|
|
|
| Authored by: Tyro on Thursday, June 07 2012 @ 09:05 PM EDT |
Sorry, the THEORY of the transistor was an invention, but the device was the
result of improvements in chemical processing. For that matter, crystal radios
essentially used transistors as detectors, though nobody knew how they worked.
Now if you go to N-P-N or P-N-P or fancier things, no, the crystal radio
couldn't do that kind of thing. The substance (i.e., crystal) was too impure.
That said, there were certainly processing improvements that were quite
significant. But they generally only happened within expensive setups. Because
if something is too expensive, the number of people who can actually try to make
improvements is quite limited.
So. I do think patents (i.e., some kind of patent, not the US system) can be
justified where there is a large up-front cost that keeps most interested people
from investigating the area. But only then.
Even in those cases, however, I'd consider patents as "stealing from the
public", though perhaps only in he same sense that taxes are (and they are,
though there are many arguments that say it is justifiable).[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
|
| |
| Authored by: greed on Thursday, June 07 2012 @ 09:13 PM EDT |
The FET transistor was based on the "thermionic triode" vacuum tube.
It couldn't be built until many years after it was described; and wasn't used in
large quantities until the 1980s.
Bipolar junction transistors, the first to be mass produced, truly do have some
fascinating research behind them. And the developers got the Nobel Prize for
it.
But it still wasn't developed in isolation; the germanium transistor builds on
both vacuum tube and crystal diode techniques.
So, the BJT is famously reviled by audiophiles for ruining sound. (And valued
by everyone else for making the "transistor radio" possible which you
could bring to the beach or park.) FETs, when used properly, have similar
transfer properties to tubes, and similar soft-clip characteristics.
And the FETs were patented in the 1920s... so why didn't Bell Labs just build
one once the solid-state technology was ready?
Because then they wouldn't be able to get a patent on it--the Bell Labs lawyers
knew about the 1920s patent.
(I've been using <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transistor> to refresh my
memory on the history. Some of the references are quite interesting... if
you're an EE.)
Anyway, Bell Labs invented (discovered the semiconductor effects necessary for)
the transistor because they needed a more efficient amplifier for the telephone
system. They'd have still made it even without the patent.
[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
|
| |
| Authored by: Marc Mengel on Thursday, June 07 2012 @ 10:01 PM EDT |
Transistor -- Already invented when patented as well... Sorry.
[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
|
|
|
|
|
