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John N. Shive

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John N. Shive
John N Shive demonstrating wave machine.png
John N. Shive demonstrates his wave machine in this 1959 educational film Similarities in Wave Behavior aimed at undergraduates[1]
Born John Northrup Shive
(1913-02-22)February 22, 1913
Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.
Died Script error: The function "death_date_and_age" does not exist.
Lincroft, New Jersey, U.S.
Residence United States
Nationality American
Fields Physics
Institutions Bell Labs
Alma mater Rutgers University (B.S.),
Johns Hopkins University (Ph.D.)
Known for Transistor development
Phototransistor
Shive wave machine
Influenced William Shockley
Spouse Helen Shive

John Northrup Shive (February 22, 1913 – June 1, 1984) was an American physicist and inventor. He made notable contributions in electronic engineering and solid-state physics during the early days of transistor development at Bell Laboratories. In particular, he produced experimental evidence that holes could diffuse through bulk germanium and not just along the surface as previously thought. This paved the way from Bardeen and Brattain's point contact transistor to Shockley's more robust junction transistor. Shive is best known for inventing the phototransistor in 1948, a device that combines the sensitivity to light of a photodiode and the current gain of a transistor, and for the Shive wave machine in 1959, an educational apparatus used to illustrate wave motion.

Early life and education

John N. Shive was born in Baltimore, Maryland, on February 22, 1913,[2] and grew up in New Jersey.[3] Shive graduated from Rutgers University with a B.S. in physics and chemistry in 1934. He also earned a Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University, submitting a dissertation Practice and theory of the modulation of Geiger counters in 1939.[4] Shive became a fellow of the American Physical Society, a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and was a member of the Phi Beta Kappa and Sigma Xi fraternities.[2]

Scientific career

John N. Shive joined Bell Telephone Laboratories in 1939.[2] Shive worked initially on physical research, device development and later on education and training.[3] After retirement from industry, he worked as an adjunct professor of physics at Georgian Court University. The spherical sundial on campus, in front of the bookstore and next to the library, is dedicated to his memory for his lifelong desire and service toward improving the teaching of physics.

Transistor development

On January 30, 1948 Shive discovered that gold-plated tungsten point contacts on a p-type layer of germanium grown on an n-type substrate gave "a terrific triode effect."[5]:153 On February 13 of the same year he also discovered that a transistor consisting of bronze contacts on the surface of an n-type substrate without a p-layer gave "gains up to 40× in power!" [5]:153 He leveraged this discovery to build a point contact transistor with bronze contacts on the front and back of thin wedge of germanium, proving that holes could diffuse through bulk germanium and not just along the surface as previously thought. This confirmed William Shockley's idea that it should be possible to build a junction transistor, an idea that hitherto he had kept secret from the rest of the team.[5]:143 [6]:145[7] Shockley later admitted that the workings of the team were "mixture of cooperation and competition." He also admitted that he kept some of own work secret until his "hand was forced" by Shive's 1948 advance.[8]

Phototransistor

In 1948 Shive invented the phototransistor that used a beam of light, instead of a wire, as the emitter of a point contact transistor, generating holes that flow to the collector.[5]:205 It wasn't announced until 1950.[9] This invention embodies the modern day nationwide direct distance dialing system.[3]

Shive wave machine

File:Wavemachine.gif
The Wave Machine model simulates the wave machine produced by John Shive at Bell Laboratories and made famous by the PSSC Simple Waves film. The machine consists of 64 horizontal rods welded to an axle torsion bar that is perpendicular to the rods.Notice that the wave reflects at the non-fixed end.

Shive was a gifted lecturer and became Director of Education & Training at Bell Telephone Laboratories.[10][11] In this role he was responsible for curriculum and administration of educational programs provided to employees of Bell Laboratories.[3]

In this new role, he invented the Shive wave machine (also known as the Shive wave generator). The wave generator illustrates wave motion using a series of steel rods joined by a thin torsion wire. The torsion wire transmits energy from one rod to the next. The high moment of inertia of each rod ensures the wave takes several seconds to traverse the entire series of rods, making the dynamics easily visible. The motion is analogous to high-frequency waves that are invisible to the human eye, such as electromagnetic waves on a transmission line. The wave generator could illustrate wave reflection, standing waves, resonance, partial reflection and impedance matching. Shive made two educations films in which he demonstrated the machine, Simple Waves[12] and Similarities in Wave Behavior,[1] and wrote a book with the same name as the latter.[13] Exploratorium Exhibit Services manufactures a large scale version of the machine for use in science museums.[14]

Patents

Shive held several patents including Selenium rectifier and method of making it,[15] Directly heated thermocouple,[16] Photoresistive translating device,[17] Selenium rectifier including tellurium and method of making it,[18] Apparatus for and method of treating selenium rectifiers,[19] Semiconductor photoelectric device,[20] Conditioning of semiconductor translators,[21] Semiconductor amplifier,[22] and Alternating gate current.[23]

Books

Shive authored three books during his career, beginning with The Properties, Physics, and Design of Semiconductor Devices (1959), a book about semiconductor devices.[24] This was followed by Similarities of Wave Behavior (1961), a book designed to help college professors teach students about waves using the machine he invented.[1] His last book, Similarities in Physics (1982), was coauthored with Robert L. Weber.[13] He was also one of the editors of Transistor Technology, Volume 1.[25]

Honors

John N. Shive was a fellow of the American Physical Society and a Senior Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. He was also a chairman of the Advisory Committee on the Pre-College Physics Project of the American Institute of Physics.[3]

Personal life

Shive was married to Helen Shive.[24]

Selected works

  • J. N. Shive, Physical Review, vol. 75, p. 318, 1949.
  • J. N. Shive, Physical Review, vol. 75, p. 689, 1949.
  • J. A. Becker and J. N. Shive, "The Transistor – A New Semiconductor Amplifier," The Electrical Engineer., vol 68, no. 3, pp. 215–221, Mar. 1949. doi:10.1109/JPROC.1999.775422
  • J. N. Shive, "The Properties of Germanium Phototransistors", JOSA, vol. 43, no. 4, pp. 239–243, 1953. doi:10.1364/JOSA.43.000239
  • John N. Shive and Robert L. Weber, Similarities in Physics. New York, NY: Wiley, 1982. ISBN 978-0471897958.

References

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  15. US patent 2339613, BECKER JOSEPH A & SHIVE JOHN N, "Selenium rectifier and method of making it", issued 1944-01-18, assigned to BELL TELEPHONE LABORATORIES INC 
  16. US patent 2444027, BECKER JOSEPH A; SHIVE JOHN N & GRIFFITH THOMAS R, "Directly heated thermocouple", issued 1948-06-29, assigned to BELL TELEPHONE LABORATORIES INC 
  17. US patent 2560606, SHIVE JOHN N, "Photoresistive translating device", issued 1951-07-17, assigned to BELL TELEPHONE LABORATORIES INC 
  18. US patent 2608611, SHIVE JOHN N, "Selenium rectifier including tellurium and method of making it", issued 1952-08-26, assigned to BELL TELEPHONE LABORATORIES INC 
  19. US patent 2626448, SHIVE JOHN N, "Apparatus for and method of treating selenium rectifiers", issued 1953-01-27, assigned to BELL TELEPHONE LABORATORIES INC 
  20. US patent 2641713, SHIVE JOHN N, "Semiconductor photoelectric device", issued 1953-06-09, assigned to BELL TELEPHONE LABORATORIES INC 
  21. US patent 2676228, SHIVE JOHN N, "Conditioning of semiconductor translators", issued 1954-04-20, assigned to BELL TELEPHONE LABORATORIES INC 
  22. US patent 2691750, SHIVE JOHN N, "Semiconductor amplifier", issued 1954-10-12, assigned to BELL TELEPHONE LABORATORIES INC 
  23. US patent 2790088, SHIVE JOHN N, "Alternating gate current", issued 1957-04-23, assigned to BELL TELEPHONE LABORATORIES INC 
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Further reading

  • William Shockley, "The path to the conception of the junction transistor", IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices, vol. 23, no. 7, pp. 597–620, Jul. 1976. doi:10.1109/T-ED.1976.18463
  • Charles Weiner, "How the transistor emerged", IEEE Spectrum, vol. 10, no. 1, pp. 24–33, Jan. 1973. doi:10.1109/MSPEC.1973.5219559

External links