All people
Integrated-circuit era (1959-1975)
Mohamed Atalla and Dawon Kahng
1924-2009; 1931-1992
Invented the MOSFET at Bell Labs in 1959.
Contributions
- 01Atalla pioneered silicon surface passivation.
- 02Kahng built the first working MOSFET prototype.
- 03The MOSFET is a voltage-controlled switch with near-zero static power.
Why it matters for transistor physics
MOSFETs are more than 99.9% of all transistors made today. Every AI accelerator is a sea of MOSFETs switching trillions of times per second.