1847 – 2035 Timeline

Semiconductor Timeline, 1847–2035: From Boolean Logic to EUV

From turning logic into algebra in 1847 to wiring at a width of a few dozen atoms

Semiconductor timelines usually begin with the transistor in 1947. But a transistor could be used for arithmetic only because, a decade earlier, it had been shown mathematically that opening and closing a switch in a circuit is itself a logical operation. This timeline runs the mathematics that guarantees computation along the top of the axis and the devices that carry it along the bottom — 43 entries, from Boole turning logic into algebra in 1847 to wiring at a width of a few dozen atoms today.

Updated 2026-10-15/43 entries

TheoryDiscoveryMilestoneDeployment

Dashed borders and hollow dots mark projected, not-yet-achieved items. “Unverified” marks entries not yet confirmed against a primary source.

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Basic research (theory and discovery)

1847

Boole makes true-and-false something you can calculate with

1840

1874

A material that lets current through in only one direction

1870

1900

1906

The triode — the first device that could both amplify and switch

1913

Proof that a single operation is enough to build all of logic

1910

1918

A circuit that can remember which state it is in

1926

A patent for controlling current with a voltage, in a solid — but nothing was built

1920

1931

Quantum mechanics finally explains what a semiconductor is

1930

1936

A definition of what it means to compute

1936

Akira Nakashima, at NEC, treats relay circuits as algebra

1937

Switching a circuit on and off is itself a logical operation

1935

1940

A crack in a silicon rod reveals the p-n junction

1940

1945

Put the instructions in the same place as the numbers

1948

The junction transistor — working inside the crystal, not on its surface

1948

Information gets a unit — and errors are shown to be correctable

1945

1946

ENIAC — and the ceiling of what vacuum tubes could do

1947

The point-contact transistor — a vacuum tube's job, done in a solid

1952

A prediction: "a solid block with no connecting wires"

Unverified

1950

1954

From germanium to silicon — a device that tolerates heat

1954

Diffusion — controlling how thick a layer is

1955

Masking with oxide — making things only where you want them

1958

Put the parts and the wiring on the same piece

1959

The planar process — keeping the surface flat

1959

The form of the integrated circuit that could actually be manufactured

1960

The MOS transistor — open the channel with a voltage alone

1963

CMOS — a circuit that draws current only while it switches

1965

Moore's law — an observation that became the industry's target

1965

1968

One bit, two parts

1974

Dennard scaling — why making things smaller made everything better

1970

1971

The Intel 4004 — the computing part becomes a single component

1980

1980s

Japan takes the DRAM market — and it becomes a trade dispute

1987

Separating the company that designs from the company that builds

1990

1997

Switching the wiring to copper — the delay was in the connections, not the devices

2004

Voltage stops coming down, and the free lunch ends

2000

2003

Stretching the silicon — the first trick that was not about size

2005

2007

Abandoning the oxide after fifty years

2010

2011

The transistor stands up

2015

2019

Extreme ultraviolet lithography finally reaches the factory

2020

2022

Wrapping the channel completely — gate-all-around goes into production

2025

TSMC enters volume production at the 2 nm node

2025

Delivering power from the back of the wafer

2026

The market approaches a trillion dollars — pulled by AI

2027

High-NA EUV — a machine costing over 300 million dollars

2030

2033

What comes next — stacking the two transistor types on top of each other

Engineering and deployment

← Scroll horizontally. Above the axis is basic research (theory and discovery); below it, engineering and deployment. How crowded a column looks is how dense that period was. Tick spacing narrows where entries cluster.