May 10, 1954 — Presentation of the Silicon Transistor

At the time of writing, the overwhelming majority of processors use silicon as the main material for transistors. But silicon was not the first material used to manufacture them. In 1947, Bell Labs introduced transistors made from germanium. Germanium was technically easier to work with, but its problems became obvious almost immediately:

poor heat resistance

significant current leakage

uncertainty about whether it could be used to build microprocessors

Bell Labs and several other organizations began experimenting with different materials in search of a better alternative to germanium. That alternative turned out to be silicon.

Bell Labs engineer Gordon Teal left the company and joined Texas Instruments, where he began developing silicon transistors. On May 10, 1954, at the Institute of Radio Engineers conference in Dayton, Texas Instruments presented the silicon transistor and publicly claimed that silicon was a better semiconductor material than germanium. Their silicon transistor was commercially viable.

After that conference, silicon transistors gradually began pushing germanium transistors out of the market. Microprocessors started to be built around them. Transistors themselves rapidly evolved and became smaller and smaller. Today, the size of a silicon transistor is measured in just a few nanometers.