{
  "patent_number": "US 2569347",
  "country": "US",
  "title": "The Invention of the Junction Transistor",
  "original_title": "Circuit element utilizing semiconductive material",
  "summary": "William Shockley's 1951 patent for the junction transistor, the fundamental building block of all modern digital electronics.",
  "what_it_does": "This patent describes a three-layer semiconductor device, known as a junction transistor, which acts as an electronic switch or amplifier. By sandwiching a thin layer of one type of semiconductive material between two layers of the opposite type, the device controls the flow of electrical current. This allows a small input signal to regulate a much larger output current, effectively mimicking the function of bulky vacuum tubes in a tiny, solid-state package.",
  "what_it_does_not_cover": [
    "Does not cover the earlier point-contact transistor design developed by Bardeen and Brattain.",
    "Does not cover field-effect transistors (FETs) that rely on a gate-controlled electric field rather than p-n junctions.",
    "Does not cover integrated circuits or the process of etching multiple transistors onto a single silicon wafer."
  ],
  "filed": "1948-06-26",
  "granted": "1951-09-25",
  "expires": "1968-09-25",
  "status": "expired",
  "holder": "Bell Telephone Laboratories Inc",
  "holder_url": "https://patentbrief.org/company/bell-telephone-laboratories-inc",
  "inventors": [
    {
      "name": "Shockley William",
      "url": "https://patentbrief.org/inventor/shockley-william"
    }
  ],
  "times_cited": 145,
  "tags": [
    "semiconductors",
    "telecommunications",
    "consumer_electronics"
  ],
  "abstract": null,
  "url": "https://patentbrief.org/patent/us/2569347/junction-transistor",
  "markdown_url": "https://patentbrief.org/patent/us/2569347/junction-transistor/md",
  "google_patents_url": "https://patents.google.com/patent/US2569347",
  "relatedPatents": [
    {
      "patentNumber": "2524035",
      "countryCode": "US",
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    },
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      "patentNumber": "3102230",
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}