A Semicentury of Semiconductors

OCT 01, 1993

Researchers and technologists have grappled with semiconductors for more than 50 years, and their labors have had a revolutionary impact on science and society.

DOI: 10.1063/1.881385

Alan B. Fowler

For more than 50 years the symbiotic relationship among semiconductor physics, technology and device engineering has exemplified cooperative activity that spans the continuum of the scientific enterprise, from the purest physics to the marketplace. In physics this activity has led to the observation of unexpectedly rich and intricate phenomena; in technology it has resulted in expanded techniques and invention with broad applications and key contributions to the electronics, communications and computer revolutions. Semiconductors have changed our world profoundly and probably beneficially, touching the lives of almost everyone in it—and not just by fueling advances in data handling and communications but also by making possible such consumer staples as the transistor radio and the compact disk player. Some might choose to designate the last half‐century as the nuclear age or the jet age; others might think of it as the age of semiconductor electronics.

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More about the authors

Alan B. Fowler, IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center.