History lessons

摘要

There's a bit of history inside every chip made, a genetic imprint of semiconductor technology's lineage in every mask layer. The roots trace back to Jack Kilby's aha moment with his crude integrated circuit in 1958 and further back to the Bell Labs team's discovery of the transistor effect in 1947. Every older fab is a de facto manufacturing museum, with antiquated production lines and old-fashioned facility designs, still running 4- and 6-in. wafers through horizontal-tube furnaces, plucky vacuum tools, and manual inspection systems on a less-than-ergonomic factory floor. But many of the surviving artifacts and documents detailing the history of Silicon Valley and the global semiconductor industry are in danger of being lost unless concerted efforts are made to preserve them. The collective memory is weakening as well, since many key industry pioneers have already passed away, and many more have pushed well past retirement age.