Jack St. Clair Kilby (November 8, 1923 – June 20, 2005) was an American electrical engineer who took part (along with

Robert Noyce Robert Norton Noyce (December 12, 1927 – June 3, 1990), nicknamed "the Mayor of Silicon Valley", was an American physicist and entrepreneur who co-founded Fairchild Semiconductor in 1957 and Intel Corporation in 1968. He is also credited wit ...

Fairchild Fairchild may refer to: Organizations * Fairchild Aerial Surveys, operated in cooperation with a subsidiary of Fairey Aviation Company * Fairchild Camera and Instrument * List of Sherman Fairchild companies, "Fairchild" companies * Fairchild Fash ...

) in the realization of the first

integrated circuit An integrated circuit or monolithic integrated circuit (also referred to as an IC, a chip, or a microchip) is a set of electronic circuits on one small flat piece (or "chip") of semiconductor material, usually silicon. Large numbers of tiny ...

while working at

Texas Instruments Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) is an American technology company headquartered in Dallas, Texas, that designs and manufactures semiconductors and various integrated circuits, which it sells to electronics designers and manufacturers globall ...

(TI) in 1958. He was awarded the

Nobel Prize in Physics ) , image = Nobel Prize.png , alt = A golden medallion with an embossed image of a bearded man facing left in profile. To the left of the man is the text "ALFR•" then "NOBEL", and on the right, the text (smaller) "NAT•" then " ...

on December 10, 2000. Kilby was also the co-inventor of the handheld calculator and the

thermal printer Thermal printing (or direct thermal printing) is a digital printing process which produces a printed image by passing paper with a thermochromic coating, commonly known as thermal paper, over a print head consisting of tiny electrically heated ...

, for which he had the patents. He also had patents for seven other inventions.

Early life

Kilby was born in 1923 in Jefferson City, Missouri to Hubert and Vina Freitag Kilby. Both parents had Bachelor of Science degrees from the University of Illinois. His father was a manager at a local utility company. Kilby grew up and attended school in

Great Bend, Kansas Great Bend is a city in and the county seat of Barton County, Kansas, United States. It is named for its location at the point where the course of the Arkansas River bends east then southeast. As of the 2020 census, the population of the ci ...

, graduating from the

Great Bend High School Great Bend High School is a public high school located in Great Bend, Kansas, serving students in grades 9–12. The school is the only high school in Great Bend USD 428 public school district. The athletic teams are known as the Panthers and all ...

. (Road signs at the entrances to the town commemorate his time there, and the Commons Area at Great Bend High School has been named The Jack Kilby Commons Area.) Kilby received his

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University of ...

degree from the

University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the Universit ...

, where he was an honorary member of

Acacia fraternity Acacia Fraternity, Inc. is a Fraternities and sororities in North America, social fraternity founded in 1904 at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan. The fraternity has 27 active chapters and 3 Colony ( ...

. In 1947, he received a degree in

electrical engineering Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems which use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...

. He earned his

Master of Science A Master of Science ( la, Magisterii Scientiae; abbreviated MS, M.S., MSc, M.Sc., SM, S.M., ScM or Sc.M.) is a master's degree in the field of science awarded by universities in many countries or a person holding such a degree. In contrast to ...

in electrical engineering from the

University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee The University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee (UW–Milwaukee, UWM, or Milwaukee) is a public urban research university in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It is the largest university in the Milwaukee metropolitan area and a member of the University of Wiscons ...

in 1950, while working at Centralab, a division of Globe-Union corporation in

Milwaukee Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at the 2020 census, Milwaukee is ...

Career

In mid-1958, Kilby, a newly employed engineer at

(TI), did not yet have the right to a summer vacation. He spent the summer working on the problem in circuit design that was commonly called the "

tyranny of numbers The tyranny of numbers was a problem faced in the 1960s by computer engineers. Engineers were unable to increase the performance of their designs due to the huge number of components involved. In theory, every component needed to be wired to eve ...

", and he finally came to the conclusion that the manufacturing of circuit components ''en masse'' in a single piece of

semiconductor A semiconductor is a material which has an electrical resistivity and conductivity, electrical conductivity value falling between that of a electrical conductor, conductor, such as copper, and an insulator (electricity), insulator, such as glas ...

material could provide a solution. On September 12, he presented his findings to company's management, which included Mark Shepherd. He showed them a piece of

germanium Germanium is a chemical element with the symbol Ge and atomic number 32. It is lustrous, hard-brittle, grayish-white and similar in appearance to silicon. It is a metalloid in the carbon group that is chemically similar to its group neighbors s ...

with an

oscilloscope An oscilloscope (informally a scope) is a type of electronic test instrument that graphically displays varying electrical voltages as a two-dimensional plot of one or more signals as a function of time. The main purposes are to display repetiti ...

attached, pressed a switch, and the

showed a continuous

sine wave A sine wave, sinusoidal wave, or just sinusoid is a curve, mathematical curve defined in terms of the ''sine'' trigonometric function, of which it is the graph of a function, graph. It is a type of continuous wave and also a Smoothness, smooth p ...

, proving that his

worked, and thus that he had solved the problem
U.S. Patent 3,138,743
for "Miniaturized Electronic Circuits", the first integrated circuit, was filed on February 6, 1959. Along with

(who independently made a similar circuit a few months later), Kilby is generally credited as co-inventor of the integrated circuit. Jack Kilby went on to pioneer military, industrial, and commercial applications of microchip technology. He headed teams that created the first military system and the first computer incorporating integrated circuits. He invented the handheld calculator (along with

Jerry Merryman Jerry Dale Merryman (June 17, 1932 – February 27, 2019) was an American electrical engineer and inventor. He was a member of the team at Texas Instruments that developed the first pocket calculator in 1965. Early life Merryman was born on June ...

and James Van Tassel). He was also responsible for the thermal printer that was used in early portable data terminals. In 1970, he took a leave of absence from TI to work as an independent inventor. He explored, among other subjects, the use of silicon technology for generating electrical power from sunlight. From 1978 to 1984 he held the position of Distinguished Professor of Electrical Engineering at

Texas A&M University Texas A&M University (Texas A&M, A&M, or TAMU) is a public, land-grant, research university in College Station, Texas. It was founded in 1876 and became the flagship institution of the Texas A&M University System in 1948. As of late 2021, T ...

. In 1983, Kilby retired from Texas Instruments.

Legacy

He died of cancer June 20, 2005 at the age of 81, in

Dallas, Texas Dallas () is the third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 million people. It is the largest city in and seat of Dallas County w ...

. On December 14, 2005,

created the Historic TI Archives. The Jack Kilby family donated his personal manuscripts and his personal photograph collection to

Southern Methodist University , mottoeng = "The truth will make you free" , established = , type = Private research university , accreditation = SACS , academic_affiliations = , religious_affiliation = United Methodist Church , president = R. Gerald Turner , prov ...

(SMU). The collection will be cataloged and stored at DeGolyer Library, SMU. In 2008, the SMU School of Engineering, with the DeGolyer Library and the Library of Congress, hosted a year-long celebration of the 50th anniversary of the birth of the digital age with Kilby's Nobel Prize-winning invention of the integrated circuit. Symposia and exhibits examined the many ways in which technology and engineers shaped the modern world. Kilby held an honorary doctorate of science from SMU and was a longtime associate of SMU through the Kilby Foundation.
statue of Jack Kilby
stands in Texas Instruments Plaza on the campus of The University of Texas at Dallas.

Awards and honors

Recognition of Kilby's outstanding achievements have been made by the

Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is a 501(c)(3) professional association for electronic engineering and electrical engineering (and associated disciplines) with its corporate office in New York City and its operation ...

(IEEE), including the election to

IEEE Fellow As of 2019, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) has 5,082 members designated Fellow, each of whom is associated with one of the 41 societies under the IEEE. The Fellow grade of membership is the highest level of membershi ...

in 1966, the

IEEE David Sarnoff Award The IEEE David Sarnoff Award was a Technical Field Award presented in 1959–2016 by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). It was awarded annually for exceptional contributions to electronics. The award was established i ...

in 1966, co-recipient of the first

IEEE Cledo Brunetti Award The IEEE Cledo Brunetti Award is an award is presented for outstanding contributions to nanotechnology and miniaturization in the electronics arts. It may be presented to an individual or a team of up to three. The award was established in 1975 ...

in 1978, the

IEEE Centennial Medal The IEEE Centennial Medal was a medal minted and awarded in 1984 ''to persons deserving of special recognition for extraordinary achievement'' to celebrate the Centennial of the founding of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (I ...

in 1984 and the

IEEE Medal of Honor The IEEE Medal of Honor is the highest recognition of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). It has been awarded since 1917, when its first recipient was Major Edwin H. Armstrong. It is given for an exceptional contribution ...

in 1986. He was co-recipient of the

Franklin Institute The Franklin Institute is a science museum and the center of science education and research in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is named after the American scientist and statesman Benjamin Franklin. It houses the Benjamin Franklin National Memori ...

’s

Stuart Ballantine Medal {{notability, date=February 2018 The Stuart Ballantine Medal was a science and engineering award presented by the Franklin Institute, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. It was named after the US inventor Stuart Ballantine. Laureates *1947 - Geor ...

in 1966. In 1982 and 1989, he received the Holley Medal from the

American Society of Mechanical Engineers The American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) is an American professional association that, in its own words, "promotes the art, science, and practice of multidisciplinary engineering and allied sciences around the globe" via "continuing ...

(ASME). He was elected to member of the

National Academy of Engineering The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) is an American nonprofit, non-governmental organization. The National Academy of Engineering is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy ...

(NAE) in 1967 and received the Academy's Vladimir K. Zworykin Award in 1975. Kilby received the Golden Plate Award of the

American Academy of Achievement The American Academy of Achievement, colloquially known as the Academy of Achievement, is a non-profit educational organization that recognizes some of the highest achieving individuals in diverse fields and gives them the opportunity to meet o ...

in 1970 and was co-recipient of the first NAE's

Charles Stark Draper Prize The U.S. National Academy of Engineering annually awards the Draper Prize, which is given for the advancement of engineering and the education of the public about engineering. It is one of three prizes that constitute the "Nobel Prizes of Enginee ...

in 1989
The Kilby Award Foundation
was founded in 1980 in his honor, and the

IEEE Jack S. Kilby Signal Processing Medal The IEEE Jack S. Kilby Signal Processing Medal is presented "for outstanding achievements in signal processing" theory, technology or commerce. The recipients of this award will receive a gold medal, together with a replica in bronze, a certificat ...

was created in 1995. He was elected to the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...

in 2001. Kilby is also the recipient of the America's most prestigious honors in science and engineering: the

National Medal of Science The National Medal of Science is an honor bestowed by the President of the United States to individuals in science and engineering who have made important contributions to the advancement of knowledge in the fields of behavioral and social scienc ...

in 1969, and the

National Medal of Technology The National Medal of Technology and Innovation (formerly the National Medal of Technology) is an honor granted by the President of the United States to American inventors and innovators who have made significant contributions to the development ...

in 1990. In 1982, he was inducted into the

National Inventors Hall of Fame The National Inventors Hall of Fame (NIHF) is an American not-for-profit organization, founded in 1973, which recognizes individual engineers and inventors who hold a U.S. patent of significant technology. Besides the Hall of Fame, it also opera ...

. In 1993, he was awarded the

Kyoto Prize The is Japan's highest private award for lifetime achievement in the arts and sciences. It is given not only to those that are top representatives of their own respective fields, but to "those who have contributed significantly to the scientific, ...

by the Inamori Foundation. He was awarded both the Washington Award, administered by the Western Society of Engineers and the

Eta Kappa Nu Eta Kappa Nu () or IEEE-HKN is the international honor society of the Computer Science and Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). "The organization promotes excellence in the profession and in education through an emphasis ...

Vladimir Karapetoff Award in 1999. In 2000, Kilby was awarded the

for his breakthrough discovery, and delivered his personal view of the industry and its history in hi
acceptance speech
Kilby was awarded nine honorary doctorate degrees from universities including

, the

University of Miami The University of Miami (UM, UMiami, Miami, U of M, and The U) is a private research university in Coral Gables, Florida. , the university enrolled 19,096 students in 12 colleges and schools across nearly 350 academic majors and programs, incl ...

University of Illinois The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the University ...

University of Wisconsin–Madison A university () is an educational institution, institution of higher education, higher (or Tertiary education, tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. Universities ty ...

Yale Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wor ...

and

Rochester Institute of Technology Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) is a private university, private research university in the town of Henrietta, New York, Henrietta in the Rochester, New York, metropolitan area. The university offers undergraduate and graduate degree ...

. The

National Chiao Tung University National Chiao Tung University (NCTU; ) was a public research university located in Hsinchu, Taiwan. Established in 1896 as Nanyang Public School by an imperial edict of the Guangxu Emperor, it was one of China's leading universities. After th ...

( NCTU) in

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

awarded Kilby with a certificate of Honorary Professorship in 1998. The Kilby Labs, TI's research laboratory for

silicon Silicon is a chemical element with the symbol Si and atomic number 14. It is a hard, brittle crystalline solid with a blue-grey metallic luster, and is a tetravalent metalloid and semiconductor. It is a member of group 14 in the periodic tab ...

manufacturing and

design, is named after him. The Jack Kilby Computer Centre at the

Merchiston Merchiston ( ) is a residential area around Merchiston Avenue in the south-west of Edinburgh, Scotland. Location Merchiston Avenue is 1.3 miles Southwest of the West End of Edinburgh's principal street, Princes Street. Other areas near Merchi ...

Campus of

Edinburgh Napier University , mottoeng = Without knowledge, everything is in vain , established = 1992 – granted University status 1964 – Napier Technical College , type = Public , academic_staff = 802 , administrative_staff = 562 , chancellor = Will Whitehorn , ...

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

is also named in his honor.

Kilby patents

* ''Plug-in Circuit Units'', filed December 1953, issued June 1959, assigned to Globe-Union, Inc. * ''Semiconductor Structure Fabrication'', filed May 1959, issued January 1963 * ''Miniature Semiconductor Integrated Circuit'', filed May 1959, issued December 1963 * ''Miniature Semiconductor Network Diode and Gate'', filed May 1959, issued June 1964 * ''Miniaturized Electronic Circuits'', filed February 6, 1959, issued June, 1964 * ''Miniaturized Self-contained Circuit Modules'', filed May 1959, issued June 1964 * ''Semiconductor Structure Fabrication'', filed May 1959, issued April 1969 * ''Thermal Printer'', filed October 1965, issued February 1970 * ''Miniature Electronic Calculator'', originally filed September 1967, issued June 1974

Notes

References

* Berlin, Leslie ''The man behind the microchip: Robert Noyce and the invention of Silicon Valley '' Publisher Oxford University Press US, 2005 *Lécuyer, Christophe. ''Making Silicon Valley: Innovation and the Growth of High Tech, 1930-1970'' Published by MIT Press, 2006. *''Nobel lectures'', World Scientific Publishing Co., Singapore, 2000.

External links

*
Honoring Jack Kilby
website, with resource archive of articles, Kilby statue in

Great Bend, KS Great Bend is a city in and the county seat of Barton County, Kansas, Barton County, Kansas, United States. It is named for its location at the point where the course of the Arkansas River bends east then southeast. As of the 2020 United Stat ...

etc.
"Jack St. Clair Kilby: A Man of Few Words"
biography by Ed Millis. * , video presentation from Texas Instruments.
"From concept to cosmos: How Jack Kilby's integrated circuit transformed the electronics industry"
biography by Texas Instruments.
Oral history interview with Jack S. Kilby
at

Charles Babbage Institute The IT History Society (ITHS) is an organization that supports the history and scholarship of information technology by encouraging, fostering, and facilitating archival and historical research. Formerly known as the Charles Babbage Foundation, ...

, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. Interview covers Kilby's entire career, including his education, work experiences at Centralab, where he worked with Alfred Khouri and Robert Wolff, and

(TI) under

Willis Adcock Dr. Willis Alfred Adcock (November 25, 1922 – December 16, 2003) was a Canadian-American Physical chemistry, physical chemist, electrical engineering, electrical engineer, and university professor who worked on the first Nuclear weapon, ato ...

. Kilby discusses TI's development and manufacturing of integrated circuits. He discusses his involvement in the development of the first hand-held calculator at TI. Discusses semiconductor developments at

Fairchild Corporation The Fairchild Corporation is the successor corporation of Fairchild Industries, Inc. Banner Aerospace is one of the company's major subsidiaries. The last major Fairchild asset sold was Fairchild Fasteners, a Sherman Fairchild company, which was ...

and his independent work after leaving TI in 1970.
"Jack Kilby, Touching Lives on Micro and Macro Scales"
by

T.R. Reid T. R. Reid (born Thomas Roy Reid III in 1944) is an American reporter, documentary film correspondent, and author. He has also been a frequent guest on National Public Radio (NPR)'s ''Morning Edition''. Reid currently lives in Denver, Colorado. ...

, ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'' (June 2005).
Obituary
''

The Economist ''The Economist'' is a British weekly newspaper printed in demitab format and published digitally. It focuses on current affairs, international business, politics, technology, and culture. Based in London, the newspaper is owned by The Econo ...

'', Jul 7th 2005] * * including the Nobel Lecture on 8 December 2000 ''Turning Potential into Reality: The Invention of the Integrated Circuit'' *
Jack S. Kilby Patents

*
''The Chip That Jack Built''
a short film by public television station KERA-TV, KERA profiling Kilby
"Tribute to Jack Kilby"
Dream 2047, November 2005 {{DEFAULTSORT:Kilby, Jack 1923 births 2005 deaths American inventors People from Jefferson City, Missouri Physicists from Missouri Scientists from Missouri Grainger College of Engineering alumni University of Wisconsin–Madison College of Engineering alumni American electronics engineers Nobel laureates affiliated with Missouri Nobel laureates in Physics American Nobel laureates IEEE Medal of Honor recipients National Medal of Technology recipients National Medal of Science laureates Texas Instruments people Deaths from cancer in Texas Amateur radio people Draper Prize winners Scientists from Kansas IEEE Centennial Medal laureates Fellow Members of the IEEE Members of the United States National Academy of Engineering Kyoto laureates in Advanced Technology Members of the American Philosophical Society