12) Dr. Bardeen's Visit at Research Institute
The members of Research Institute with Dr. Bardeen
It was 1953 when John Bardeen, who was one of the transistor
inventors, visited Research Institute for Electrical Communication Laboratory
which led Japanese transistor R&D activities. The International Conference
of Theoretical Physics was held in Japan this year and he participated in
the academic meeting, and dropped in the Research Institute in this opportunity.
The outstanding solid state physics researchers worldwide gathered in this
academic meeting, and this year became a memorable year when Japanese researchers
first achieved a part of the clan of an international society.
The members of Research Institute strain their eyes in the photograph, surrounding
Bardeen.
Later, Toshifumi Asakawa among them told an inside story as follows.
"The characteristic of the junction transistor produced in the Institute
was shown to him by the curve tracer made by the Institute. The current amplification
factor of the junction transistor produced by the Institute was only about
0.6 to 0.8, and it was much too unsatisfactory as a transistor performance,
and I intentionally adjusted the curve-tracer so that the current gain of
our transistor appeared to be about 0.99. He was carefully watching the gain
performance."
I feel a bit guilty about this, even though you might call it rashness of
youth.
(Co-authored by Nishizawa and Ouch. The title is "Semiconductor Development
in Japan.")
(Photo: by courtesy of Toshifumi Asakawa)