Walter H. Brattain
Walter H. Brattain was a pioneering physicist best known for co-inventing the transistor, a groundbreaking invention that revolutionized electronics and communication. Born on February 10, 1902, in Amoy, China, he grew up in Washington State and pursued higher education in physics and mathematics, ultimately earning his Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota. Brattain's collaboration with fellow scientists John Bardeen and William Shockley at Bell Telephone Laboratories led to the development of the first solid-state amplifier, known as the point-contact transistor, in 1947.
This invention marked a significant advancement over the vacuum tube, being smaller, more efficient, and longer-lasting, thus transforming the telecommunications industry. Brattain, along with Bardeen and Shockley, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1956 for their contributions. After the transistor's invention, Brattain faced challenges in his professional relationships and eventually transitioned to a teaching position at Whitman College, where he continued to share his knowledge. The transistor has been recognized as one of the most important inventions of the 20th century, paving the way for modern electronics, including computers and smartphones, thereby profoundly impacting everyday life and global communication.
Subject Terms
Walter H. Brattain
- Born: February 10, 1902
- Birthplace: Amoy, China
- Died: October 13, 1987
- Place of death: Seattle, Washington
American physicist
Brattain, John Bardeen, and William Shockley are credited with what has been called the invention of the twentieth century, the transistor. Because of this tiny device, personal computers, cell phones, and hundreds of other electronic devices created a new age of productivity and telecommunications.
Primary fields: Communications; electronics and electrical engineering
Primary invention: Transistor
Early Life
Walter Houser Brattain (BRA-tihn) was born in Amoy, China, on February 10, 1902. His father, Ross, and mother, Ottilie, married after graduating from Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington. Ross, a teacher, accepted a job in China teaching science and math. The three were there for a short time, and the family returned to Washington. Walter grew up on a large cattle ranch just south of the Canadian border.
In the fall of 1920, Brattain enrolled in Whitman College, majoring in physics and mathematics, and four years later he received a bachelor of science degree. He claimed that these were the only two subjects in which he excelled. He went to the University of Oregon for his master’s degree (1926) and to the University of Minnesota for his Ph.D. (1929). While studying for his doctorate, he worked at the National Bureau of Standards (now the National Institute of Standards and Technology) in Washington, D.C., but decided that he preferred physics to engineering. Brattain met John Bardeen in Princeton, New Jersey, while Bardeen was working to complete his Ph.D. in theoretical physics at Princeton University. Robert Brattain, Walter’s brother, was a classmate of Bardeen. Walter and John became fast friends and later became lab partners.
Life’s Work
Bardeen and Brattain, along with William Shockley, would invent the transistor—essentially, a solid-state version of the triode vacuum tube. Compared to the vacuum tube, the transistor was very small, had an amazingly long life, consumed little power, and did not get hot. Were such a device possible (it took years to determine that it was), it would be an extremely valuable product for the telephone industry, which used thousands of vacuum tube amplifiers for long-distance service.
Brattain joined Bell Telephone Laboratories (Bell Labs) on August 1, 1929, after receiving his Ph.D. and began work with Joseph A. Becker, a research physicist at Bell Labs. Brattain spent most of his time studying copper oxide rectifiers. The two scientists hoped that they could make an amplifier by putting a tiny metal grid in the middle of the device, much as had been done with the triode vacuum tube. This did not work, but the experience provided valuable information regarding crystals and the theory of surface states in semiconductors.
In the years before World War II, Brattain was involved with the surface physics of tungsten and later silicon. He was sidetracked during the war, devoting his energies to developing methods of submarine detection. Following the war, he returned to Bell Labs and was soon assigned to a new solid-state group organized by the president of Bell Labs, Mervin Kelly. The head of this group was William Shockley. Shortly thereafter, Bardeen joined the group. The three were ideally suited for the project. Bardeen was the thinker: He could examine an event and go beyond common understanding to explain it. Brattain was the experimenter: He could put together any contraption needed. Shockley was the visionary: He could look beyond the experiment and determine just what it might mean for the future.
Toward the end of 1947, a period often called “the miracle month,” Brattain and Bardeen were still struggling to achieve amplification out of a semiconductor device. (Shockley was off pursuing a different approach.) Brattain was conducting an experiment that would supposedly explain how electrons acted on the surface of a semiconductor, and he was having trouble with condensation. Frustrated, he dumped the whole experiment into a beaker of water—taking care of the condensation. Suddenly, there was real amplification.
Bardeen suggested that somehow a metal point be pushed into the silicon surrounded by water. However, the contact point could not touch the water; it could only touch the silicon. Brattain solved the problem by coating the metal point with paraffin and pushing it into the silicon. With this, the apparatus worked; they had achieved amplification.
Over the following weeks, changes were made, and the results continued to improve. Germanium, rather than silicon, was used. The method used to get two gold point contacts just a fraction of a millimeter apart was quite ingenious. Brattain coated the edge of a draftsman’s triangle with gold foil and then carefully sliced it through at one of the points. The first point-contact transistor had been made.
For a week, the two men kept the experiment a secret. On December 23, 1947, Bell Labs’ management was briefed on the invention of the first solid-state amplifier. The patent dealing with the point-contact transistor was awarded to Brattain and Bardeen, and not to Shockley. However, several months later Shockley developed his own transistor—actually a much superior one, called the junction transistor. The three men were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1956.
Life for the three after the invention of the transistor was not smooth. Shockley was difficult to work with, and Brattain soon asked to be transferred to a different lab at American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T), where he stayed until retiring to take a teaching position at his alma mater. Bardeen left to work at the University of Illinois, where he could concentrate on physics theory; he would win a second Nobel Prize, for his work with cryogenics, in 1972. Shockley left AT&T to form Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory in Palo Alto, California.
Impact
The transistor has been called the most important invention of the twentieth century, largely because it made personal computers possible. There were, of course, computers before the transistor, but they were large, cumbersome, expensive, and hot. Their mean time between failure was very short. Communications channels (particularly with the telephone industry in mind) were expensive to build and difficult to maintain. All of this would change with the transistor. As improvements to the transistor were made, it evolved into the integrated circuit (invented by people who joined, and then left, Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory). Integrated circuits became smaller and faster, to the point where it is now possible to place several million on the head of a pin.
Transistors and the integrated circuits they made possible opened the way for cell phones, laptop computers, handheld computers, and global positioning systems. Today, telephones are able to indicate who is calling, and emergency service systems are able to pinpoint the location of accident victims. The Internet is accessible to millions of people, making it possible to communicate with anyone in the world. Indeed, every place on earth is equidistant from every other place on earth—all thanks to the transistor.
Bibliography
Fitchard, Kevin. “Reviving an Icon.” Telephony 249, no. 2 (February 11, 2008): 15. An up-to-date story of Bell Labs, the home of the transistor. Offers considerable detail regarding the projects regularly handled and the results of the completed projects.
Perry, Tekia S. “Gordon Moore’s Next Act.” IEEE Spectrum 45, no. 5 (May, 2008): 38. The transistor evolved into the integrated circuit, and the integrated circuit evolved into the microprocessor. Gordon Moore, who worked under William Shockley at the Palo Alto laboratory, left with others to form Intel, the leading manufacturer of microprocessors.
Shockley, William. Electrons and Holes in Semiconductors. New York: Van Nostrand, 1950. An extremely complicated book that demonstrates the challenges presented in the invention of the transistor.
U.S. Department of the Army. Basic Theory and Application of Transistors. Washington, D.C.: Author, 1959. A training manual describing the theory and application of transistors. Somewhat simplistic but nevertheless worthwhile.