TransistorMuseum Oral History Bob Slade Page 10 RCA Germanium Transistors First Point Contacts

EARLY TRANSISTOR HISTORY AT RCA

Bernard N. Slade

Oral History – Bob Slade (Continued)

Bob published a series of authoritative articles in three issues of Radio and TV News magazine in late 1952 (see reference [3] below. Shown at left is a section of the first part of the series. Prior to these articles, there had not been a comprehensive survey of the state-of-the–art status of transistor development published in the popular electronics press. Due to the extensive work being done at RCA, Bob was able to present a very thorough review of transistor technology, including both point contact and junction types.

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List of Bob Slade Oral History References (RCA Only)

[1] Jerry Herzog Oral History Link (provides a detailed discussion of the RCA experimental television receiver from 1952, which was constructed using TA165 and TA166 transistors in the front end circuitry).

[2] “The Transistor – Or 25 Miles on a Hunk of Germanium”, QST, March, 1953. (This is the first documented use of a transistor ham radio transmitter. The unit was constructed using a single TA165/166 type point contact transistor).

[3] “Survey of Transistor Development, Parts 1, 2 and 3”, Radio and Television News, Sept, Oct and Nov, 1952. (This series by Bob is a very thorough treatment of 1952 transistor technology).

[4] H. C. Lin Oral History Link (provides a detailed discussion of the first “Hi Fi” audio amplifier built at RCA in 1954/55, which used prototype power transistors developed by Bob Slade and his team).

[5] Bob wrote numerous technical articles on transistor technology while at RCA – this is a partial list:

“A High-Performance Transistor with Wide Spacing Between Contacts”, RCA Review, Dec, 1950.

“Transistors Operate at 300MC”, with George Rose, Electronics, Nov, 1952.

“The Control of Frequency Response and Stability of Point-Contact Transistors”, Proceedings of the IRE, Nov, 1952.

“High-Frequency Operation of P-Type Point-Contact Transistors”, with Fred Hunter, RCA Review, Mar, 1952.

“Recent Advances in Power Junction Transistors”, RCA Transistors 1, 1956.

“Large-Area Germanium Power Transistors”, with Jane Printon, RCA Review, Mar, 1958.

Go To Slade Oral History, Page 11

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