The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said all three have American citizenship. Kao also holds British citizenship while Boyle is a Canadian dual national.

Kao initiated the search for and the development of the low-loss optical fiber used in optical fiber communication systems.

He showed that fused silica (SiO2) had the purity required for optical communication, which led to a search to produce glass fibers with low losses.

Four years after Kao's seminal 1969 paper, a research team from the Corning Glass Works used a Chemical Vapor Deposition process in making glass fibers of fused silica with the low losses that Kao had envisioned.

Boyle and Smith invented the charge-coupled device used in many digital cameras and in advanced medical and scientific instrumentation. They conceived the device at Bell Laboratories in 1969.

The award, announced Tuesday (Oct. 6), includes a cash award for $1.4 million.

The prize ceremonies will be held in Stockholm on Dec. 10.