Jack St. Clair Kilby was an American electronics engineer born on November 8, 1923, and died on June 20, 2005. He worked at Texas Instruments in 1958 and helped create the first integrated circuit with Robert Noyce from Fairchild Semiconductor. For this invention, Kilby shared the 2000 Nobel Prize in Physics.
Kilby also helped invent the handheld calculator and the thermal printer. He held patents for these inventions and for seven other inventions.
Early life and education
Jack St. Clair Kilby was born on November 8, 1923, in Jefferson City, Missouri. His father owned a small electric company that provided services to people living in a small area of western Kansas.
Kilby grew up and received his education in Great Bend, Kansas, where he graduated from Great Bend High School. Today, road signs at the town's entrances honor his time there, and the Commons Area at Great Bend High School is named The Jack Kilby Commons Area.
Kilby earned his Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees in electrical engineering. He received his Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Illinois in 1947 and his Master of Science degree from the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee in 1950.
Invention of the integrated circuit
Kilby played an important role in creating the integrated circuit. In mid-1958, as a new engineer at Texas Instruments (TI), he did not have permission to take a summer vacation. Instead, he worked during the summer on a challenge in circuit design called the "tyranny of numbers." He concluded that making many circuit parts together on one piece of semiconductor material could solve the problem. On September 12, he showed his results to TI’s management, including Mark Shepherd. He demonstrated a piece of germanium connected to an oscilloscope. When he pressed a switch, the oscilloscope displayed a steady sine wave, proving his integrated circuit worked. On February 6, 1959, a patent for "Miniaturized electronic circuits," the first integrated circuit, was filed. This patent was special because it included different parts (transistors, diodes, resistors, capacitors, etc.) on a single material. Along with Robert Noyce, who created a similar circuit later that year, Kilby is usually recognized as a co-inventor of the integrated circuit.
Later career
Kilby helped develop military, industrial, and commercial uses of microchip technology. He led groups that built the first military system and the first computer using integrated circuits. He worked with Jerry Merryman and James Van Tassel to create the first handheld calculator.
In 1970, Kilby took a break from his job at Texas Instruments to work as an independent inventor. He studied topics such as using silicon to make electricity from sunlight. From 1978 to 1984, he was a Distinguished Professor of Electrical Engineering at Texas A&M University.
Kilby left Texas Instruments in 1983.
Death and legacy
Jack Kilby passed away from cancer on June 20, 2005, in Dallas, Texas, at the age of 81.
On December 14, 2005, Texas Instruments established the Historic TI Archives. The Jack Kilby family gave his personal written works and photograph collection to Southern Methodist University (SMU). These items will be organized and kept at DeGolyer Library, SMU.
In 2008, the SMU School of Engineering, along with DeGolyer Library and the Library of Congress, held a year-long event to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the beginning of the digital age, which included Kilby’s Nobel Prize-winning invention of the integrated circuit. Events and displays explored how technology and engineers influenced the modern world. Kilby received an honorary doctorate of science from SMU and was a long-time associate of SMU through the Kilby Foundation.
Commemoration
The Kilby Award Foundation was founded in 1980 to honor him, and the IEEE Jack S. Kilby Signal Processing Medal was created in 1995.
The Kilby Labs, Texas Instruments' research laboratory for silicon manufacturing and integrated circuit design, is named after him.
The Jack Kilby Computer Centre at the Merchiston Campus of Edinburgh Napier University in Edinburgh is also named in his honor.
A statue of Jack Kilby is located in Texas Instruments Plaza on the campus of The University of Texas at Dallas.
Barton Community College in Great Bend, Kansas, hosts an annual Jack Kilby STEM Day.
References bibliography
Berlin, Leslie. The Man Behind the Microchip: Robert Noyce and the Invention of Silicon Valley. Published by Oxford University Press, US, 2005. ISBN 0-19-516343-5.
Lécuyer, Christophe. Making Silicon Valley: Innovation and the Growth of High Tech, 1930–1970. Published by MIT Press, 2006. ISBN 0262122812.
Nobel Lectures. Published by World Scientific Publishing Co., Singapore, 2000.