Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

On November 8, 1923, a baby boy was born to an ordinary family in Jefferson City, Missouri.

The boy's father, Herbert Kilby, is an electrical engineer and graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The boy's mother, Vina Kilby Kilby, also graduated from the same school.

The young couple may not have thought that the little life they ushered in would become a great engineer, inventor and even Nobel laureate in the future. His invention contribution will create a huge industry and change the whole world.

The baby boy, one of the main inventors of integrated circuits, is known as the "father of the chip" Jack St Kilby (Jack Kilby).

Jack Kilby █ the way an engineer grew up in 1927, when Kilby was four, the family moved to Salina, Kansas.

Kilby's father, Herbert Kilby, is a manager of the Kansas Power Company (Kansas Power Company). At that time, Kilby often toured the power plant with his father to watch the power generation and transmission equipment. Over time, he developed a strong interest in these electrical equipment and was determined to become an electrical engineer.

In 1937, the Kilby family moved to Great Bend, more than 100km from Salina. Here, Kilby spent his high school career.

When young Jack Kilby graduated from high school, Kilby went to take the MIT entrance exam in order to realize his dream of being an engineer. Unfortunately, in the end, he lost the election by 3 points (the score line was 500, and he got 497).

In desperation, he had no choice but to study at his parents' alma mater, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. (it should be noted that the University of Illinois is not a second-rate school, but one of the best public universities in the United States. )

Shortly after enrollment, Pearl Harbor broke out, the United States officially joined World War II, and Jack Kilby joined the United States Army.

At the time, he was a radio equipment repairman in the Army Communications Corps (U.S.Army Signal Corps), working at a military base in northeastern India, specializing in repairing walkie-talkies. He is also said to have been to China and fought for several months (under the leadership of General Stilwell).

When Jack Kilby joined the army, his experience in the war brought great benefits to Kilby's growth. "things outside the school can make you mature quickly," he recalled afterwards. "when problems occur, you have to face them, figure out ways to solve them, and then you make progress."

After World War II, Kilby returned to the University of Illinois to continue his studies (tuition paid by the army).

In 1947, Kilby received a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering and joined the Central Laboratory (Centralab). The central laboratory is a research facility of Globe Union in Milwaukee, the largest city in Wisconsin.

While working, Kilby received a master's degree in electrical engineering from the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee by attending evening classes. At the same time, he married Barbara Barbara Annegers and had two daughters.

In 1947, William Shockley, Walter Bratton and John Bardeen of Bell Laboratories in the United States co-invented the world's first transistor, which caused a sensation in the scientific community.

Kilby is also concerned about the incident. He listened to John Bardeen's speech on the spot (John Bardeen also graduated from the University of Wisconsin and the two are alumni) and became interested in transistors. "[the advent of transistors] means that my tube technology course is in vain," he says. "

In 1952, under pressure from American antitrust laws, Bell Labs began to license transistors at low prices to 38 companies across the United States (the license fee was only $25000). This includes the global Unicom company where Kilby is located.

After being authorized, Kilby was sent to Bell Labs to attend a two-week seminar on transistor technology. During this period, Kilby mastered a lot of knowledge about transistors.

After returning to the company, Kilby formed a three-person R & D team. They made transistors and put them on the market, but they didn't make much profit.

Although Global Unicom has a strong name, it is actually only a small and medium-sized company. In the case of low profits, they are unwilling to continue to invest in transistors. As a result, Kilby began to consider job-hopping and choose a better development platform.

After some comparison, he finally joined a company that had just entered the electronics industry. This company was later the semiconductor giant-- Texas Instruments,TI.

He was joined in the same year by another big shot, Zhang Zhongmou, the founder of TSMC.

█ from oil to electronics, the rise of a giant Texas Instruments is a company with a long history. Its predecessor was the Geophysical Business Company (GSI,Geophysical Service) co-founded by J Clarence Clarence Karcher and Eugene McDermott in 1930.

At that time, the company logo, the company's main business, was geological exploration. To put it bluntly, it is to find oil (Texas is rich in oil resources).

After the establishment of GSI, the United States ran into the Great Depression, business is not very good. During World War II, GSI began to transform itself into producing defense electronics for the U.S. Army and Navy. Their submarine detection equipment is very popular with the United States Navy and has brought a large number of orders.

In 1951, GSI's laboratory and manufacturing divisions (focused on electronics) quickly outperformed the geography division, and the company was effectively transformed into an electronics industry company. As a result, the company changed its name to General Instruments (General Instrument). In the same year, it was renamed "Texas Instruments" and is still in use today.

The logo evolution of Texas Instruments in 1952, Texas Instruments also obtained a patent license from Bell Labs.

That year, Gordon K. Teal, who originally worked at Bell Labs, joined Texas Instruments as research director. Two years later, under his leadership, Texas Instruments successfully developed the first commercial silicon transistor and the first transistor radio, and established its own position in the industry.

The official birth of █ integrated circuits mentioned earlier, Kilby joined Texas Instruments in 1958.

At the time, Texas Instruments and the U. S. Communications Force were working on a project called Micro-Module program. The research goal of the project is to unify the size and shape of electronic parts such as transistors, resistors and capacitors, so as to standardize the interconnection process, reduce the circuit space, and reduce the difficulty and error rate of welding.

Kilby thought the idea of the micromodule project was unreasonable, so he began to work on a better solution.

At first, Kilby designed an alternative product. As a result, after cost analysis, it is found that the cost is too high for mass production. As a result, he fell into a research dilemma.

In August 1958, things took a turn for the better.

Dallas, where Texas Instruments is located, gets very hot in summer. Therefore, the company will give employees two weeks off and let everyone go on vacation for the summer.

Kilby is a new employee and is not eligible for vacation treatment. As a result, he had to stay in the company and study his own project. Perhaps it was because there was no one to disturb that Kilby soon made a breakthrough.

Kilby thought that Geoffrey Dummer, a famous scientist at the Royal Radar Research Institute, pointed out at a conference in 1952: "with the advent of transistors and the comprehensive study of semiconductors, it seems conceivable that electronic devices in the future will be solid components without connections."

Guided by this idea, he found that tiny microcircuits made up of many devices could be made on a single chip. In other words, different electronic devices (such as resistors, capacitors, diodes and transistors) can be made on silicon wafers and connected by thin wires.

This amazing idea made him feel very excited. On that day, he recorded his ideas in detail in his notebook, and even conceived a complete circuit process, writing a full five pages.

Immediately after Kilby's notes (part) vacation, Kilby reported his thoughts to his immediate leader, Willis Adcock, who was then head of Texas Instruments Development. He suggested that he could make a trigger circuit for verification.

Willis Adcock's first reaction was that the plan was troublesome and unreliable. However, on second thought, he reluctantly agreed to Kilby's proposal.

So Kilby began to implement his own plan. At first, Kilby planned to use "silicon" as the substrate to make the circuit. However, Texas Instruments at that time did not have the right silicon wafers. In desperation, Kilby chose germanium.

Soon after, on August 28, 1958, Kilby made his own trigger circuit, which worked very well.

On September 12, 1958, senior executives of Texas Instruments gathered in the laboratory. At this point, Kilby confidently demonstrated the circuit integrated on a piece of germanium that is 16 inches long and 16 inches wide.

The circuit is a single transistor oscillator with RC feedback, which is glued to the glass carrier and looks very simple. The devices of the circuit are connected by messy thin wires.

Under the witness of the public, Kilby nervously connected the ten-volt voltage to the input and connected an oscilloscope to the output. At the moment of switching on, an oscillating waveform with a frequency of 1.2 MHz and an amplitude of 0.2 V appeared on the oscilloscope.

The scene was quiet for a while before there was warm applause and cheers. Kilby succeeded by creating the world's first integrated circuit (Integrated Circuit) made of a single material. Since then, the development of human electronics industry has entered a new era.

On February 6, 1959, Kilby and his colleagues Texas Instruments and Kilby filed patents with the United States Patent Office. In his application, Kilby described his new device as "a semiconductor material."... in which all the components of the electronic circuit are fully integrated.

On March 6, 1959, the American Society of Radio Engineers (later IEEE) held its annual meeting in New York. Texas Instruments held a high-profile press conference at the famous Waldorf Hotel to officially showcase Kilby's invention.

Mark, then head of Texas Instruments Semiconductor Department. "this is the most important invention since Texas Instruments announced its entry into the transistor market," Mark Shepherd, who later became president of Texas Instruments, said at a news conference.

█ Kilby vs Noyce, who is the father of integrated circuits? While Kilby invented the integrated circuit, another person also made a breakthrough in this field. This person is Fairchild Semiconductor's Robert Noyce (Robert Norton Noyce).

Robert Noyce is about Noyce, which I described in detail in my previous article on Fairchild (link). He was the head of what William Shockley called the "eight traitors", one of the founders of Fairy Child, and later one of the founders of Intel.

Xiantong is a company co-founded by "eight traitors" and has strong strength in semiconductor technology.

One of the eight traitors, Jean-Ahmed Horney (Jean Hoerni), invented the very important graphic process (Planner Process).

In this process, a layer of silicon oxide is added to the silicon wafer as an insulating layer. Then, a hole is made in this layer of insulating silicon oxide and an aluminum film is used to connect the devices that have been made by silicon diffusion technology.

The birth of planar technology enables Xiantong to produce very small size high-performance silicon transistors and makes it possible to connect devices in integrated circuits.

On January 23, 1959, Noyce wrote in his work notes: "by making all kinds of devices on the same silicon wafer and connecting them with a planar process, you can create a multi-functional electronic circuit." this technology can reduce the size, weight and cost of the circuit. "

The announcement of Kilby's invention by Texas Instruments shocked Noyce. Noyce regretted that he did not move fast enough. On the other hand, he found that Kilby's invention was in fact very flawed.

Kilby's integrated circuits are connected by flying wires, which simply cannot be produced on a large scale and lack of practical value.

Noyce's idea is that all the circuits and components of an electronic device are made into a negative plate and then engraved on a silicon wafer, which, once engraved, is all the circuits that can be directly used to assemble the product. In addition, the way of evaporating and depositing metal can replace the hot welding wire and completely eliminate the flying wire.

Xiantong's silicon crystal integrated circuit on July 30, 1959, based on his own idea, Noyce applied for a patent: "Semiconductor device-wire structure".

Strictly speaking, Noyce's invention is closer to the integrated circuit in the modern sense. Noyce's design is based on the silicon substrate plane process, while Kilby's design is based on the germanium substrate diffusion process. Relying on the advantages of Xiantong's silicon technology, Noyce's circuit is indeed more advanced than Kilby.

However, Kilby's hybrid integrated circuits already have the characteristics of integrated circuits and are applied earlier.

As a result, Texas Instruments, to which Kilby belongs, and Fairchild Semiconductor, to which Noyce belongs, engaged in a fierce patent war.

As for the lawsuit, Kilby said: "No one will question that I was the first to make an integrated circuit. Dr. Noyce was the first to do what I wanted to do-to use evaporated metal as a connection between devices. Dr. Noyce's approach is a far cry from what I have already done. He said he sympathized with me as a co-inventor, but I don't think so."

In 1966, the court finally ruled that the invention of the integrated circuit idea (hybrid integrated circuit) was granted to Kilby, the integrated circuit packaged into a chip (the real integrated circuit) used today. And the invention of the manufacturing process was awarded to Noyce.

Kilby is known as "the inventor of the first integrated circuit", while Noyce is the one who "put forward the theory of integrated circuit suitable for industrial production".

This year, Texas Instruments and Fairchild reached a cross-license agreement to share integrated circuit patents.

In 1969, the federal court of the United States legally ruled that the integrated circuit patents applied for by the two were parallel independent inventions.

The advent of the █ chip era in March 1960, Texas Instruments based on Jack. Kilby's design, officially launched the world's first commercial integrated circuit product-type 502 silicon bistable multi-resonant binary flip-flop, the sales price is 450USD.

After the birth of integrated circuits, the military field was the first to be used (at that time, the most sensitive period of the Cold War).

In 1961, the United States Air Force launched the first computer driven by integrated circuits. In 1962, the Americans used integrated circuits in the guidance system of militia ballistic missiles (Minuteman).

Later, the famous Apollo Moon Landing Project (Apollo Project) purchased millions of integrated circuits, which made Texas Instruments and Fairchild a lot of money.

The success of the military market has driven the expansion of the civilian market. In 1964  , Zenith used integrated circuits in hearing aids, which is the first time that integrated circuits have landed in the civil field. Since then, the cost of integrated circuits has gradually declined, the process has been continuously improved, and has been gradually accepted by the industry.

In 1961, Patrick E., president of Texas Instruments. In order to promote the popularity of integrated circuits, Patrick E.Haggerty arranged for Kilby to design a brand new microcalculator that can be held in his hand.

In 1967, a team led by Kilby successfully completed the research and development of this product, which is the world's first electronic handheld calculator-the Pocketronic.

The greater significance of Kilby and his calculator (left-handed) integrated circuit is that it paves the way for the advent of microprocessors.

In 1970, Intel released the world's first DRAM (dynamic random access memory) integrated circuit 1103. The following year, they launched the world's first programmable computing chip, Intel 4004, including an arithmetic unit and a controller.

The Intel 4004, with 2300 transistors, is the world's first microprocessor. Its birth opened the prelude of the microcomputer era.

█ 's late Nobel Prize in 1971, Kilby left Texas Instruments to work as a consultant and continue his invention, and was also a professor at Texas University.

In the meantime, Kilby, funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, engaged in the development and utilization of "clean energy (solar energy)" and established several large-scale systems. However, due to the fall in oil prices, solar energy projects have not been taken seriously, so the results have not been commercialized.

In 1999, the Los Angeles Times named the "50 most influential economic people of the century", among which there were three people who tied for first place: William Shockley, Robert Noyce and Jack Kilby.

On October 10, 2000, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced that Russian scientists Zeros Alferov, American scientists Herbert Kroemer and Jack Kilby have won this year's Nobel Prize in Physics for their "basic work in information technology."

The recipient site (Kilby on the left) Kilby received half of the total prize (9 million Swedish kronor, about $1 million) for his contribution to the invention of the integrated circuit.

At this time, 42 years have passed since Kilby invented the integrated circuit.

Anyway, it's better late than never. Unfortunately, Noyce died of a heart attack on June 3, 1990 at the age of 62, missing out on the Nobel Prize.

Jack Kilby died of cancer at his home in Dallas on June 20, 2005 at the age of 81.

█ concludes that Kilby has more than 60 invention patents in his life. In addition to the integrated circuits, microcalculators and solar systems mentioned above, he also invented thermal printers.

There is no doubt that he is a great inventor. His contribution has promoted the progress of society, which is worth remembering forever.

Finally, let's conclude today's article with comments from former Texas Instruments board chairman Tom N Gibbs (Tom Engibous)

"I think there are a few people whose jobs have changed the world and the way we live-Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, the Wright brothers, and Jack Kilby. If there is one invention that not only revolutionized our industry, but also changed the world we live in, it is the integrated circuit invented by Jack. "

References:

1. "Chip War", Science and Technology-Industry Research

2. "60 years ago, the world's first integrated circuit was born."

3. "the invention story of the Nobel laureate", Library of Shanghai Jiaotong University

4. A brief History of Silicon Valley, Qian Gang, Machinery Industry Press

5. Wikipedia.

This article comes from the official account of Wechat: fresh Jujube classroom (ID:xzclasscom), author: Xiaozaojun

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