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Read the following passage and answer the questions that follow :

Diffusion of impurity atoms in silicon is important in silicon integrated circuit processing. The idea of using diffusion techniques to alter the type of conductivity in silicon or germanium was disclosed in a patent by Pfann. Since then various ways of introducing dopants into silicon by diffusion have been studied with the goal of controlling dopant distribution, total dopant concentration, its uniformity reproducibility, and of processing a large number of device wafers in a batch to reduce the manufacturing cost. The diffusion is used to form bases, emitters and resistors in bipolar devices technology, to form source and drain regions and to dope polysilicon in MOS device technology. Dopant atoms that span a wide range of concentrations can be introduced into silicon in many ways.

The idea of using diffusion techniques was disclosed in patent by Pfann in the year :

This question was previously asked in
UGC NET 2023 Home Science Question Paper (13-Dec-2023) (Shift 1)
The correct answer is

1952

William Pfann disclosed the use of diffusion to alter the conductivity type of silicon and germanium in a patent of 1952 — option 2.

Where the date sits in the history of the technology, which is what makes it memorable rather than arbitrary:

YearDevelopment
1947Point-contact transistor demonstrated at Bell Labs
1948Shockley's junction transistor conceived
1952Pfann's diffusion patent
1958First integrated circuit (Kilby)
1960First planar MOSFET

Pfann's own major contribution was zone refining, the technique of passing a molten zone repeatedly along an ingot so that impurities are swept to one end. It is what first made semiconductor-grade material pure enough to be useful, and it is the necessary complement to diffusion: one removes unwanted impurities, the other introduces wanted ones under control.

Why diffusion mattered so much. Before it, junctions were made by alloying or by grown-junction methods, in which the junction depth was poorly controlled and set by mechanical or crystal-growth conditions. Diffusion made the depth a function of temperature and time alone:

\(x_{j}\propto\sqrt{Dt}\)

— both quantities that a furnace controls precisely. Thin, reproducible base regions became possible, and with them high-frequency transistors; and because the process works on a whole wafer at once through an oxide mask, it is what made batch manufacture possible. The passage's phrase about "processing a large number of device wafers in a batch to reduce the manufacturing cost" points at exactly this.

The date's significance in one line : it falls between the invention of the transistor and the invention of the integrated circuit, and it is one of the steps that made the second possible.

Hence, the year is 1952.

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