelligent. His later fame, and indeed notori-
ety, rested upon two characteristics. First and foremost was the ability to
seek out the core issues in a scientific problem and bring them to the
surface in a dramatically clear way with the use of either theoretical or
experimental measures- an ability which in some ways matched those of
Enrico Fermi although in a different area of physics. In this respect, his
most creative period occurred when he was at the Bell Laboratories and
between about 1940 and 1955. Having known him quite early in his career,
I was never surprised at this aspect of his creativity.
Later on he attempted to apply his ability to the study of differences
in the characteristics of ethnic groups, particularly differences in intelli-
gence as measured in various ways. While objective studies of physiological
or other differences in such groups clearly have a place in science, it is
quite a different matter to advocate at the same time that any conclusions
drawn from such work be used as a basis for actions, forceful or otherwise,
with respect to eugenics. Here, unfortunately, Shockley became mired in a
morass of his own making because of his second characteristic. He appar-
ently was unable to place himself in the shoes of others and thereby under-
stand that advocating strong eugenic measures in a highly diverse society is
bound to be highly disruptive. Yet he advocated that such a course be
followed to the very end of his life. Along with this was an unwillingness to
admit that methods of analysis which work so well in relatively clear-cut
OCR for page 309
WILLIAM BRADFORD SHOCKLEY
309
physical systems may become highly controversial and indeed counterpro-
ductive in other circumstances.
I saw an inkling of this second characteristic at an early period but
did not take it seriously then. He was inclined to believe that society should
be governed by what one might regard as an intellectually elite group, not
very well defined at this early stage, rather than by majority decisions as in
a democratic society. Unlike many other intellectuals, he never coupled
this belief to any ongoing political system, Marxist or Fascist. He was guided
entirely by his own internal sense of logic.
Early in 1933 William Hansen received an appointment at the Massa-
chusetts Institute of Technology. Since Shockley wanted to drive west and
Hansen wanted to participate in the advanced summer physics lecture se-
ries at the University of Michigan, the three of us started west together.
The school at Michigan had not yet begun when we arrived but Robert
Bacher, who held a postdoctoral position and was widely known for the
book he and Samuel Goudsmit had published on atomic spectra, took us in
hand and gave us an excellent tour of the department. At that time, he was
in the midst of studying the hyperfine structure of atomic spectra derived
from nuclear magnetic moments. Bacher was destined to play major roles
in the future of American science. Five years later, then at Cornell Univer-
sity, he would, with Hans Bethe, prepare a series of excellent overviews of
the status of nuclear physics which contained much original material. Ten
years later he would play one of the central roles in the development of the
bomb at Los Alamos followed by a period as a member of the Atomic
Energy Commission. His career would be climaxed by an appointment to
the California Institute of Technology in which he would serve as faculty
member and one of President Lee DuBridge's principal colleagues.
Our return trip to the West Coast was routine with one notable ex-
ception. Shockley had switched the car registration from California to Mas-
sachusetts during the winter. Whereas we had been greeted warmly wher-
ever we went on the way east with California plates, there was conspicuous
hostility west of the Mississippi River. The people there were prepared to
blame the irresponsible easterners for the great economic depression they
. .
were experiencing.
Throughout his life Shockley maintained an interesting set of hob-
bies. Before I knew him he had been interested in slight of hand parlor
tricks and maintained a great deal of skill over the years. He added a great
deal of side interest to his student years at MIT by using his imagination
OCR for page 310
310
BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS
and sense of fun to keep the staff there on edge with subtle or not too
subtle tricks.
Many of my friends in industrial laboratories, being free of the aca-
demic responsibilities for teaching, committee assignments and the like,
managed to find time for hobbies along with their creative work in the
laboratory. Shockley was no exception. At one point this involved hand
over hand rock climbing, at another far more sophisticated rope climbing
including semi-professional assaults on some of the more difficult peaks in
the vicinity of Mont Blanc.
In addition, he had one highly solitary hobby that displayed a special
side of his makeup. He enjoyed establishing confined ant colonies in large
glass containers. Part of the art he cultivated was to train the ants to take
circuitous routes in seeking food and returning to their storage base. This
frequently involved the construction of delicately balanced seesaws of straws
which would tilt under the weight of an ant. The ant, near its home base,
would climb on the lowered end of such a straw and, in moving past the
fulcrum, would cause the straw to tilt so that the ant could reach the food
supply. Once the ant left the straw, the latter would return to its original
position. This would compel the ant to find an alternate path back. The
return path usually involved one or more such challenging seesaws. Shockley
could spend hours at the game.
In the latter part of the 1980s, a dean of engineering at one of the
large South African universities, who frequently visited Stanford University
where Shockley spent his later years, invited the latter to visit South Africa
in order to give a speech commemorating the invention of the transistor.
Knowing of Shockley's controversial interest in studies of differences in
ethnic groups, the dean emphasized that any presentation of his views on
such matters would be completely inappropriate because the South African
government was trying to find a way out of the morass it had entered into
in setting up the laws concerning apartheid. Alas, when Shockley came to
give his lecture he focused not at all on the transistor but on his personal
views of the relative merits or demerits of various ethnic groups much to
the great embarrassment of the audience and the dean. Shockley used a
substantial part of his time in South Africa studying the trainability of local
ants.
When Shockley gracluated from MIT he took a job at Bell
Telephone Laboratories to work with Clinton J. Da~risson.
OCR for page 311
WILLIAM BRADFORD SHOCKLEY
311
Shockley s first project involved the design of an electron
multiplier tube.
He quickly became involved in solid-state physics research.
In 1939 he proposed a kind of "field effect transistor that
used wires imbedded in CuO2. The crevice as proposed has
never worked, but a field effect device (invented in about
1960 by other people) has become the mainstay of the ul-
tra-large-scale integrated circuit. The proposal that Shockley
made in 1939 coincided with the laboratories' goal of re-
placing the mechanical relays en cl vacuum tubes in the tele-
phone exchange.
Shockley turned to military projects during World War
IT. He was first employed on the electronic design of radar
equipment at Bell Labs. He then became research (Erector
of the Antisubmarine Warfare Operations Research Group
set up by the Nav,v Department at Columbia University. He
was in the Naval Operations Research position from 1942
until 1944. The new field of operations research treated
military obiectives~ such as optimum patterns for dropping
J J ' ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
. ~ ~ · . ~ · 1 1~ ~ _ ~ 1
depth charges against submarines ana one time o~ aerial
bombardments, as problems subject to scientific methods
of analysis. From 1944 until 1945 he was an expert consult-
ant to the office of the Secretary of War.
In 1945 Shockley returnee to Bell Labs. Mervin Kelly,
president of the labs, had decided to set up a research
group to understand semiconductors from a basic physical
viewpoint. There seemed to be a real possibility that semi-
conductors could be used as electronic elements. Russell
Oh! had a small laboratory at Bell Labs in Holmdel, New
Jersey, where he "manufactured" point contact detectors
for radar purposes during World War IT. Ohl had an insa-
tiable curiosity, and, in addition to supplying the radar de-
tectors, he discovered numerous unique properties of the
silicon crystals that were available to him at the time. He
OCR for page 312
312
BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS
clemonstratecl the photoelectric effect at a pen junction, as
well as other properties of crystals in relation to point con-
tact detectors. These properties were not unclerstoocI, ex-
cept in an empirical sense. A research group was former!
under the supervision of Shockley and Stanley Morgan, a
chemist. Shockley's job inclucled the task of recruiting from
inside as well as outside the labs. He was able to assemble
a very competent group of researchers, inclucling John
Barcleen, Walter Brattain, Geralc! Pearson, Morgan Sparks,
and others.
In 1946 Bell Labs was engaged in a 30 percent staff re-
cluction from its wartime peak while simultaneously resum-
ing its prewar research activity with new insights. This re-
duction was occurring at the same time that Shockley was
starting his physical research on semiconductors.
The application of quantum theory to solicI-state physics
in the clecacle of the 1930s had greatly acivanced the knowI-
edge of semiconductor properties, but much of the theory
lackec! confirmation by quantitative experiments. The ra-
ciar systems used germanium en c! silicon point contact de-
tectors during WorIct War TI. The material quality was greatly
acivancecT in support of this application. Thus, the time was
ripe for the task at hanci. Although some members ap-
proachec! their work as pure research, from the beginning
it was clearly Shockley's goal to discover a solid-state ampli-
fier as a replacement for the vacuum tube.
Shockley returned to the iclea of the field effect transis-
tor, in which an externally applied electric field! should,
according to his calculations, moclulate the current in a
germanium filament, much as the grid in a vacuum tube
controls the anocle current. The experiments clone to achieve
this effect were never successful. John Bardeen suggested
that electrons were trapped in surface states en cl thus pre-
ventec! the electric field from penetrating the crystal. This
OCR for page 313
WILLIAM BRADFORD SHOCKLEY
313
insight led to a series of experiments on surface effects,
inclu(ling the discovery of minority carrier injection by the
point contact emitter by Bardeen ant] Brattain in 1947.~
The point contact transistor effect was clemonstrated for
Bell Labs management by Brattain and Bardeen on Christ-
mas Eve 1947.
The discovery of the first semiconductor amplifier by
Barcleen and Brattain in Shockley's department at Bell Labs,
but without his participation, drove him to furious activity.
Barcleen clescribecI the transistor action as minority carrier
injection, but there was no clear proof that this was correct.
In the process of devising an experimental test of the tran-
sistor action, Shockley invented the junction transistor. He
reported on this device in a paper in the Bell System Techni-
caZ fournaP en c} gave a comprehensive review of the elec-
tronic behavior of semiconductors in a book in ]930.3 The
junction transistor was more difficult to achieve than the
point contact, and it was not until lL951 that it was first
built. This series of events starter! the electronic revolution
that is arguably the most important development of the
twentieth century.
There had been relevant theoretical work in Englanct,4
Germany,5 and Russia6 on the study of band structure and
the theory of rectifiers, and the American war effort hacl
suppliecl some theory as well as experiments to the overall
. ~ A. ·..
picture.' '['here were stall many missing pieces to the puzzle,
and the next few years involved many researchers of various
disciplines trying to unravel the essence of the behavior of
semiconductors. For example, the properties of both the
negative electrons and positive holes had to be cIarifiec! in
the fourth-column elements: germanium, silicon, and clia-
mond. The facts are detailed in The History of En~neerang Of
Science in the Bell System Electronics Technology, ~ 925-] 975. The
publication of Electrons and Holes in Semiconductors by Shockley
OCR for page 314
314
BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS
in 1950 was a bible to a generation of researchers and aca-
. · .
clemlclans.
Shockley had always been a fast and unconventional
thinker. His solutions to physical and mathematical prob-
lems were simultaneously unconventional, quick, and usu-
ally correct. He simply spun off new ideas that occupied
· ~
experimenters tor years.
He organized a weekly meeting in the auditorium for the
presentation of new results; there were so many that the
time was always filled. This was a period of high excitement
and intellectual achievement; Shockley was the keystone.
His example spurred his fellow workers on. His ability to
approach a (liff~cult problem in a remarkably effective man-
ner, to break the problem into its fundamental components,
and to find an elegant solution was a strong factor in his
approach to the general problem of achieving a more basic
understanding of semiconductors.
Shockley was adventuresome, professionally and as an in-
diviclual. He publisher! without waiting for experimental
confirmation anc! was usually prove c! correct. He was an
enthusiastic amateur mountain climber. The Bell Labs caf-
eteria had a stone facacle; at lunch time he would demon-
strate his abilities by scaling the wall, gripping by his finger-
tips. His enthusiasm for high-speec3 driving put fear into his
passengers. As an amateur magician, he once challenger!
the protocols of the august American Physical Society, f~n-
ishing a speech at the annual meeting hv "mir~,lo,,~lv"
1 .
. ,~ . .
~ . , _ ,
producing and flaunting a full bouquet of roses.
Unfortunately, his technical insights were counterbalanced
by his lack of insight into human relations. This led to a
major division within his own group, and ultimately he took
paths that he should have avoidecl. It also accounts for some
of the widely divergent views of Shockley that have been
expressed by otherwise intelligent indivicluals.
OCR for page 315
WILLIAM BRADFORD SHOCKLEY
315
Shockley maintained activities outside Bell Labs through-
out most of his career. He was a visiting lecturer at Princeton
in ~ 946 ant! at CalTech in ~ 954 anct ~ 955. He also contin-
ued to serve the government, as scientific aciviser for the
Joint Research and Development Board from 1947 to 1949.
He was deputy director of the Weapons Systems Evaluation
Group of the Department of Defense in 1954 and :~955. In
1962 he became a member of the President's Science Acivi-
sory Committee on Scientific and Technical Manpower.
Shockley started the Shockley Semiconductor Laborato-
ries in the Stanford industrial park in 1955 with help from
the Beckman Instruments Company. This was the first semi-
conductor company in what is now Silicon Valley. The in-
tent was to cto research, clevelopment, and production of
silicon switching crevices. Shockley was a better scientist than
businessman or manager. The Shockley labs were not a fi-
nancial success. Shockley lacked the business acumen and
market sense that was possesses! by some of his employees;
Bob Noyce, Gordon Moore, and a group of six other em-
ployees left Shockley to form Fairchild Semiconductor in
1957. Clevite Transistor purchased the operation in 1960.
Shockley remained! as a consultant. The company eventu-
ally closest in 1969.
Fret! Terman, then provost of Stanford University, was
eager to see new industry in the new electronics technology
started near Stanford and was starting a parallel effort in
the Stanford electrical engineering department. There were
numerous informal connections between Shockley's labs and
the people who were starting Stanforcl's semiconductor pro-
gram. An arrangement was macle whereby a new faculty
member in electrical engineering spent an extender! pe-
rio(1 working half time at the Shockley labs.
Shockley hacT no official connection to the university when
these half-time positions were set up. There was, neverthe-
OCR for page 316
316
BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS
less, an informal connection, with many professors en c! stu-
clents meeting from time to time to discuss their ideas. Dealing
with his personality was daunting to the typical cloctoral
cancticiate, but the strongest and most inclepenclent students
derived great benefit from their interactions. Shockley's as-
sociation with Stanford became official in 1963, when he
was appointed to be the first Alexander M. Poniatoff Pro-
fessor of Engineering and Appliecl Science. He retired from
Stanforc! in 1972.
Shockley was in a serious automobile accident in July
1961. He sail! that while he was lying immobilized from the
accident he read about a teenager with an {Q of 70 who
had blinder! a delicatessen owner with acid. This incident
made him determinecl to expose the "dysgenics" that was
· · —
occurring in our society.
His approach to this exposition tract many of the appear-
ances of his approach to earlier scientific problems but on
close examination lacked the scientific method. His meth-
ocls and conclusions were highly controversial. The subject
itself is charger! with political and racial overtones. A great
deal of data on the subject may have been fabricates! or at
least mortified to suit a preconception. Shockley proposed
some action on the topic by the National Academy of Sci-
ences and was rejected. ~ believe that the combination of
his strong personality ant! the rejection of action or sup-
port from fellow scientists made him determined to prove
that his conclusions were right.
In 1965 Shockley renewed his association with Bell Labs
in the capacity of executive consultant. His interests ex-
pandecl into new areas, particularly (lomain wall motion in
ferrites. He workocl first with H. I. Williams and then with
Andrew Bobeck and his group. Shockley helped establish a
new memory technology based on the controller! motion of
small domains called magnetic bubbles. It was a complete
OCR for page 317
WILLIAM BRADFORD SHOCKLEY
317
memory system but was unable to compete with the evolv-
ing semiconductor memories. In an interview on the eve of
his retirement from Bell Labs in 1975 he was asker! what
recent technical developments he considered most impor-
tant. There was no hesitation in his reply:
One of the most striking things I've seen is the possibility of using gallium
arsenide lasers and optical fibers in new transmission systems. Now you
may observe that lasers and fibers will accomplish the same sorts of things
as existing technology. But that's exactly what the transistor did: replaced
the vacuum tube but at tremendous advantages in cost, power, space, and
reliability.
In 1980 Shockley brought a $~.25 million libel suit against
the Atlanta Constitution for an article it published about his
ideas on race ant] intelligence. He accused the newspaper
of "falsely and maliciously" likening his ideas to the Nazi
genetics experiments in World War IT. A token $] in ciam-
ages was awarcled to him.
He entered the 1982 Republican primary in California
for the seat of retiring U.S. Senator S. T. Hayakawa. He was
a single-issue candidate, warning of the threat of clysgenics.
He came in eighth. In his later years Shockley was far more
eager to talk about his theories on race and intelligence
than his contributions to science.
He cliecl in 1989 at the age of seventy-nine. Shockley cti-
vicled his life between creative science and engineering and
his crusacle against clysgenics. He devoted the last fifteen
years of his life almost exclusively to clysgenics. The latter
period increased the controversy that surroundecI him. The
topic of ethnic intelligence is controversial. Bill Shockley
macle no effort to calm the waters. His own behavior en-
hanced a tendency to judge him by his later years, where
he was definitely cleating with a subject that wouIc! not yield
to his methocl of attack.
OCR for page 318
318
BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS
Shockley lect the effort in the Physical Research Depart-
ment at Bell Labs for about ten years en c! many critical
advances were accomplishes! (luring that period. He spent
almost forty years making contributions to soli(l-state phys-
ics, was awarcled over ninety patents for his inventions, and
macle many notable contributions to the scientific litera-
ture. His patents en c! publications alone clo not measure
his contribution to the advancement of technology. He cer-
tainly inspired a generation of scientists to great achieve-
ments. There are many testimonials to his capability of break-
ing a problem down to its fundamental components and
fincling unique solutions. A few public recognitions of his
accomplishments are the Medal for Merit (19461; election
to the National Academy of Sciences (19511; Air Force As-
sociation Citation of Honor for Outstanding Public Service
(19511; Morris Liebmann Award (19531; Oliver Buckley Solic!
State Physics Prize (19531; Certificate of Appreciation from
the Department of the Army (19531; anal, with Barcleen
and Brattain, the Nobel Prize in physics for inventing the
transistor (19561.
A memoir of Shockley is incomplete without discussion
of the transistor invention. This purely scientific endeavor
is surrounded by a certain amount of controversy. The im-
portance of the transistor to our industry and to our con-
tinuing advancement keeps the controversy alive. The three
Nobel Prize winners (Barcleen, Brattain, and Shockley) all
macle significant contributions to the invention. Discussions
of this period of scientific history tend to raise a question
of precedence between Bardeen anct Shockley concerning
the discovery of minority carrier injection. It is my consid-
ered conclusion that the events as ~ have given them are
correct. The laboratory group that Shockley recruited was
seeking to invent a solic3-state amplifier. There was a pos-
sible field effect crevice that ctict not work. A series of ex-
OCR for page 319
WILLIAM BRADFORD SHOCKLEY
319
periments were done by Brattain and Bardeen, very much
with the knowledge and approval of Shockley, to find clues
as to why the field effect device did not work. Experiments
with gold dots evaporated on germanium led Bardeen to
suspect that minority carrier injection was a factor in the
surface experiments. These experiments led to the Bardeen-
Brattain experiment, which was the point contact inven-
tion. The point contact device was the first carrier injection
amplifier. Shockley's activity in designing experiments to
elucidate the physical processes in the point contact device
led to the invention of the junction transistor. Both of these
activities completely justified his receipt of the Nobel Prize.
~ CONSULTED MANY PEOPLE with intimate knowledge of the activities at
Bell Laboratories in the late 1940s. Ken McKay was most helpful
with his account of the air of excitement generated during this
period of invention and discovery. Professor Fred Seitz filled in a
crucial segment of Bill Shockley's life. In addition, Morgan Sparks
was very helpful in trying to recapture the early atmosphere. All of
these people knew Bill Shockley before I did. I went to Bell Labs
when I finished my Ph.D. at Ohio State in 1952, and most of the
excitement of invention occurred between 1945 and 1950.
NOTES
These references give only a small part of the total work that was
reported in Europe in the 1930s, but I believe they are adequate to
demonstrate the starting point for the advances of the 1940s and
1950s.
1. I. Bardeen and W. Brattain. The transistor- a semiconductor
triode. Phys. Rev. 74:~1948~:230.
2. See Shockley (1949,2) .
3. See Shockley (1950,1) .
4. A. H. Wilson. Proc. Roy. Soc. 133A(19311:458.
5. W. Schottky and E. Spenke. Wiss. Veroff ads die Siemens Werken
18(1939) :1-67.
OCR for page 320
320
BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS
6. B. Davidov. The rectifying action of semiconductors. Tech. Phys.
(U.S.S.R) 5(1938):87-95.
7. H. C. Torrey and C. A. Whitmer. Crystal Rectifiers. New York:
McGraw-Hill, 1948.
The following references supplied much information for this mem-
oir:
R. Slater. Portraits in Silicon. Cambridge, Mass.: The MIT Press, 1987
T. Wasson, ed. Nobel Prize Winners. New York: H. W. Wilson Co.,
1987.
OCR for page 321
WILLIAM BRADFORD SHOCKLEY
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
321
1936
Electronic energy bands in sodium chloride. Phys. Rev. 50~8~:754-
59.
1938
With {. R. Pierce. A theory of noise for electron multipliers. Proc.
IRE 26(3):321-32.
1939
On the surface states associated with a periodic potential. Phys. Rev.
56(4) :317-23.
1946
With I. Bardeen and W. H. Brattain. Investigation of oxidation of
copper by use of radioactive Cu tracer. Phys. Rev. 70(1-2):105-6.
1948
With G. L. Pearson. Modulation of conductance of thin films of
semi-conductors by surface charges. Phys. Rev. 74(2):232-33.
1949
With G. L. Pearson and l. R. Haynes. Hole injection in germa-
nium quantitative studies and filamentary transistors. Bell Syst.
Tech. J. 28(3)344-66.
The theory of pen junctions in semiconductors and pen junction
transistors. Bell Syst. Tech. f. 28 (3) :435-89.
With G. L. Pearson and M. Sparks. Current flow across n-p junc-
tions. Phys. Rev. 76(1):180.
1950
Electrons and Holes in Semiconductors. Princeton, N.J.: Van Nostrand.
With l. Bardeen. Energy bands & mobilities in monatomic semicon-
ductors. Phys. Rev. 77(3):407-8.
With W. T. Read. Dislocation models of crystal grain boundaries.
Phys. Rev. 78 (3) :275-89.
OCR for page 322
322
BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS
With l. Bardeen. Deformation potentials and mobilities in non-po-
lar crystals. Phys. Rev. 80~1~:72-80.
With H. T. Williams and C. Kittel. Studies of the propagation veloc-
ity of a ferromagnetic domain boundary. Phys. Rev. 80~6~:1090-
94.
1951
With T. R. Haynes. The mobility and life of injected holes and elec-
trons in germanium. Phys. Rev. 81 (5) :835-43.
With M. Sparks and G. K. Teal. pen junction transistors. Phys. Rev.
83 (1) :151-62.
1952
With W. T. Reed, fir. Statistics of the recombinations of holes and
electrons. Phys. Rev. 87 (5) :835-42.
Transistor electronics: imperfections, unipolar and analog transis-
tors. Proc. IRE40~11~:1289-1313.
1957
With J. T. Last. Statistics of the charge distribution for a localized
flaw in a semiconductor. Phys. Rev. 107~2~:392-96.
Carrier generation and recombination in pen junctions and pen junction
characteristics. Proc. IRE 45 (9) :1228-43.
1958
Electrons, holes, and traps. Proc. IRE 46~6~:973-90.
1961
Problems related to pen junctions in silicon. Solad-State Electron. 2~1~:35-
67.
With H. J. Queisser. Detailed balance limit of efficiency of pen junc-
tion solar cells. J. Appl. Phys. 32~3~:510-19.
1962
Diffusion and drift of minority carriers in semiconductors for com-
parable capture and scattering mean free paths. Phys. Rev. 125~5~:1570-
76.
OCR for page 323
WILLIAM BRADFORD SHOCKLEY
1964
323
With W. W. Hooper, H. J. Queisser and W. Schroen. Mobile electric
charges on insulating oxides with application to oxide covered
silicon pen junctions. Surf. Sci. 2:277-87.
1976
The path to the conception of the junction transistor. IEEE Trans.
Electron Devices 23~7~:597-620.
OCR for page 324
Representative terms from entire chapter:
bradford shockley
