History of Microelectronics

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Aubrey C.

Tolentino September 4 2019

BSCPE – 5

CPEN 111

Assignment # 2

Brief History of Microelectronics

1925 - Vacuum tubes for almost all complex circuits (switches, amplifiers).

1935 - Simple solid-state diodes marketed: made of Se, PbS or Si.

1935 – a patent was issued to O. Heil for a field effect triode.

1940 - First commercial sources of high-purity Si and Ge. Needed for mixer and detector
diodes used in radar, which was newly-developed concurrent with WWII.

1947 - The first integrated transistor (Bell telephone laboratories) by John Bardeen, Walter
Brattain and William Shockley. This led to 1956 Nobel Prize in physics for all three.

1947 - Germanium Point Contact Transistor.

1952 - Shockley invents junction transistor, and Gordon Teal/Gordon Sparks reduce it to
practice. Replaces point-contact version with its reliability problems.

1953 - CK722, one of the best known transistor was introduced by Raytheon.

1954 – William Shockley left Bell Labs to starts its own company in Palo Alto, CA. – Silicon
Valley.

1954 - First Si-based solar cell.

1955 – RCA introduced the 2N109 (Germanium PNP Alloy Junction) as reliable germanium
audio transistor and used in many transistorized radios.
1958 - The first integrated circuit available as a monolithic chip (flip-flop).

1958 - The first field effect transistor was working. It was called “Tecnitron” by its creator, S.
Teszner, working in France.

1958 - Shockley invents IMPATT diode for microwave generation. Is forerunner of today’s
wireless communication (e.g., cell phones).

1958 - Integrated Circuit was invented by two different people, Jack Kilby (TI) required wires;
Robert Noyce (Fairchild) used evaporated aluminium.

1959 - Fairchild introduced Planar Transistor.

1959 - RCA was working on FETs.

1959 - Jack Kilby (of TI) files patent for first integrated circuit formed in situ on a single piece of
semiconductor. (IC contains all needed active and passive elements and interconnects.)

1961 – Fairchild, Integrated circuit developed by Robert Noyce was the first commercially
available, it was the Flip – Flop.

1962 - NPN Transistor.

1962 - RCA was fabricating multipurpose logic block comprising 16 MOSFETs on a single chip.

1962 - Robert Noyce (Fairchild) patents another version of the IC, leading to heated legal
battles with Kilby.

1966 - First year Si-based circuit sales outstrip Ge. Si has better high-T performance and forms
a better oxide in situ.

1971 - The first 4bit microprocessor (intel 4004).


1972 - The first 8bit microprocessor (intel 8008).

1981 - The first IBM PC.

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