Concepts

Semiconductor

Physical Concept

Citation Formats

General Reference

Computing Atlas. "Semiconductor." Accessed August 30, 2026. https://computing.interactiveatlas.org/concepts/semiconductor.

APA Style

Computing Atlas. (n.d.). Semiconductor. Retrieved August 30, 2026, from https://computing.interactiveatlas.org/concepts/semiconductor

BibTeX

@misc{computingatlas-semiconductor,
  author = {Computing Atlas},
  title = {Semiconductor},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://computing.interactiveatlas.org/concepts/semiconductor},
  note = {Accessed August 30, 2026}
}

A material whose electrical conductivity lies between that of a conductor and an insulator, and which can be precisely controlled by chemical doping. Devices built from semiconducting materials, most consequentially the point-contact transistor built at Bell Labs in 1947, replaced the vacuum tube and became the physical basis of every digital computer since. Computing Atlas describes the semiconductor as the concept underlying the field's hardware and its practice in computation; the materials science of doping and crystal growth is Technology Atlas's own subject, linked here by cross-atlas edge.

Facts

Disputed

Origin Year

1947 1

Semiconducting materials were studied through the 19th century, but the concept's practical significance to computing is usually dated to the invention of the point-contact transistor at Bell Labs in 1947, the first semiconductor device to replace the vacuum tube.

Core Principle

Conductivity between that of a conductor and an insulator, controllable by doping, temperature and applied electric field, is what makes a semiconductor useful as a switch or amplifier rather than a passive material. 1

Cross-Tradition Connections