Niobium capacitor
The development of solid electrolyte tantalum capacitors began in the early 1950s as a miniaturized, more reliable low-voltage support capacitor to complement the newly invented transistor. The solution found by R. L. Taylor and H. E. Haring of the Bell Labs was based on experience with ceramics. They ground down tantalum to a powder, pressed this powder into a cylindrical form and then sintered the powder particles into a pellet (“slug”) at high temperatures, between 1500 and 2000 °C, under vacuum conditions. These first sintered tantalum capacitors used a non-solid electrolyte not consistent with the concept of solid state electronics. 1952 a targeted search in the Bell Labs for a solid electrolyte by D. A. McLean and F. S. Power led to the invention of manganese dioxide as a solid electrolyte for a sintered tantalum capacitor.
Single-atom transistor
A single-atom transistor is a device that can open and close an electrical circuit by the controlled and reversible repositioning of one single atom. The single-atom transistor was invented and first demonstrated in 2004 by Prof. Thomas Schimmel and his team of scientists at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (former University of Karlsruhe). By means of a small electrical voltage applied to a control electrode, the so-called "gate electrode", a single silver atom is reversibly moved in and out of a tiny junction, in this way closing and opening an electrical contact.