Jack Kilby, Inventor of
the Integrated Circuit, 1923 -2005
"Few inventions have radically
changed our lives as much as integrated circuits. Jack
Kilby, the man who invented integrated circuits passed
away on 20th June."
These words by Sadhana Attavar demonstrate
the worldwide fame enjoyed by Jack
Kilby (Fig. 1), inventor of the integrated circuit,
for Attavar's tribute was published in India's Deccan
Herald half way around the globe from Kilby's home
in Dallas, Texas.
Kilby was a giant of a man physically
and in terms of his achievements. Frustrated by the
necessity of interconnecting tiny electronic components
to form complete circuits, in 1958 he proposed the idea
of forming resistors, capacitors and transistors on
the surface of the same piece of semiconductor. In a
few weeks he assembled a circuit on a small bar of germanium
that included a transistor, a capacitor and three resistors
(Fig. 2). The circuit worked, and the integrated circuit
revolution that changed the world was begun by a company
called Texas Instruments.
A few months later, Robert Noyce of
Fairchild developed an integrated circuit on a silicon
chip. Noyce's circuit employed a clever interconnection
scheme that became the pattern for the integrated circuit
industry.
Both Kilby and Noyce applied for patents
on the integrated circuit. Following various legal challenges,
the U.S. Court of Customs and Patent Appeals ruled that
Kilby was the first to invent an integrated circuit
while upholding Noyce's patent claims on interconnecting
the individual components formed on the surface of a
chip.
Kilby was granted some 60 patents during
his career. He designed and built the first handheld
electronic calculator, which included a miniature thermal
printer that he also designed.
Jack Kilby received the 2000 Nobel
Prize in Physics. Nothing better demonstrates this great
man's humility than these paragraphs from his acceptance
speech:
"Four decades of hindsight is
perhaps a unique experience among those who have been
awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics. As I noted in my
lecture, there were various efforts to solve the electronic
miniaturization problem at the time I invented the integrated
circuit. Humankind eventually would have solved the
matter, but I had the fortunate experience of being
the first person with the right idea and the right resources
available at the right time in history.
"I would like to mention another
right person at the right time, namely Robert Noyce,
a contemporary of mine who worked at Fairchild Semiconductor.
While Robert and I followed our own paths, we worked
hard together to achieve commercial acceptance for integrated
circuits. If he were still living, I have no doubt we
would have shared this prize....
"People often ask me what I'm
proud of, and, of course, the integrated circuit is
at the top of the list. I'm also proud of my wonderful
family. I have two daughters and five granddaughters,
so you could say that the Kilbys specialized in girls."
Technology has come a long way since
Kilby and Noyce pioneered the integrated circuit. This
news story, for example, was prepared by a computer
based on a Pentium 4 processor, an integrated circuit
that includes more than 40 million transistors.
Forrest M. Mims III 
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