The Invention of Transistors and Integrated Circuits

Who were the inventors of the transistor?

• John Bardeen and Walter Brattain

• William Shockley and Morris Tanenbaum

• Gordon Teal and Calvin Fuller

• Jack Kilby and Robert Noyce

What was the initial design of the transistor?

• A three-layer semiconductor sandwich

• A cylinder with two cat's whiskers

• A thin slice of silicon with printed metal lines

• A crystalline wafer with selective impurities

Why did the transistor not gain widespread acceptance until the mid-1950s?

• It was too expensive to produce

• It had performance limitations

• It was not compatible with other electronic components

• It was not invented until the mid-1950s

What was the turning point in the development of transistors?

• The invention of the three-layer semiconductor sandwich

• The discovery of silicon as a component of transistors

• The development of the diffusion technique for silicon transistors

• The invention of the integrated circuit

Who independently arrived at the idea of an integrated circuit?

• John Bardeen

• Walter Brattain

• Jack Kilby

• Robert Noyce

What major improvement did Robert Noyce add to the integrated circuit?

• Selective placement of impurities in the silicon

• Overlaying the silicon with a thin coating of silicon oxide

• Printing delicate lines of metal on the silicon

• Etching small holes in the silicon oxide

What did Gordon Moore predict in his magazine article?

• The future of integrated electronics

• The number of components on a chip would double every year

• The size of chips would continue to decrease

• The invention of Moore's Law

What is Moore's Law?

• The prediction that the number of components on a chip would double every year

• The law that governs the production of integrated circuits

• The principle behind the diffusion technique for silicon transistors

• The discovery of silicon as a component of transistors

How many components did the densest chips of 1970 hold?

• 1,000

• 10,000

• 100,000

• 1,000,000

What is the size of some chips in the mid-1990s?

• The size of a baby's fingernail

• The size of a grain of sand

• The size of a coin

• The size of a book