Transistor Structure: Bell Labs (1965)

[@spehropefhany]

Jim Early in the flesh. Fantastic.

[@TropicalCoder]

Wow - just 8 years after the invention of the transistor they understood so much, and are already on the road to integrated circuits on a chip. These guys had such a serious delivery style!

[@hadireg]

yeah so true! great respect indeed!!

[@hlmco]

18 years

[@TropicalCoder]

​@@hlmco Transistor was invented in 1957 - 18 years before this video would be 1947. No transistor then, at least in this timeline. Maybe in an alternative universe.

[@vincentnonnenmacher9352]

Stunning to see as a real person, Dr Early that get its name attached to an effect he discover, truly amazing ! Thanks a lot Fran :-)

[@ncdave4life]

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_M._Early

[@volvo09]

Now this is cool! My grandmother and grandfather met at a bell factory, doing hand assembly. They retired in the early 90's, the plant was making phone switch board modules i believe. Gives me that happy nostalgic feeling... 🙂

[@steventhehistorian]

I guess you could say they were coupled by transistors.

[@nixonhoover2]

WS one a janitor and the other a security guard?

[@KakashiChidori616]

@@steventhehistorian direct coupling or using a capacitor?😜

[@ScottHenion]

I took physical electronics in college. Taught by an incompetent grad student who spent most of his time correcting his errors. Made understanding it near impossible. Wish these guys had taught the class. Thanks Fran, was interesting to understand it better.

[@oakspines7171]

Same here. Many grad students taught the clases who did not even know what they were talking about. The school just needed someone to cover the classes. The EE department did not even have the head guy for a few years. Other peer universities were not much better in their programs either as I found out later. They were stuck to the mostly meaningless textbooks. Asia had aleady had national programs to send their international students to learn from us and beyond. No wonder they are the best in semiconductor now.

[@benruniko]

Holy Moley the people who worked all this out are amazing to me. I understand what they are saying (minimum size limit for given voltage for gallium-indium pnp etc) but i CANNOT imagine trying to discover any of it! And we owe sooooo much of our modern life to this work. Thank you for uploading this, i will keep a copy somewhere safe in hopes to do my own small part in making sure it isn’t ever lost.

[@Ormaaj]

They had the benefit of not having to know the developments of subsequent decades IMO. WIth all that distraction gone and all those freed up neurons I'd have invented all of this in my sleep! 😁

[@benruniko]

@@Ormaaj I think the constant fear and stress of being nuked by the USSR and fighting wars all over the world on top of just as many things as we deal with today makes the 60s almost just as bad as now. Different problems, not better ones. But only in my opinion i wasnt there. I was born in the 80s.

[@steevf]

Wow old films usually have such terrible color fading. But this was really good. Kodachrome really holds up!

[@R.B.]

I am a EET grad and worked in a microfabrication laboratory in college, and I don't think I was ever exposed to how voltage affects the switching speed of transistors. Of course that's how it works! I think it also comes from the fact that my exposure was when transistors were almost entirely made with photo lithography, so not a lot of consideration was given to the structures that were foundational. No one was dropping liquid semiconductor metals to build transistors at that point. Really fun to watch.

[@EEVblog]

How many of these things do you have?! This is such a great stuff that I think it's worthy of its own channel. Fran's Archive or some such. Do you add the rounded corners yourself in editing, or is that part of the telecine process? Would love to see a video detailing how all this works.

[@gcexplains]

I believe the rounded corners will be either the actual shape of the images on the film due to the shape of the gate in the camera, or (less likely) the shape of the gate in the projector/telecine.

[@cuttinchops]

For real! Add some viewer’s donations as well! Not enough old “geekery” videos like this on YT! Keep em coming fran! You rock!

[@lobsterbark]

@@gcexplains It's not the shape of the gate in the camera in the way you might think. Sharp corners on the gate will create these rounded corners due to the properties of light. (Or laws of physics, however you want to phrase it.) It's the same effect as how sharp corners on shadows are often slightly rounded. You will see these rounded corners on still images captured on film as well, if you got to see the full uncropped image. It's standard to crop images on film slightly to hide these, as well as other inconsistencies on the edge of the image. The viewfinder on film cameras is also cropped very slightly so the view when taking the image will be similarly cropped.

[@ArnaudMEURET]

It’s even depressing that Bell/AT&T has not done it and that many more such films are being lost…

[@AlexTaradov]

@@ArnaudMEURET There is "AT&T Tech Channel" that has a couple hundreds of historic videos like this one.

[@gabrieleorioli1760]

I am still studying those equations at my University classes. This film was actually pretty useful.

[@jondhuse1549]

Very pleased that my 40+ year old college education is still intact - I understood this! But I wish these guys had been my college professors. Thanks Fran!

[@erikr007]

Interesting to see Jim Early (of the "Early effect") in the film! (starting at around 14:37)

[@Tamhvm]

This was worth the watch from top to bottom. My knowledge of transistors was very very rusty and this just refreshed what I saw at college. Thanks Fran for uploading these!

[@randysmith4169]

This is a great video! Jim Early was quite influential in transistor development, and is indirectly responsible for one of the few jokes in electrical engineering. He discovered the Early effect in transistors: extra current due to charge injection across the base junction. When another effect was found that could cancel this they named it the "late" effect. There was an earlier joke: the inverse of Ohms (units of resistance) was called Mhos. But it was officially renamed to Siemens. Since "Mhos" is slightly more funny than "Siemens" they strongly discourage the former.

[@OBGynKenobi]

New idea for a midnight talk show, The Late Effect...

[@Nachocheese86]

This transistor mumbo jumbo will never catch on. Long live the tube!

[@Supertech1980]

best explanation of how transistors were developed and made and the theory behind it really puts things into perspective how far we have come in 58 years

[@pacopascal3256]

Wow this is amazing! Thank you for uploading this. Please archive all of these on The Archive.

[@chevylization]

Those sliding chalkboard bring me back so many memories. ❤️ When education was a thing, you had to be able to process, digest, explain, and apply all of that information.

[@jackpisso1761]

Just wanted to thank you! These videos are pure gold!

[@reneschmitz4845]

You are awesome, keep them coming! These are truely gems. Thank you for preserving them and makeing them available!

[@Seegalgalguntijak]

We have come so far over the past half century, it's almost unimaginable.

[@fuzzyguy210]

My dad worked for Western Electric. He gave me a number of the early germanium transistors still sealed in the foil packages. I have them somewhere in the old family home.

[@reneschmitz4845]

The epitaxial diffusion process might just be as significant as the invention of the transistor itself. In essence it is still used for semiconductor manufacturing to this day.

[@drstrangecoin6050]

given that thin film formation techniques get used in a variety of nanotechnologies today, so you certainly are correct.

[@pauldavis6356]

OMG. I have a basic understanding of what transistors do and what they're used for, but this was way over my head. Could you imagine if those gentlemen could come back today and see the modern-day manufacturing processes and uses for their invention? They'd be in awe.

[@mandarbamane4268]

I thought only I didn't understand lol (I'm EC graduate ;_; )

[@JimE-e3k]

@@mandarbamane4268 He died in 2004 and was conversant in how they were used up until his end on this earth. He was instrumental in many of the modern uses and work at Fairchild where he retired in 1989 I believe. I knew him personally and I have many fond memories of his teaching, not just information but how to think and reason. He used to say if he couldn't explain it to you in such a way that you understood it, then he didn't understand it well enough. He always put the lack of being able to understand a concept not on the innate intelligence of the listener, but on the knowledge of the individuals giving the explanation.

[@RogerCampanelli]

Reminds me of my digital programming professor in college back in 1980. Always wanted to drink a beer with him. Thanks Fran!

[@TheReloader]

I vaguely remember this stuff from college. Doping and impurities are good.

[@richardbrobeck2384]

One of the original inventors of the transistor "Walter Houser Brattain" lived in the next town over from where I live his family had a ranch and later the local flour mill . the high school in that small town was not credited so he had to finish up high school in Bainbridge Island WA.

[@benruniko]

Also the quality of your transfer work is basically as perfect as it could be without using time travel. Well done!!!

[@diegoochoa572]

Fran, you have no idea (well, you probably do) how amazing this is. The biggest thing school has taught me is that old stuff like this has the best morsels of information and boy did this deliver. Thanks for uploading this and keep em coming pls! 😀

[@randallmckinney5152]

Outstanding! Great insight to the fundamentals and processes that underpin modern semiconductor technology. I learned electronics w tubes and slide rule. The development of the physics, chemistry,and engineering needed is amazing. Thank you Fran!!

[@sakajungle]

Nice video! Maybe the major tech advance that mankind experienced untill today. Thanks, Fran, for this beaultiful piece of history!

[@CandidDate]

It just amazes me that humankind has progressed to such a level! There are definitely strains of chemistry, mathematics, and most importantly atomic theory involved in this process all culminating in the mastery of nature. Or at least the part of nature that humankind has control over. But, in the end both nature and humankind must work in balance as we march forward on this never-ending quest for the future.

[@coldcathode76477]

I have been looking for detailed transistor fabrication information for years… and here it is. Thank your for sharing.

[@phillmaf7319]

The photodiode audio playback is super quality. I collected loafs of 8,super 8 and 16mm films years s ago ,along with loads of projectors. In the end I binned it all but somehow miss the clatter of frame gates and fine dust. Ahh I love the smell of burning dust in projector lamps in the morning. Don't get too carried away with old film Fran. Take up tennis or punk rock or experiment with drugs. My favourite old super eight reel was called Crazy Wrestling, an old b and w with women wrestlers,people wrestling in ice and fish . This was obviously before the days of the net . I d love the discovery of buying blind an old cardboard box of films on a junk market. I get straight home , draw the curtains ,flick the projector on and review my finds. Fran ,you is fekin weird, and all the better for it. Ciao ciao Bella ciao.

[@joshuamowdy9230]

Hello. Ahhhhhhhhhh yeeeees The days at Bell labs. What times. Good luck.

[@mcglk]

Again, Fran, thank you for uploading this and preserving these important bits of technological (and corporate) history. These are awesome.

[@hadireg]

this is a gem!! great details about those hazy concepts learnt at school when speaking about transistors doping etc and depletion layers... thanks for sharing this Fran.

[@lesmaybury793]

Now that is one very well produced film and so important to understanding chip manufacture. Thanks for posting Fran 👍.

[@modziasx]

This is a real gem! Thank you for that Fran!

[@haldorasgirson9463]

These are wonderful. I am an EE and that is some deep stuff. They didn't cover all of this in my program. Once they got past the material science stuff, I autocorrelated. Weird how your mind can lose connection, then regain connection. Odd experience, a bit disorienting. Did you get me high?

[@aaronk2242]

Fran, you are my hero for digitizing and uploading these! The old informational technical films are SO GOOD! Contemporary educational materials could learn a lot from them. Keep being awesome, and thank you!

[@MonkeyJedi99]

I took some electronics courses at the university/college level, worked at Lucent Technologies (offshoot of Bell Labs) for years, and this short film is the first time anyone has explained a transistor in a way that actually explains HOW it works that meshes with my physics-taught brain.

[@MarcelHuguenin]

Frantastic! Wonderful to watch, thank you Fran. I hope the people in the video have been able to see many years later how the technology has evolved.

[@phillmaf7319]

If they are still with us

[@bobatron2639]

This video is amazing, from Germanium chips to Silicon with all the maths. Its even more amazing that this is basically how we still create transistors with just differences in mask layouts, doping concentrations, and materials!

[@gorak9000]

Except that these are all bipolar junction transistors, and all (ok most, other than some analog applications that still use BJTs, and some RF applications that still use germanium) transistors now are FETs (field effect transistors), which themselves have undergone many advancements and changes - from planar fets (gate on top), to fin fets (gate on 3 sides), to nano-wire FETs / gate all around (gate on 4 sides). So actually, no, this is really not at all how modern transistors are made. The only similarities are really the use of masks and etching, but today's processes are much much MUCH more complicated and have many many more steps.

[@SeanBZA]

The other curse of junction alloy transistors is that they are all doomed to fail short circuit, as the junctions slowly diffuse further into the base region, and the gain goes up, and the breakdown voltage drops, till they eventually meet in the middle. The cause of many an old Germanium transistor amplifier blowing fuses, the output devices get warm from use, and slowly heat themselves to their doom. At least the diffused ones would take a lot longer to diffuse through, and are still likely to work, but all the alloy transistors are either leaky, or just shorted. However, they do work well to show that a transistor is totally symmetrical, as the gain is almost the same, irrespective of which lead you use as emitter or collector, the gain is very similar, and they will work in both directions as an amplifier. Just the reverse connection has lower breakdown voltage. You even get special heavily doped transistors ( not made any more) where the reverse gain is actually higher than the other way round, which had some very niche applications.

[@eggertgudmundsson7845]

Enjoyed this one tremendously! Thank you for putting this out there!

[@miszcz310]

Omg! Thank you very much! This is great! I really hope that one day someone will get to similar education video quality as these oldies!

[@thorpejsf]

Wow, Fran, these are GREAT! Superb job on the transfer!

[@elkabong6429]

Wow. This is why I was only ever a bench tech and not an engineer! I have a lot of respect for the folks that "get" this math and thrive with it, because it's all Ancient Greek to me! (see what I did there, didja?)

[@amitkhulbe]

The recording was done using a camera with lot of these transistors

[@rothn2]

This is a great video -- I'm actually learning a lot. I've had to pause it a few times. Would love to see the derivation of tau, but I think based on the steps he's taken so far that it must relate to base capacitance. Great video as of 11:04. Thanks for sharing, and would love to see more!

[@csegura26]

Great video material ... A living part of history!!

[@trespire]

This is some outstanding presentation. I need to watch this several times to understand the principlals presented. A real gem. Thanks Fran.

[@richard7crowley]

Very nice telecine transfer. Thank you for your attention to detail and dedication to bring these to us. Very interesting to compare early mass-produced discrete germanium PNP transistor with the billions of integrated silicon MOSFET transistors we create for leading-edge microprocessor chips.

[@vitya404uk]

“... for example this entire circuit built on a single chip of silicon.” We have come a long way, my friends, we have come a long way.

[@robertball2741]

Beautiful film transfer and a fascinating piece of history.

[@haldorasgirson9463]

Great audio quality. It is so weird to be watching this without all the clatter of the projector.

[@kevinm3751]

We really have come a long way in a very short time! Great video Fran, thanks for setting this up for us to watch!

[@tmurphy7846]

This is great content didn't understand most of it but very interesting, thanks for sharing 👍

[@bob02911]

Fran , I love this stuff , thank you .

[@ScottfromBaltimore]

I'm out of my depth here but had fun watching and learned a little. Both the math and the manufacturing process posts were pretty amazing.

[@rdormer]

Absolutely fascinating to see the actual fabrication steps. I don't think I've ever seen photage of wire bonding being done!

[@waltschannel7465]

Love this! Saw this one in High school electronics in 1975 or 76.

[@owen7185]

One of the best videos ever done

[@fredflickinger643]

Great work! Too much of this is glossed over today in school unless your engineering program grew out of the chemistry dept or physics dept.

[@bobair2]

Transistors are the most important invention of the 20th century by far as they enable almost countless other inventions!!! Transistors rock!!!

[@AbdulRahman-lx6go]

Cut to 60 years later, transistors are the power horses which revolutionised the digital age!!! ❤❤❤❤❤

[@ivansemanco6976]

Fantastic video. Big thanks.

[@basinstreetdesign5206]

At 11:10 the SEEC series of books is mentioned. I still have some of those! They were texts in my university undergrad years. We learned about the "Early effect" (q.v.) then but I never before now ever saw the man who studied it, Jim Early.

[@henrikstenlund5385]

This was a fantastic period of fast development

[@ATMAtim]

I'm back in college again and still amazed.

[@trevorberg1810]

Intro was great, love 50-70s tech films n manuels

[@MrAnderson4509]

I have seen this, love these, thank you Fran, your are very cool👍

[@adksherm]

Really cool Ms. Tonez!

[@Cryo837]

Great video!!! Thank you.

[@KeritechElectronics]

I don't really understand all the theory, but the "practical" part and design considerations (voltage vs speed / slew rate / max frequency) were interesting to watch Oh yes, and the integrated circuit foreshadowing :)

[@willlazenby1050]

Awesome content, thanks for posting!!

[@zefallafez]

It starts off with Tab Hunter doing the presentation then Professor Frink takes over at 14:50.

[@eastafrika728]

This is just one approach to computer construction out of millions of possibilities.

[@OnTheRocks71]

37:32 An entire circuit on a single piece of silicon? Hmm I think this idea has legs!

[@RemiDupont]

Wow! This one still have great colours!

[@jimsmindonline]

This was really great! 👍 If there ever was a reverse engineered alien technology, this is it!

[@Felice_Enellen]

It's funny and amazing, how the most important thing in the entire film, the basis for the whole future of electronics for the 55 years since, is just barely glossed over, as if it were an afterthought, in the last 5 seconds before the credits.

[@FranLab]

Integrated circuits as you would think of them today were extremely experimental in 1965, and it was not known at that time where they would lead.

[@Felice_Enellen]

@@FranLab Oh, I'm sure it's entirely understandable how it wouldn't yet be recognized as the entire future of electronics. I didn't mean to ridicule them for not being digital prophets. I just love it when small leaps in things like manufacturing processes start whole new evolutions of technology that we can't see when we first make them. I used to spend a lot of time watching shows like James Burke's *Connections* or *The Day the Universe Changed* on PBS, and this lines up with that kind of storytelling for me.

[@umpoucosobreconhecimentos]

Amazing material

[@MrChief101]

I wove in and out of consciousness but I understood some of it anyhow. Fascinating and I really enjoy manufacturing processes.

[@TheFlutecart]

It's the moment of transition between Germanium PNP transistor era and the soon dominate Silicon NPN. I'd love to see film from the emergence of the FET transistor, the movement towards voltage controlled devices vs the old school current controlled BJT transistors. But as a pedal tinker- I love all types of transistors. Coolest invention since the wheel.

[@daviddaydodge8985]

Gorgeous transfer and wonderful film! Thank you!

[@rjkee5157]

I love all the old Bell Labs films.

[@jasonosmond6896]

Bug cameo @ 3:57

[@HeffeJeffe78]

Absolutely love these old short films Fran! Would you be interested in doing some sort of MST3K on some of the cheesier ones that are out there?

[@JanicekTrnecka]

This is a gem! BTW at around 8 minutes there is a bug roaming on the lens ? or whatever.. I was so concentrated to the content, that it took me several seconds to realize that the bug is not on my screen.

[@tow.JanWinnicki]

There are few inventions that are as profoundly impressive as that of a transistor.

[@alihouadef5539]

This is gold!

[@cannotbeleftblank6027]

"This is a transistor made by the alloy process". It jumps right in, no fancy music, dazzling graphics or a peek of what's to come, just the facts. They sure don't make 'm like that anymore.

[@iceowl]

transistors: much more complicated than you ever imagined

[@balanbogdan9160]

That s amazing!!! still relevant today

[@boriss.861]

Fran put these up as a separate channel Fran's History of STEM

[@stevehead365]

A germanium transistor running at 4 gigs.Wow.

[@rodanone4895]

Jim Early!!! as in the "early voltage" i assume. very, very cool. thank you for posting this.

[@JimE-e3k]

Yes, one and the same

[@taintedmeat9740]

I liked seeing those two globs of material on each side of the base, looked like hot glue never saw that before !