Nano-electronics for Advanced Computation and Communication

The transistor was invented in 1947 for use as an amplifier and electronic switch. The invention grew in economic importance as it became a smaller, lower power, and more reliable alternative to the mature vacuum tube technology, but for many years it showed lower performance and often at higher cost than the earlier technology. So the transition was slow. We often talk about the revolution caused by the invention of the transistor but, in fact, there was a relatively gradual evolution that continued for decades: e.g., the development of silicon bipolar junction transistors (BJT) with a diffused emitter and base circa 1956, followed by the development of planar silicon transistors and the metal-oxide-semiconductor field effect transistor (MOSFET) circa 1960, etc.,.