Microchip Pioneer Jack Kilby Dies at 81

AP Online
06-21-2005
Dateline: DALLAS
Microchip pioneer Jack Kilby, who won the 2000 Nobel Prize for co-inventing the integrated circuits that ushered in the digital age of personal computers, cell phones and the Internet, has died after a brief battle with cancer. He was 81.

In 1958, during his first year working with Texas Instruments Inc. in Dallas, Kilby used borrowed equipment to build the first integrated circuit. All the components were fabricated in a single piece of semiconductor material half the size of a paper clip.

"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 statement Tuesday.

"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," Engibous said.

Microprocessors and memory chips are among the integrated circuits found in all manner of digital devices.

Kilby held more than 60 U.S. patents, including one filed in 1959 for a solid circuit made of germanium. A few years later, Robert Noyce of Fairchild Semiconductor received a patent for a similar but more complex circuit made of silicon. Noyce later co-founded Intel Corp.

Kilby grew up in Great Bend, Kan. With degrees in electrical engineering from the Universities of Illinois and Wisconsin, he began his career in 1947 with the Centralab Division of Globe Union Inc. in Milwaukee, developing ceramic-base, silk-screen circuits for consumer electronic products.

Kilby went on to pioneer military, industrial and commercial applications of microchip technology. He headed teams that built the first military system and the first computer incorporating integrated circuits. He later co-invented the hand-held calculator and the thermal printer used in portable data terminals.

In 1970, he took a leave of absence from TI to work as an independent inventor exploring the use of silicon technology for generating electrical power from sunlight.

For his ideas and inventions, Kilby received two of the nation's most prestigious honors in science and engineering.

In 1970, in a White House ceremony, he received the National Medal of Science. In 1982, he was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame, taking his place alongside Henry Ford, Thomas Edison and the Wright Brothers in the annals of American innovation.

From 1978 to 1984, he held the position of Distinguished Professor of Electrical Engineering at Texas A&M University.

His awards include the Franklin Institute's Stuart Ballantine Medal, the NAE's Vladimir Zworykin Award, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers' Holley Medal, the IEEE's Metal of Honor, the Cledo Brunetti Award and the David Sarnoff Award.

On the 30th anniversary of the invention of the integrated circuit, the governor of Texas dedicated an official Texas historical marker near the site of the TI laboratory where Kilby did his work.

Kilby spent his later years as a consultant to TI, working on industry and government assignments throughout the world.

Kilby died Monday, according to TI. He is survived by two daughters, five granddaughters, and a son-in-law.

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On the Net: http://www.ti.com/kilby

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