Radio age research, manufacturing, communications, broadcasting, television (1941)

-TiRST demonstrations showing the scientific progress made towards harnessing the tiny transistor, which per- forms many of the functions of electron tubes, in a wide range of applications useful to radio, television, and industry, were held during the week of November 17 at the David SarnofI Research Center of RCA, Princeton, N. J. Transistors made from specks of germanium crystal were shown operating an experimental portable tele- vision receiver, radio sets, loudspeaker systems, miniature transmitters, parts of electronic computers, and other experimental devices, many of which are believed to be the first of their kind. Each development was in the form of a laboratory model which, it was emphasized, is still in the preliminary and experimental stage. Appraising the present status of transistor develop- ment. Dr. E. W. Engstrom, Vice President in Charge of RCA Laboratories Division, said: "These demonstrations highlight the faa that tran- sistors are today no longer entirely a research concern. They are, in the fields of radio and television, an im- mediate problem for advanced development by industry engineers who can learn how to put them to work in evolving more versatile, smaller, sturdier, and eventually lower cost equipment for industry and the public." "We can report that transistors, after a brief four years in the laboratory, can be made to do many of the electronic jobs that tubes could do only after the first twenty years of their existence," Dr. Engstrom con- tinued. "Because transistors, many of which are no larger than a pea, have certain properties that differ Dr. E. W. Engstrom points to one of the ten types of experimental transistors developed at the David SarnofF Research Center of RCA. from tubes, we find there are some tasks they perform more effectively than tubes. Also of course, there are now, and always will be, applications where only tubes will perform. "We haven't yet worked out mass production tech- niques for transistors," he continued. "Although ger- manium itself is available, it requires careful processing to get it in the form that gives transistors their remark- able characteristics. Thus, the cost of even those few types of transistors that are available in limited quantities is still high. "Even so, a demonstration such as this would have been impossible a year ago, even a few months ago," he continued. "We are just at the outset of trying a variety of transistor rypes in operating circuits. As other new types of transistors come from the laboratory, providing greater power, operating at higher frequencies, and func- tioning with greater reliability, we will try them out as we have experimented with the types you see here." Dr. Engstrom said that RCA does not expect the transistor to supplant the electron tube "any more than radio replaced the phonograph." In fact, the market for electron tubes may even increase under the full impact of commercial transistors. "This is because the transistor will allow the development of electronic devices now undreamed of," he said. "Many of these devices will still require the work of electron tubes and in quantities that will continue to tax the manufacturing capacity of the electron tube industry. Thus, as transistors begin to re- place certain tubes in present electronic equipment, the displaced tubes will find new jobs in new devices made RADIO AGE 9