Carl John Frosch (September 6, 1908 – May 18, 1984) was a

Bell Labs Nokia Bell Labs, commonly referred to as ''Bell Labs'', is an American industrial research and development company owned by Finnish technology company Nokia. With headquarters located in Murray Hill, New Jersey, Murray Hill, New Jersey, the compa ...

researcher. With Lincoln Derick, Frosch discovered that

silicon Silicon is a chemical element; it has symbol Si and atomic number 14. It is a hard, brittle crystalline solid with a blue-grey metallic lustre, and is a tetravalent metalloid (sometimes considered a non-metal) and semiconductor. It is a membe ...

could be protectively coated by

silicon dioxide Silicon dioxide, also known as silica, is an oxide of silicon with the chemical formula , commonly found in nature as quartz. In many parts of the world, silica is the major constituent of sand. Silica is one of the most complex and abundan ...

by the right exposure to

oxygen Oxygen is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol O and atomic number 8. It is a member of the chalcogen group (periodic table), group in the periodic table, a highly reactivity (chemistry), reactive nonmetal (chemistry), non ...

when hot, and patented the method. Such protective coating overcame a problem of

surface state Surface states are electronic states found at the Surface (topology), surface of materials. They are formed due to the sharp transition from solid material that ends with a surface and are found only at the atom layers closest to the surface. The t ...

s found in active silicon circuit elements. The discovery also revealed the potential for the process of silicon

etching Etching is traditionally the process of using strong acid or mordant to cut into the unprotected parts of a metal surface to create a design in intaglio (incised) in the metal. In modern manufacturing, other chemicals may be used on other type ...

. In 1957 Frosch and Derick published their discovery of silicon surface passivation by silicon dioxide, using selective

SiO2 Silicon dioxide, also known as silica, is an oxide of silicon with the chemical formula , commonly found in nature as quartz. In many parts of the world, silica is the major constituent of sand. Silica is one of the most complex and abundant f ...

predeposition and masking to produce n-type and p-type semiconductor surface patterns. Their transistors were the first in which drain and source were adjacent at the surface, showing that silicon dioxide surface passivation protected and insulated silicon wafers. At Bell Labs, the importance of Frosch's technique was immediately realized. Results of their work circulated around Bell Labs in the form of BTL memos before being published in 1957. At Shockley Semiconductor,

William Shockley William Bradford Shockley ( ; February 13, 1910 – August 12, 1989) was an American solid-state physicist, electrical engineer, and inventor. He was the manager of a research group at Bell Labs that included John Bardeen and Walter Houser Brat ...

had circulated the preprint of their article in December 1956 to all his senior staff, including

Jean Hoerni Jean Amédée Hoerni (September 26, 1924 – January 12, 1997) was a Swiss-born American engineer. He was a silicon transistor pioneer, and a member of the "traitorous eight". He developed the planar process, an important technology for reliably ...

. Taking advantage of silicon dioxide's passivating effect on the silicon surface, Hoerni proposed to make transistors that were protected by a layer of silicon dioxide. Later, Jean Hoerni, while working at

Fairchild Semiconductor Fairchild Semiconductor International, Inc. was an American semiconductor company based in San Jose, California. It was founded in 1957 as a division of Fairchild Camera and Instrument by the " traitorous eight" who defected from Shockley Semi ...

, had first patented the

planar process The planar process is a semiconductor device fabrication, manufacturing process used in the semiconductor industry to build individual components of a transistor, and in turn, connect those transistors together. It is the primary process by which ...

in 1959.

Transistors devices

Frosch and Derrick build several silicon dioxide field effect transistors in 1957. One resembling modern MOSFETs and another with a NPNP structure, similar to modern IGBTs.

References

* Michael Riordan & Lillian Hoddeson (1997) ''Crystal Fire'', page 222, W. W. Norton & Company . ;Specific

External links

Silicon Burns
A description of the discovery from the point of view of a colleague at Bell Labs. 1908 births 1984 deaths Scientists at Bell Labs {{US-scientist-stub