Jack Kilby

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Jack Kilby in the early 1960s

Jack St. Clair Kilby (born November 8, 1923 in Jefferson City , Missouri , † June 20, 2005 in Dallas , Texas ) was an American engineer . Together with Robert Noyce, he is considered to be the inventor of the integrated circuit - for which he received the Nobel Prize in Physics - and is known as the "father of the microchip".

life and work

Kilby was born in Jefferson City, Missouri. He spent most of his early years in Great Bend , Kansas, and graduated from high school there .

He received his Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1947 . He received his Masters from the University of Wisconsin in 1950 while working in Milwaukee for Centralab , part of Globe Union Inc.

In 1958 he started working at Texas Instruments , where he had no summer vacation as a newcomer. He had the laboratory to himself and his thoughts alone. This gave him time to deal with the tyranny of numbers , which at the time was understood in computer design to mean the problem that new designs had more and more components that were increasingly difficult to wire. He concluded that a solution was possible through the use of semiconductors . On July 24, 1958, in his laboratory diary, he first described his idea of ​​combining transistors , resistors and capacitors into one component.

On September 12, 1958, he presented the first example of a working circuit on a semiconductor. Little more than a piece of germanium with a few cables on a piece of glass the size of a paper clip was all that was seen first. When Kilby hit a switch, an endless sine wave appeared on the oscilloscope . With that, those present saw, including the head of Texas Instruments, Mark Shepherd , that the problem was solved. On February 6, 1959, patent US 3,138,743 was filed for the first integrated circuit . The prototype was preserved and is in private hands.

At first, integrated circuits were not commercially successful, but in 1966 Kilby first used them in making pocket calculators. The technical development that took place from then on towards ever smaller and more powerful “chips” astonished and delighted even Kilby.

He worked at Texas Instruments from 1958 to 1970 and was then given leave to continue working as an independent inventor. From 1978 to 1984 he was Professor of Electrical Engineering at Texas A&M University .

In 2000, together with the German-American Herbert Kroemer and the Russian Zhores I. Alferov, he received the Nobel Prize in Physics for his contribution to the development of the integrated circuit (IC) . During his life he patented 60 of his inventions and is also considered the inventor of the pocket calculator and thermal printer . In his last years he dealt with solar energy technology .

The laboratory where Kilby worked in 1958 is considered a historic memorial in Texas . His invention of the integrated circuit is the basis of today's electronics . In 2004 ICs were sold for $ 179 billion. They were built into devices that together represent a value of $ 1,186 billion.

Kilby died of cancer on June 20, 2005.

The IEEE Jack S. Kilby Signal Processing Medal is named after him.

Awards

Publications

  • Jack S. Kilby: Invention of the Integrated Circuit . In: IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices . tape 23 , no. 7 , 1976, p. 648–654 , doi : 10.1109 / T-ED.1976.18467 ( PDF from the Computer History Museum [accessed June 23, 2014]).

literature

  • K. Jäger, F. Heilbronner (ed.): Lexikon der Elektrotechniker , VDE Verlag, 2nd edition from 2010, Berlin / Offenbach, ISBN 978-3-8007-2903-6 , p. 226
  • Kendall Haven, Donna Clark: 100 Most Popular Scientists for Young Adults: Biographical Sketches and Professional Paths . Libraries Unlimited, Englewood 1999, ISBN 978-1-56308-674-8 , pp. 301-305.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Patent US3138743 : Miniaturized electronic circuits. Published May 23, 1964 , inventor: Jack S. Kilby. ‌
  2. ↑ mak / dpa : IC prototype: historical microchip does not find a buyer. Spiegel Online , June 20, 2014, accessed June 23, 2014 .
  3. ↑ Meghan Morris: Kilby Microchip Valued as Much as $ 2 Million Doesn't Sell. (No longer available online.) Bloomberg News , June 19, 2014, archived from the original on July 9, 2014 ; accessed on June 23, 2014 .
  4. ^ Member Directory: Jack S. Kilby. National Academy of Engineering, accessed October 23, 2018 .
  5. ^ Member History: Jack St. Clair Kilby. American Philosophical Society, accessed October 23, 2018 .
personal data
SURNAME Kilby, Jack
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Kilby, Jack St. Clair
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American engineer, is considered the inventor of the integrated circuit
DATE OF BIRTH November 8, 1923
PLACE OF BIRTH Jefferson City , Missouri , USA
DATE OF DEATH June 20, 2005
Place of death Dallas