Integrated circuit (Kilby)

What it is

First circuit with several components fabricated on a single piece of germanium, demonstrated on 12 September 1958. It opened the way to integrating complete circuits on a chip.

Priority shared with Robert Noyce (Fairchild, 1959), whose planar silicon version with metal interconnects was the manufacturable one; the two companies agreed cross-licensing. Kilby received the Nobel Prize in 2000.

What it led to

• Exponential miniaturisation of electronics (Moore's law)
• Minuteman missiles and Apollo guidance as the first major customers
• The pocket calculator and ubiquitous electronics

Built on

• Silicon1824
• The transistor effect1947
• Bipolar junction transistor1948
• Dummer's integrated solid idea (1952)

Made possible

• Monolithic silicon integrated circuit (Noyce)1959
• IBM System/3601964
• Minicomputer (DEC PDP-8)1965
• Pocket electronic calculator1967
• Crewed Moon landing: Saturn V, Lunar Module and A7L suit1969
• Microprocessor (Intel 4004)1971
• 555 timer IC1971
• Pong arcade and Magnavox Odyssey home console1972
• Cray-1 vector supercomputer1976
• Noyce's monolithic integrated circuit
• pocket calculator

Links

Sources✓ verified 2026-09-25

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Kilby