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The Roots of Silicon Valley, Part 2: Planar Technology, The Fairchildren

Jay Last (who eventually made it work). µLogic trademark. The µL903 three-input NOR gate became the basic
Hoerni had been working on a fix for reducing transistor defects. building block of the Project Apollo guidance computer. Designed by MIT
Defects were traced to unprotected transistor surfaces inside a package, and built by Raytheon, the lunar navigation computer required 5,000
allowing particles to contaminate and degrade the device over time. devices and was the first major IC application. Miniaturization for space
Hoerni’s solution was to protect the transistor surface with a passivation, applications was driving early scaling.
or protection, layer of silicon dioxide (SiO ), grown or deposited on top of Fairchild’s lead, however, was short-lived. David Allison, Lionel
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the structure. Rather than deposit the emitter and base regions on top of Kattner, and others also left at around the same time as Hoerni and
the substrate, as with the current mesa process, Hoerni saw another way: Last to launch Signetics (Signal Network Electronics). One year later, in
If the surface was completely covered with SiO , the emitter and base 1962, the startup announced a much-improved, second-generation logic
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areas could then be selectively diffused. The net result was a much flatter family, the SE100 Series diode-transistor logic (DTL). Fairchild quickly
surface, allowing for greater automation during production. responded with its own DTL family, the 930 series, undercutting
Planar technology, announced in January 1959, would become the Signetics and rendering that company unable to compete against
second-most–important invention in the history of microelectronics — Fairchild’s marketing juggernaut.
after the invention of the transistor — laying the foundation for future
integrated circuits. At the time, the advance went virtually unnoticed, NE555 TIMER: MOST POPULAR IC EVER?
with the key exception of Noyce, who recognized that a glass layer was Signetics’ most famous legacy part was the NE555 timer. Designed in
an insulator, providing a means for connecting wires laid on top and 1971, the 555, along with the ubiquitous TTL 7400 quad two-input
patterned like a printed-circuit board. NAND gate, was probably the most popular IC ever sold. Signetics was
Noyce filed his patent in April 1959, triggering a legal battle between acquired by Philips in 1975.
Texas Instruments and Fairchild (Kilby and Noyce remained friends, with Early ICs were housed mainly in either TO-5 or TO-18 adapted metal
high regard and respect for each other). Texas Instruments claimed that can transistor packages. These worked fine for three-lead devices, but
Kilby’s patent claim — “electrically conducting material such as gold scaling them to provide more connections proved to be limiting, given
laid down on the insulating material to make the necessary connec- that they could be made only so large and the radial leads packed only so
tions” — was a preexisting description of Noyce’s patent claims and that tightly. Ten leads were about the practical limit and would not sup-
Kilby had only used wire bonds as the quickest way to a prototype. Had port the more complicated ICs in the pipeline. It fell to Fairchild’s Don
this assertion been upheld, Noyce’s later-dated patent would have been Forbes, Rex Rice, and Bryant “Buck” Rogers to provide a fix in 1964, via
declared invalid. the invention of the now-familiar dual in-line package, the tiny oblong
Texas Instruments lost the argument, both patents were declared “millipedes” that would crawl across circuit boards for the next 40 years.
valid, and the two companies reached a cross-licensing agreement.
Kilby was humble by nature, and even though his patent pre-dated
Noyce’s, he generously announced that both he and Noyce had invented
the integrated circuit, contrary to the position of Texas Instruments’
management. Electronic Products
In 1959, Sherman Fairchild exercised his right to purchase the found-
ing members’ shares, an event that turned former entrepreneurs and 2021 Product of the Year
partners into ordinary employees, thereby undermining the company’s
team spirit and sowing the seeds of future friction. Awards
Isolation was another big problem yet to be solved before integrated
circuits could become a commercial reality. The problem was how to stop Electronic components are the
adjacent transistor interference. Noyce delegated this thorny problem to engines, and quite often the
Last, who was running the R&D group. It was no easy task, taking some enabling technologies, that drive
18 months before the first working device was produced on Sept. 27, 1960.
new product developments across
TROUBLE AT FAIRCHILD all end markets, from wireless
Development also met with strong internal resistance. Tom Bay, devices to industrial equipment.
Fairchild’s vice president of marketing, accused Last of squandering These tiny components can help
resources. In November 1960, Bay demanded termination of the project, product designers improve system
with the resultant savings allocated to transistor development. Moore performance, extend battery
refused to help, and Noyce declined to discuss the matter, leaving Last performance and lifetimes, save
to fight the battle on his own. The conflict flared up barely a month after board space, and reduce the bill of
Fairchild announced the transition of its transistor production from materials. The annual Product of the
mesa to planar technologies. Moore refused to credit this achievement Year Awards, now in its 46th year,
to Hoerni, fanning the flames of the already-developing tensions among has announced the 2021 winners.
the eight founding partners.
Last continued to develop six more parts, but ongoing conflicts were the The awards recognize outstanding
last straw. Flush with their planar and isolation process success, Last and products that represent any of the following qualities: a
Hoerni left Fairchild on Jan. 31, 1961, to launch Amelco in Mountain View, significant advancement in a technology or its application, an
with financing from Teledyne Corp. arranged by Arthur Rock. Their plan exceptionally innovative design, a substantial achievement
was to develop ICs to support Teledyne’s military business. Eugene Kleiner in price/performance, improvements in design performance,
and Sheldon Roberts joined the pair a few weeks later. With this high-level and a potential for new product designs/opportunities. This
defection, the eight founding members had been split into two groups. year, editors evaluated over 150 products across 10 categories.
Fairchild announced the world’s first standard logic family of ICs, Visit bit.ly/355grGk for a list of this year’s winners.
direct-coupled transistor logic, in March 1961. The device was based on
Hoerni and Last’s resistor-transistor logic (RTL) planar process under the

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