ABSTRACT
The history of micro/nanoelectronics is indeed often soap-opera-ish, and chock-full of eccentric personalities, massive egos, and backstabbing. From a broad-brushed historical perspective, many aspects of the development of microelectronics technology are strikingly unusual. Before launching into the specific people and events that led to the invention of the transistor, setting the stage for the subsequent micro/nanoelectronics revolution, it will be helpful to examine the broader context and underlying motives that helped spawn this fascinating new field. The term “electronics” dates to the late 1920s, appearing in periodicals in both the United States and England. As the budding vacuum tube electronics industry waxed, driven largely by the ultimate promise of wireless communications, Ferdinand Braun observed that a metal wire tip pushed up against a crystal of lead sulfide to form a “point-contact” similarly functioned as an electronic rectifier.
