Morgan Sparks

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Morgan Sparks (born July 6, 1916 in Pagosa Springs , † May 3, 2008 in Fullerton (California) ) was an American scientist and engineer who was involved in the development of the bipolar transistor , among other things . This was a significant step towards modern everyday electronics.

Life

Sparks was born in Pagosa Springs, Colorado to Harry Lysinger and Pearl (Morgan) Sparks and grew up in Texas . After studying chemistry at Rice University ( Bachelor of Arts 1938, Master of Arts 1940), he received his doctorate in physical chemistry (Ph.D.) at the University of Illinois in 1943 - as a scholarship from the Rockefeller Foundation . After completing his academic training, he found employment with Bell Laboratories in 1943 . In 1948 he joined William B. Shockley's group , which had developed the first transistor . Together with Gordon Teal developed Sparks Teal method of crystallization of high-purity (free of contaminants) Germanium - single crystals on, so that it has a "solid / grown pn junction " (eng. Grown junction ) exhibited. For this purpose, impurities were added to the melt during crystal pulling ( Czochralski process ), which were then incorporated into the crystal. The manufacture of the first npn transistor was based on this technology, cf. pulled transistor . It enabled a relatively simple and inexpensive production of a large number of bipolar transistors with similar / identical electrical properties as are necessary for electronic circuits, compared with the tip transistor . A few years later, the drawn transistor was replaced by the alloy transistor and this in turn by the diffusion transistor .

On April 30, 1949, he married Elizabeth MacEvoy († 2006), Shockley's then secretary, with whom he had two sons and two daughters.

In 1972 he took over the management of Sandia National Laboratories , which were under the auspices of the parent company of Bell Labs, AT&T , and reshaped the research department. He stayed with this company until his retirement in 1981.

He was then from 1981 to 1984 principal of the Anderson School of Management at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque .

Awards and honors

literature

  • Who's Who in America . 47th Edition (1992-1993), Vol. 2, p. 3183
  • American Men & Women of Science . 21st edition (2003), Vol. 6, p. 902

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ GK Teal, M. Sparks, E. Buehler: Growth of Germanium Single Crystals Containing pn Junctions . In: Physical Review . tape 81 , no. 4 , February 15, 1951, p. 637-637 , doi : 10.1103 / PhysRev.81.637 .
  2. ^ W. Shockley, M. Sparks, GK Teal: pn Junction Transistors . In: Physical Review . tape 83 , no. 1 , July 1951, p. 151–162 , doi : 10.1103 / PhysRev.83.151 .
personal data
SURNAME Sparks, Morgan
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American scientist
DATE OF BIRTH July 6, 1916
PLACE OF BIRTH Pagosa Springs , Colorado
DATE OF DEATH May 3, 2008
Place of death Fullerton (California)