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Semiconductor device
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===Etymology of "transistor"=== Bell Telephone Laboratories needed a generic name for their new invention: "Semiconductor Triode", "Solid Triode", "Surface States Triode"{{sic}}, "Crystal Triode" and "Iotatron" were all considered, but "transistor", coined by [[John R. Pierce]], won an internal ballot. The rationale for the name is described in the following extract from the company's Technical Memoranda (May 28, 1948) [26] calling for votes: <blockquote>Transistor. This is an abbreviated combination of the words "transconductance" or "transfer", and "varistor". The device logically belongs in the varistor family, and has the transconductance or transfer impedance of a device having gain, so that this combination is descriptive.</blockquote>
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