T E X A S
I N S T R U M E N T S
You probably don’t know Jack.
But you know his work.
Kilby’s notebook showing the
sketch of his invention.
Kilby’s first integrated
circuit was rough by
today’s standards. But it
has revolutionized the
electronics industry.
AT 6 FEET 6 INCHES, Jack St. Clair Kilby has always stood tall,
but never more so than in September 1958 when he demonstrated the
first integrated circuit to fellow Texas Instruments engineers.
The device he had constructed was crude by today’s standards: a sliver
of germanium measuring 7/16 by 1/16 of an inch with protruding wires
glued to a glass slide. But when Kilby applied electricity to the circuit,
an unending sine wave undulated across the screen of his oscilloscope.
And in that instant, Kilby showed he had solved the fundamental
problems associated with miniaturization. Once his invention overcame
industry skepticism and was widely accepted, it changed the electronics
industry forever and launched a technological revolution.
in 1994, and the Smithsonian’s American History Museum displays Kilby’s
first integrated circuit in its “Information Age” exhibit. An official Texas
Historical Landmark was erected near the site of Kilby’s TI laboratory to
commemorate the invention.
Kilby’s body of work includes more than 60 patents, and he inspired
untold numbers of engineers. Indeed, in 2000 when he accepted the Nobel
Prize, Kilby repeated a joke that spoke volumes about his respect for the
TI engineers who followed his invention with groundbreaking refinements
and applications: “It reminds me of what the beaver told the rabbit as they
stood at the base of Hoover Dam: ‘No, I didn’t build it myself, but it’s
based on an idea of mine.’”
When TI officially announced the milestone in 1959, consumer
products making use of it were still several years away. But by 1961
Kilby and his TI team had developed computer applications for the
invention, and by 1967 his work had led to the first handheld calculator.
Kilby won an inventor’s “Triple Crown” for his accomplishments: the
Nobel Prize in physics, the National Medal of Science and the National
Medal of Technology. The Wall Street Journal named Kilby
one of the five members of its “High Tech Dream Team”
Jack Kilby’s picture now hangs in the
National Inventors Hall of Fame
between the portraits of Ernest
Lawrence — who created the atom
smasher — and Henry Ford.
Tomorrow: Find out what happens when you
w w w. t i . c o m / 7 5 y e a r s
keep making silicon chips smaller, faster and
more powerful.