An overview of the origins of the Institute for Semiconductor Physics in 1956–1957

Abstract

Although the significance of semiconductor techniques was perfectly grasped in the Soviet Union, ways and methods of its development differed from the ones in the U.S. The soviet authorities were aware that the for the effective confronting the U.S. in the cold war, the Soviet Union had to ensure the development of defense systems controlled by reliable compact electronics. As a follow up of the decree of the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union from June 4, 1957 “The research and development works on semiconductor materials and devices”, Presidium of the Academy of Sciences (AS) of the Soviet Ukraine took the decision to set a department for semiconductor metallurgy in the Institute of Metal Ceramics and Special Allows of the AS of the Soviet Ukraine; departments to be engaged in R&D in semiconductor raw resources in the institutes of general and non-organic chemistry; to expand the material base and staff in the semiconductor department at the Institute of Physics of the AS of the Soviet Ukraine, as a necessary groundwork for creating, in the following two or three years, a semiconductor institute. The article contains six archive sources pertaining to semiconductor issues.

Introduction and documents prepared for publication by:
A. H. Luhovskyi
Dobrov Institute for Scientific and Technological Potential and Science History Studies of the NAS of Ukraine
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7644-5995