Kilby, Jack (1923-2005), was one of the two inventors of the microchip, or integrated circuit. Such chips are widely used in computers and other types of electronic equipment. Kilby created the chip in 1958 while working for Texas Instruments. He shared credit for the invention with Robert Noyce, who developed a similar chip independently at the same time. Kilby’s work won him half of the 2000 Nobel Prize in physics. The other half was shared by two physicists—Zhores Ivanovich Alferov of Russia and Herbert Kroemer, a German-born American—for their work on semiconductor structures.
Jack St. Clair Kilby was born on Nov. 8, 1923, in Jefferson City, Missouri. He earned a degree in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois. He then took a position at an electronics firm in Milwaukee. There, Kilby worked to miniaturize electronic components, especially for use in hearing aids. At the same time, he earned a master’s degree from the University of Wisconsin.
Kilby joined Texas Instruments in 1958. There, he developed the “monolithic idea.” According to this concept, such circuit elements as resistors, capacitors, and transistors could be included on a single chip, if they were all made of the same semiconductor material. Kilby developed the first such chip, which contained all of the circuit elements on a narrow sliver of silicon about half an inch (13 millimeters) long. Kilby died on June 20, 2005.
See also Computer chip.
