From Bell Labs to Silicon Valley: A Saga of Semiconductor Technology Transfer, 1955-61

摘要

Despite the fact that the Bell Telephone Laboratories had originated almost all the silicon technology eventually used to invent the integrated circuit, or microchip, this revolutionary breakthrough occurred elsewhere-at Texas Instruments, Inc., in Dallas, and Fairchild Semiconductor Corporation in Mountain View, California. In the latter case, the transfer of this technology occurred largely through the offices of a pivotal but ultimately unsuccessful company, Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory, which had been formed by transistor pioneer William Shockley. After-leaving Bell Labs in 1955, he brought together a stellar team of scientists and engineers who later departed (in September 1957) to found Fairchild, bringing a deep understanding of the diffused-silicon technologies they had learned while employed by Shockley. One pivotal contribution to silicon technology, however, originated entirely at Fairchild-the planar manufacturing process invented and developed by the physicist Jean Hoerni. This crucial technique, in which an oxide layer on the silicon surface is used to protect the sensitive p-n junctions beneath it, has served ever since 1961 as the basis of microchip fabrication. And Hoerni's conception of this method occurred substantially earlierthan most historical accounts have thus far reported.