The Russian who invented semiconductors 25 years before the USA

Re:The Russian who invented semiconductors 25 years before t... by cpldcpu on Sunday June 07, 2026 @05:42AM (#48433296)

The early discovery of light emission from silicon carbide long before the first LEDs is a very interesting finding, worth pointing out.

But alas, as ever so often, the article turns this into a hyperbole. The premise from the title does not check out at all.

>The Russian who invented semiconductors 25 years before the USA

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semiconductor#Early_history_of...

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Re:The Russian who invented semiconductors 25 years before t... by johncole on Sunday June 07, 2026 @07:09AM (#48433718)

I probably over exaggerated there. But it does seem he was earlier than the team that’s been given credit for it, no?

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Re:The Russian who invented semiconductors 25 years before t... by cpldcpu on Sunday June 07, 2026 @01:46PM (#48437070)

Great article!

Yeah, that pattern can be seen everywhere in semiconductors. E.g. the transistor invention vs. Lilienfeld, Heil, Matare etc. So the scope is more narrow than "Inventend Semiconductors".

Generally, there seems to be a tendency to disregard discoveries from outside the US. I think this pattern can still be observed today...

Other examples: Invention of light bulb, telephone.

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Re:The Russian who invented semiconductors 25 years before t... by tim333 on Sunday June 07, 2026 @01:16PM (#48436808)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oleg_Losev#Solid-state_electro...

has quite a bit on it checking out:

> He used these junctions to build solid-state versions of amplifiers, oscillators, and TRF and regenerative radio receivers, at frequencies up to 5 MHz, 25 years before the transistor. He even built a superheterodyne receiver.

That one calls them "negative resistance diodes" but I don't see how you can make a functional solid state amplifier and the like without it being a transistor.

Maybe Wikipedia needs some edits.

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Re:The Russian who invented semiconductors 25 years before t... by pseudohadamard on Monday June 08, 2026 @04:30PM (#48451474)

The USSR famously invented everything the west did but years or even decades earlier, only for some reason never commercialised any of it, to the point where it became a bit of a running joke like the Su-24 "validating" the design of the F-111 which preceded it by some years. So I'd take any claims like this with a bit of a grain of salt.

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Re:The Russian who invented semiconductors 25 years before t... by pseudohadamard on Monday June 08, 2026 @04:24PM (#48451370)

There's always someone somewhere who, with hindsight, did something that could be retconned into being similar to something important we've got today, von Däniken being an extreme example. Not putting down Losev's work, but accidentally stumbling on an interesting physical effect that you treat as a curiosity and engaging in targeted research to turn in into a product is a very different thing. For example the FET was envisaged multiple times in the same time frame as Losev's work, but wasn't rigorously pursued until Bardeen et al came along.

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