In the summer of 1958, while working at Texas Instruments, Kilby built the first electronic circuit in which all of the components were fabricated into a single piece of material. The device, about half the size of a paper clip, was the world's first integrated circuit. The microchip was later demonstrated on Sept. 12, 1958.
Jack Kilby
The prototype, which cut down on costs and engineering difficulties, paved the way for integrating electronics into a variety of devices. Prior to integrated circuits, engineers had to solder several parts together. Intel co-founder Bob Noyce came up with a similar integrated circuit a few months later.
The work, which Kilby performed during the two-week period at TI when other employees traditionally took a vacation, ultimately led to a Nobel Prize for physics in 2000. When the news was announced at the Microprocessor Forum that year, the surprised audience gave him a standing ovation.
The invention also jump-started Kilby's career. Over the next several years, he held several positions at TI and won a number of awards. He formally retired in 1970 from the company, but still served as a consultant. Between 1978 and 1984, he served as a professor at Texas A&M University.
"In my opinion, there are only a handful of people whose works have truly transformed the world and the way we live in it--Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, the Wright Brothers and Jack Kilby," TI Chairman Tom Engibous said in a prepared statement. "If there was ever a seminal invention that transformed not only our industry but our world, it was Jack's invention of the first integrated circuit."
Kilby, who stood 6 foot 6, grew up in Kansas and subsequently attended the University of Illinois. He went into the Army during World War II, but returned to Illinois to graduate in 1947. Upon graduation, he took a position with Centralab in Milwaukee, where he first worked with transistors, the building blocks for integrated circuits. While working there he also got a master's degree at the University of Wisconsin.
He came to TI in 1958, too late to participate in the August vacation exodus.
"I was sitting at a desk, probably stayed there a little longer than usual," he recalled in a 1980 interview that's reprinted on TI's Web site. "Most of it formed pretty clearly during the course of that day. When I was finished, I had some drawings in a notebook, which I showed my supervisor when he returned. There was some slight skepticism, but basically they realized its importance."
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My Dad was the Purchasing Agent and later Plant Manager for a small defense sub-contractor and used to talk about how quickly technology advanced since IC's were invented and it's from him I first heard Mr. Kilby's name, spoken with the reverence that's reserved for a true genius, like Edison, Marconi, DaVinci, Einstein, etc.
Space travel, accurate missile guidance systems, computers that don't take up multiple city blocks, modern cars, aircraft, communications devices, the watch on your wrist, the thermostat on your home heating system, the pacemaker that keeps a heart patient alive, and oh, so many more things we take for granted today would simply not be possible without the integrated circuit.
Rest in peace Jack Kilby.
My Dad was the Purchasing Agent and later Plant Manager for a small defense sub-contractor and used to talk about how quickly technology advanced since IC's were invented and it's from him I first heard Mr. Kilby's name, spoken with the reverence that's reserved for a true genius, like Edison, Marconi, DaVinci, Einstein, etc.
Space travel, accurate missile guidance systems, computers that don't take up multiple city blocks, modern cars, aircraft, communications devices, the watch on your wrist, the thermostat on your home heating system, the pacemaker that keeps a heart patient alive, and oh, so many more things we take for granted today would simply not be possible without the integrated circuit.
Rest in peace Jack Kilby.
But the majority of the acclaim should go to Shockley, Bardeen and Brattain for the creation of the solid state transistor at Bell Labs in 1947, without which the IC would not have been possible, and is considered by many to be the greatest invention of the 20th century.
- Kilby deserves the praise, but was not alone,
- by tonydr June 21, 2005 10:31 PM PDT
- Taking nothing away from him, Kilby's innovation was extraordinary and he deserved the acclaim he receives at his passing. However, Robert Noyce at Fairchild electronics actually received the first patent for the IC.
- Like this Reply to this comment
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(6 Comments)But the majority of the acclaim should go to Shockley, Bardeen and Brattain for the creation of the solid state transistor at Bell Labs in 1947, without which the IC would not have been possible, and is considered by many to be the greatest invention of the 20th century.