Early (field effect) transistors, A question about...

For a bit of fun I have been researching old transistors but my research has hit a little snag and I was wondering if someone here might be able to help me out…

While it has been easy for me to find data on older transistors I can’t find any information on older first field effect transistor, apart from the fact that it seems while Julius Edgar Lilienfeld came up with the idea for field effect transistors back in 1926 it wasn’t until 1955 that bell labs made one.

However what I am looking for is the date when the first mass-produced field effect transistors were released as well as the part numbers for some of the older field effect transistors?

If anyone happens to know anything about the above questions I would be most thankful if you could tell me what you know.

Thank you in advance.


Dawn.

How far have you gotten in your search for the information? That information might help jog memories of some of the people on this forum.

I can suggest a couple of approaches: 1) Take a wild guess who the early manufacturers were and search their sites (e.g., Motorola, Fairchild, GE, GeneralDynamics); and 2) Go to https://www.freepatentsonline.com/ and search back through previous art to find the earliest patent and manufacturer. Remember, that was the Cold War period, so searches of Western resources will be incomplete.

I can remember using mass produced FETs in a school project in 1966 - 1967. The first widely available devices were probably several years before that. Based on that information, I would guess that production probably began before 1960 and probably not much later. Let us know what you find. John

This book review says that the first commercial JFET was produced in France in 1958. The first in the US was produced by Crystalonics in 1960.

Ironically , I found this by searching for "first commercial junction field effect ".