jan 1, 1959 - MOSFET Amplifier

Description:

A breakthrough came with the work of Egyptian engineer Mohamed M. Atalla in the late 1950s. He developed the method of surface passivation, which later became critical to the semiconductor industry as it made possible the mass-production of silicon semiconductor technology, such as integrated circuit (IC) chips. For the surface passivation process, he developed the method of thermal oxidation, which was a breakthrough in silicon semiconductor technology. The surface passivation method was presented by Atalla in 1957. Building on the surface passivation method, Atalla developed the metal–oxide–semiconductor (MOS) process, with the use of thermally oxidized silicon. He proposed that the MOS process could be used to build the first working silicon FET, which he began working on building with the help of Korean recruit Dawon Kahng.

The MOS field-effect transistor (MOSFET) amplifier was invented by Mohamed Atalla and Dawon Kahng in 1959. They fabricated the device in November 1959, and presented it as the "silicon–silicon dioxide field induced surface device" in early 1960, at the Solid-State Device Conference held at Carnegie Mellon University. The device is covered by two patents, each filed separately by Atalla and Kahng in March 1960.

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