Page 60 - EE Times Europe March 2022

60 EE|Times EUROPE

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

The packaging innovation stemmed from Grinich also left in 1968, first to teach at
a ceramic flatpack design devised in 1962 by UC-Berkeley and Stanford, where he published
Yung Tao, a Texas Instruments engineer, as an the first comprehensive textbook on integrated
industry standard for surface-mount ICs for circuits. But Grinich never lost the startup itch
the U.S. military. The concept was adapted for and quit academia in 1985 to co-found and
through-hole rather than surface-mounting, run several startups, including Escort Memory For reader inquiries and address changes,
please contact: christiane.lockner@aspencore.com
with an eye toward ease of handling for elec- Systems, developer of industrial RFID tags. To unsubscribe, please go to:
tronics manufacturers and easier PCB layout Blank, the last of The Eight, eventually left www.eetimes.eu/unsubscribe/
design for delivering power to the ever- Fairchild in 1969 to become a consultant to
increasing number of ICs, routing their signals tech startups. Seeking a more hands-on role,
around the board. Another consideration was he co-founded Xicor in 1978 to make E PROMs.
2
cost, given the growing consumer IC market. As for the original four defectors, Hoerni Aspencore Media GmbH
Frankfurter Straße 211
The 0.1-inch (2.54-mm) package pin spacing headed Amelco until the summer of 1963, when, 63263 Neu-Isenburg
left plenty of room for PCB tracks to be routed after a conflict with the Teledyne owners, he Germany
between pins, and the 0.3-inch (7.62-mm) left for Union Carbide Electronics. In July 1967, EDITORIAL MANAGEMENT
spacing between rows of pins left room for supported by watch company Société Suisse Brian Santo, AspenCore Global Managing Editor,
brian.santo@aspencore.com
other tracks. pour l’Industrie Horlogère (SSIH), the predeces- Anne-Françoise Pelé, Editor-in-Chief, EE Times Europe,
Fairchild launched its dual in-line package in sor of Swatch Group, Hoerni founded Intersil. afpele@aspencore.com
1965, originally in ceramic, but the package took The startup pioneered the market for low-power Echo Zhao, Chief Analyst, echo.zhao@aspencore.com
Judith Cheng, Chief Editor, EE Times Asia & EDN Asia,
off with a vengeance when Texas Instruments custom CMOS circuits, some of which were judith.cheng@aspencore.com
introduced a plastic resin version, driving the developed for Seiko. The combination kick- GLOBAL ASPENCORE EDITORS
unit cost down dramatically. As a result of great started the Japanese digital watch industry. Matthew Burgess, matthew.burgess@aspencore.com
design, low cost, and support for increasingly Hoerni next launched the European version Anthea Chuang, anthea.chuang@aspencore.com
Nitin Dahad, nitin.dahad@aspencore.com
complex ICs, the plastic dual in-line package of Intersil, called Eurosil, financed in part by Maurizio Di Paolo Emilio,
became the industry standard, with its basic SSIH’s desire to build a fab in Munich, not far maurizio.dipaolo@aspencore.com
Yvonne Geng, yvonne.geng@aspencore.com
14-pin design extended to support more leads, from Swiss watch manufacturing. Eurosil was Amy Guan, amy.guan@aspencore.com
up to 64 pins in a 0.6-inch–wide form fac- eventually sold to Diehl in late 1975. Hoerni Susan Hong, susan.hong@aspencore.com
Illumi Huang, illumi.huang@aspencore.com
tor, and more complex ICs. It was eventually left in 1980, returning to the West Coast to Barbara Jorgensen, barb.jorgensen@aspencore.com
surpassed by second-generation surface-mount form Telmos. The startup produced Majeed Ahmad Kamran, majeed.kamran@aspencore.com
devices in the late 2000s as chip complexity and semicustom products covering the linear Clover Lee, clover.lee@aspencore.com
Shao Lefeng, lefeng.shao@aspencore.com
pin count requirements surpassed the capability interface between sensors to microprocessors Jenny Liao, jenny.liao@aspencore.com
of dual-in-line packages. and digital logic cores along with high- Elaine Lin, elaine.lin@aspencore.com
Luffy Liu, luffy.liu@aspencore.com
With as many as 15,000 dies on a single voltage, high-current drivers. Stefani Munoz, stefani.munoz@aspencore.com
wafer, assembly and test now outweighed wafer Last continued at Amelco, completing a Challey Peng, challey.peng@aspencore.com
Gina Roos, gina.roos@aspencore.com
fab costs — hence, the need to reduce labor 12-year tenure as vice president of technol- Fendy Wang, fendy.wang@aspencore.com
costs as a matter of survival. After some early ogy at Teledyne, Amelco’s parent. In 1982, he Sally Ward-Foxton, sally.wardfoxton@aspencore.com
failed ventures — for example, in Shiprock, founded Hillcrest Press, specializing in art Demi Xia, demi.xia@aspencore.com
Franklin Zhao, franklin.zhao@aspencore.com
New Mexico, at a Navajo reservation — along books. Roberts also left to set up his own busi- Momo Zhong, momo.zhong@aspencore.com
with early attempts at automation, offshoring ness and later served as a trustee at Rensselaer CONTRIBUTING EDITORS
test and assembly to Asia proved successful, at Polytechnic Institute. George Leopold, gleopold@gmail.com
least in the short term. Noyce, an investor in a That left just Kleiner, who eventually Ann Thryft, athryft@earthlink.net
John Walko, john.walko@btinternet.com
small radio company in Hong Kong, suggested departed to pursue a career financing the many PRODUCTION
to Charlie Sporck that he and Jerry Levine early-stage companies springing up on the Adeline Cannone, Design Director,
scout the region. West Coast, teaming with Thomas Perkins, adeline@cannone.com
They were attracted by the low labor cost, head of R&D at Hewlett-Packard, to form Jürgen Hübner, Production Coordinator,
j.hubner@aspencore.com
non-unionized facilities, Western-educated Kleiner Perkins. They opened an office on Sand Lori O’Toole, Chief Copy Editor, lotoole@aspencore.com
technicians, good engineering schools, and tax Hill Road in Palo Alto, the locale that would Diana Scheben, Senior Copy Editor,
diana.scheben@aspencore.com
incentives and other government subsidies. In become the home of U.S. venture capitalists.
1963, Fairchild set up the industry’s first East While Rock and Hayden Stone could arguably SALES & MARKETING
Christiane Lockner, christiane.lockner@aspencore.com
Asian assembly and test operation in a former be credited with establishing the first venture The Hufmann Agency, victoria@hufmann.info,
shoe factory on the Kowloon side of Hong capitalist firm, Kleiner Perkins was the first norbert@hufmann.info
Kong. Other semiconductor manufacturers investor with a physical office in Silicon Valley. Todd Bria, todd.bria@aspencore.com
subsequently followed Fairchild to the region, Kleiner Perkins would go on to fund Kai Hsing, Group Publisher, AspenCore
primarily Malaysia. Amazon, Compaq, Genentech, Intuit, Lotus, Copyright© All rights reserved. No part of this publication
may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by
Macromedia, Netscape, Sun Microsystems, any means without the prior express written permission
FROM HOTEL CHAIN TO INTEL Symantec, and dozens of other companies. of AspenCore Media. Although we make every effort
Julius Blank, Victor Grinich, Moore, and Noyce As for today, Amelco, the original Fairchild to present up-to-date, accurate information, EE Times
Europe will not be responsible for any errors or omissions
stayed with Fairchild until 1968. In March of spinout — after numerous mergers, acquisi- or for any results obtained from the use of such
that year, Moore and Noyce decided to leave, tions, and rebrandings — no longer exists, but information. The magazine will not be li able for any loss
caused by the reliance on information obtained on this
turning to Rock for funding and launching NM its IP portfolio survives, now owned by site. Furthermore, EE Times Europe does not warrant
Electronics in the summer of 1968. One year Microchip Technology. ■ the accuracy or completeness of the information, text,
later, NM Electronics bought the naming rights graphics in this magazine. The opinions expressed in the
articles are those of the authors and not necessarily the
from the hotel chain Intelco, thereby launching This article was originally published on EE opinions of the publisher.
Intel Corp. Times and may be viewed at bit.ly/3f87Y7c.

MARCH 2022 | www.eetimes.eu