History of Integrated Circuits

History of Integrated Circuits
The first functional integrated circuit was demonstrated and patented by J. Kilby in 1959. It consisted of a sliced crystal germanium containing a bipolar transistor, a capacitor and three resistors. It demonstrated how several components could be integrated on the same semiconductor, but did not show any satisfactory method of connecting the components, this being achieved by hand using thin gold wires.

The planar process initially developed by J. Hoerni and R. Noyce in 1959 as an improved method of manufacturing discrete silicon transistor, combined the existing diffusion and masking techniques with a method of connection.

A final layer of patterned oxide was used as a mask for connections between regions of the transistor and the outside world. Connections could then be formed by the deposition of aluminum in a batch production method. The technique of the planar process when applied to the manufacturer of integrated circuits caused a revolution in the electronic industry.

One of the first commercially available planar integrated circuits was a flip-flop containing four transistor and five resistors. It was one of a family of resistor transistor logic chips offer by Fairchild in 1961. In 1964 the first linear integrated circuit was developed by R. Wildar, an operational amplifier which contained twelve transistor and five resistors. It was remarkable not only for being the first operational amplifier on a single chip, but also for the ingenuity of the design.

Where possible, he used DC biased transistors instead of resistors, and relied on matching component characteristics, only assuming approximately absolute values.

By the time the techniques of integrated circuit manufacture were maturing, and the pace of integration measured in terms of increased transistor count, greater manufacturing yield and reduced cost was marked.
History of Integrated Circuits