Electrical engineer — Jack St. Clair Kilby (1923–2005) was an American electrical engineer, born in Missouri. Working at Texas Instruments, in 1958 he built the first working integrated circuit, bringing together several electronic components on a single piece of semiconductor material. This invention, developed almost simultaneously and independently by Robert Noyce, gave rise to microelectronics and made possible the miniaturisation underlying computers, telephones and all of modern electronics. Kilby also contributed to the invention of the pocket calculator and the thermal printer. For his role in the birth of the integrated circuit he received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2000.
Trivia
He built his first integrated circuit during the summer of 1958, when he was newly hired and, not yet having accrued any holiday leave, remained alone in the laboratory while his colleagues were on vacation.
Theories and contributions
- Integrated circuit — Integration of several electronic components (transistors, resistors, capacitors) onto a single semiconductor chip, the basis of microelectronics.
- Pocket calculator — Co-invention of the first portable electronic calculator, a practical application of the integrated circuit.
Present in chapters
Linked atoms
1 linked atoms.