Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory

Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory, a division of Beckman Instruments, Inc., became in 1956 the first establishment, in what came to be known as Silicon Valley, to work on silicon semiconductor devices.

In 1957, the division's eight leading scientists resigned and became the core of a new venture of an existing technology company. The Beckman division never recovered from that loss of personnel, and was purchased by Clevite in 1960, then sold to ITT in 1968, and shortly after, officially closed.

William Shockley had studied his undergraduate degree at Caltech and moved east to complete his PhD at MIT. He graduated in 1936 and immediately started work at Bell Labs. Through the 1930s and '40s he worked on electron devices, and increasingly with semiconductor materials. This led to the 1947 creation of the first transistor, in partnership with John Bardeen, Walter Brattain and others. Through the early 1950s a series of events led to Shockley becoming increasingly upset with Bell's management, and especially what he saw as a slighting when Bell promoted Bardeen and Brattain's names ahead of his own on the transistor's patent. However, others that worked with him suggested the reason for these issues was Shockley's abrasive management style, and it was this reason that he was constantly passed over for promotion within the company. These issues came to a head in 1953 and he took a sabbatical and returned to Caltech as a visiting professor.

Here Shockley struck up a friendship with Arnold Orville Beckman, who had invented the pH meter in 1934. By this time Shockley had become convinced that the natural capabilities of silicon meant it would eventually replace germanium as the primary material for transistor construction. Texas Instruments had recently started production of silicon transistors (in 1954), and Shockley thought he could do one better. Beckman agreed to back Shockley's efforts in this area, under the umbrella of his company, Beckman Instruments. However, Shockley's mother was aging and often ill, and he decided to live closer to her house in Palo Alto.

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