Editing Silicon (section)

===Silicon semiconductors===
The first [[semiconductor devices]] did not use silicon, but used [[galena]], including German [[physicist]] [[Ferdinand Braun]]'s [[crystal detector]] in 1874 and Indian physicist [[Jagadish Chandra Bose]]'s [[radio]] crystal detector in 1901.<ref name="computerhistory-timeline">{{cite web |title=Timeline |url=https://www.computerhistory.org/siliconengine/timeline/ |website=The Silicon Engine |publisher=[[Computer History Museum]] |access-date=22 August 2019}}</ref><ref name="computerhistory-1901">{{cite web |title=1901: Semiconductor Rectifiers Patented as "Cat's Whisker" Detectors |url=https://www.computerhistory.org/siliconengine/semiconductor-rectifiers-patented-as-cats-whisker-detectors/ |website=The Silicon Engine |publisher=[[Computer History Museum]] |access-date=23 August 2019}}</ref> The first silicon semiconductor device was a silicon radio crystal detector, developed by American engineer [[Greenleaf Whittier Pickard]] in 1906.<ref name="computerhistory-1901" />

In 1940, [[Russell Ohl]] discovered the [[p–n junction]] and [[photovoltaic effect]]s in silicon. In 1941, techniques for producing high-purity [[germanium]] and [[silicon crystal]]s were developed for [[radar]] [[microwave]] detector crystals during [[World War II]].<ref name="computerhistory-timeline" /> In 1947, physicist [[William Shockley]] theorized a [[Field-effect transistor|field-effect amplifier]] made from germanium and silicon, but he failed to build a working device, before eventually working with germanium instead. The first working transistor was a [[point-contact transistor]] built by [[John Bardeen]] and [[Walter Brattain]] later that year while working under Shockley.<ref>{{cite web |title=1947: Invention of the Point-Contact Transistor |url=https://www.computerhistory.org/siliconengine/invention-of-the-point-contact-transistor/ |website=The Silicon Engine |publisher=Computer History Museum |access-date=23 August 2019}}</ref> In 1954, [[physical chemist]] [[Morris Tanenbaum]] fabricated the first silicon [[junction transistor]] at [[Bell Labs]].<ref>{{cite web |title=1954: Morris Tanenbaum fabricates the first silicon transistor at Bell Labs |url=https://www.computerhistory.org/siliconengine/silicon-transistors-offer-superior-operating-characteristics/ |website=The Silicon Engine |publisher=Computer History Museum |access-date=23 August 2019}}</ref> In 1955, [[Carl Frosch]] and Lincoln Derick at Bell Labs accidentally discovered that [[silicon dioxide]] ({{chem|SiO|2}}) could be grown on silicon.<ref>{{Cite patent|number=US2802760A|title=Oxidation of semiconductive surfaces for controlled diffusion|gdate=1957-08-13|invent1=Lincoln|invent2=Frosch|inventor1-first=Derick|inventor2-first=Carl J.|url=https://patents.google.com/patent/US2802760A}}</ref><ref name="Bassett22">{{cite book |last1=Bassett |first1=Ross Knox |title=To the Digital Age: Research Labs, Start-up Companies, and the Rise of MOS Technology |date=2007 |publisher=[[Johns Hopkins University Press]] |isbn=978-0-8018-8639-3 |pages=22–23 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UUbB3d2UnaAC&pg=PA22}}</ref> By 1957 Frosch and Derick published their work on the first manufactured {{chem|SiO|2}} semiconductor oxide transistor: the first planar transistors, in which drain and source were adjacent at the same surface.<ref name="auto">{{Cite journal |last1=Frosch |first1=C. J. |last2=Derick |first2=L |date=1957 |title=Surface Protection and Selective Masking during Diffusion in Silicon |url=https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1149/1.2428650 |journal=Journal of the Electrochemical Society |language=en |volume=104 |issue=9 |pages=547 |doi=10.1149/1.2428650|url-access=subscription }}</ref> In 1959, [[Robert Noyce]] developed the first silicon-based integrated circuit at Fairchild Semiconductor, building on prior work by [[Jack Kilby]] that relied on germanium as the semiconductor. <ref>{{Cite web |last=anysilicon |date=2017-03-27 |title=The History of the Integrated Circuit |url=https://anysilicon.com/history-integrated-circuit/#:~:text=1959:%20Robert%20Noyce%20invents%20the,junction%20isolation%20at%20Sprague%20Electric. |access-date=2025-03-30 |website=AnySilicon |language=en-US}}</ref>