Field-effect Transistor
Heil is sometimes mentioned as an inventor of an early transistor-like device (see also History of the transistor), based on several patents that were issued to him.
JFETS: The New Frontier states:
- "Field-effect transistors (FETs) have been around for a long time; in fact, they were invented, at least theoretically, before the bipolar transistors. The basic principle of the FET has been known since J.E. Lilienfeld’s US patent from 1930, and Oscar Heil described the possibility of controlling the resistance in a semiconducting material with an electric field in a British patent in 1935."
Read more about this topic: Oskar Heil