Japanese Pioneers

Tetsuya Arizumi was born in Kumamoto Prefecture in 1913. After graduating from the Faculty of Science at Kyoto Imperial University in 1936, he joined Kawanishi Machine Works, Ltd. (renamed Kobe Industries Corporation in 1949). He became a professor at Nagoya University in 1959 and received the Chunichi Cultural Prize (for his research into the growth of semiconductors from the vapor-phase) in 1966. He became a professor at the University of Electro-Communications in 1976, and a professor of Daido Institute of Technology in 1978. He was awarded the Order of the Sacred Treasure, third class, in 1986.

He was engaged in research into electron tubes after joining Kawanishi Machine Works, Ltd. and started working on transistors with Reona (Leo) Esaki in 1948. His initial work in this field included developing a technology for Si purification and successfully producing single-crystal silicon through a pulling technique. Upon hearing of the priority being given to germanium by researchers in the U.S.A. in 1951, however, he swiftly changed the focus of his research to germanium transistors. Within the next year (1952), he succeeded in developing point-contact transistors to work with low-frequency waves. He continued to develop point-contact transistors for high-frequency waves (type-A) and junction-type transistors. This was followed by a successful prototype five-transistor radio in January 1954. From his arrival at Nagoya University in 1959, he continued research into the physics of semiconductor materials and crystal growth and, as a teacher, turned out many researchers and engineers in the field of semiconductors. In particular, his pioneering research into epitaxial growth from the vapor phase contributed a basis for subsequent integrated circuit technologies. He worked to attract a number of international semiconductor-related conferences to Japan, and personally organized the First Conference on Solid State Devices in 1969. This turned into an international conference from the fifth time it was held and has become an annual event as the International Conference on Solid State Devices and Materials. He thus contributed to raising Japanese semiconductor device technologies to international levels.