The idea of manufacturing semiconductor integrated circuits was first put forward by David Dammer, a British scientist engaged in radar research. In a paper published in May 1952, he pointed out: "Because of the appearance of transistors and the research results in semiconductors, it is possible to manufacture electronic devices with a single shape without connecting wires. The device consists of multilayer insulating materials, conductive materials, rectifying materials and amplifying materials. Removing a part of each layer can make the device have certain electrical functions. "
Dammer's above ideas are very meaningful, but unfortunately he himself failed to put them into practice. After 1950s, with the rapid development of military industry and aerospace industry, various semiconductor devices with stronger and more complex functions are urgently needed, and it is also hoped that the smaller the devices, the better.
Stimulated by social demand, a group of young microelectronics engineers who came to Silicon Valley to start the electronics industry in the early days naturally aimed at the above goals. They imagine combining some transistors and some components into a more complex circuit in a new form, instead of simply piecing them together. This circuit is called an integrated circuit. From the appearance, they are small silicon wafers, so people also call them chips. Up to now, this kind of chip can be seen everywhere in various computers, calculators and various electrical equipment. As early as World War II, some people tried to print ink-like resistive materials and silver-plated metal sheets on ceramic substrates to make a combination of resistors and connecting wires. The development of printed circuit technology and the invention of transistor made necessary technical preparations for the invention of integrated circuits.
Now people think that the earliest integrated circuit in the world was independently researched and invented by American physicists kilby and Noyce in 1958. In order to determine the patent right of this invention, there is a long-term argument between their companies. Therefore, it is very interesting to review their respective invention processes.
Kilby 1923 was born in Jefferson, Missouri, USA. 1947 graduated from the University of Illinois, and 1950 received a master's degree from the University of Wisconsin.
1958 in may, kilby entered Texas instruments company for only three months, and he was assigned to study the miniaturization of electronic equipment. At that time, electronic equipment used electron tubes, and later gradually used transistors, but it was huge.
According to the requirements of the Ministry of National Defense, kilby's task is to study how to make electronic equipment smaller, more compact and more dexterous by using smaller components and finer wiring.
This summer, when all kilby's colleagues went on vacation, he sat at his desk in a quiet environment, thinking hard about the solution to the miniaturization problem. Before he came up with a new method, he hit a wall many times. Later, he realized that all necessary circuit elements, including transistors, resistors and capacitors, could be made of the same semiconductor material. These circuit elements must be insulated to work independently and not interfere with each other; All the circuit elements are soldered on or near the substrate of the semiconductor wafer, so that the circuits can be connected with each other by using advanced semiconductor technology without worrying about the short circuit at the connection of the elements. At that time, kilby called this kind of circuit a solid circuit (now some people call it a microcircuit). 1September, 958, kilby's first circuit "phase-shifted oscillator" was successful.
Noyce 1927 was born in a small town in Iowa, USA. He is full of curiosity about the real world. At the age of twelve or thirteen, he and his second brother built a huge glider and assembled a car. He studied physics and mathematics at the same time in college, and was also interested in transistors and their applications, which laid a solid theoretical foundation in transistors. 1949 After being admitted as a postdoctoral fellow, I still took some courses that were helpful to the basic research of transistors, and in academic activities, I had the opportunity to meet famous experts in the field of transistors, such as shockley and others.
Noyce preferred to work in a small company with a low salary after receiving his doctorate at 1953. He believes: "The smaller the place, the more exercise you can get in many aspects, which is conducive to play a role. This is not only convenient to choose the right topic for research, but also to become an entrepreneur. "
When shockley 1955 founded shockley Semiconductor Company in Silicon Valley, Noyce was one of the outstanding scientific and technological talents hired. In the first year of Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory, Noyce and his colleagues tried their best to encourage Shockley to shift his research focus to silicon transistors, but shockley insisted on the research of four-layer diodes. Due to the differences in understanding, Noyce left shockley Company with seven other young people in 1957 and founded Fairchild Semiconductor Company, becoming the first company in Silicon Valley to develop silicon transistors. In this sense, Noyce's early wish to be an entrepreneur has really come true.
At that time, Fairchild Semiconductor used "planar technology" in transistor production for the first time. The technical work was presided over by Henny, who was one of the most talented scientists in Silicon Valley at that time. The planar process method proposed by him is to squeeze as much oxide layer on the silicon surface as possible through various measures until it is pressed into a flat plate shape, so that the electrodes of the device are on the same plane. Therefore, as long as the electrode structure diagram of the transistor is designed in advance and concentrated into a mask plate by photographic plate making, the three-dimensional transistor can be made into a planar transistor. Therefore, no matter how complicated and precise the structure is, the transistor can be compressed on a small semiconductor silicon wafer by this planar process.
The introduction of plane technology makes Fairchild scientists' thinking suddenly clear, and they suddenly see an exciting application prospect. They realized that not only a few transistors can be placed on a silicon wafer, but also dozens, hundreds or even millions of transistors can be placed on a silicon wafer.
Planar technology was quickly applied to the manufacture of integrated circuits. Scientists at Fairchild found that by using lithography technology, the same transistors can be repeatedly arranged on the surface of silicon according to certain rules, and at the same time, these transistors can be connected with each other. Noyce, deputy manager of Fairchild Company, and others put forward a plane technology method for manufacturing integrated circuits, and presided over the manufacture of the world's first integrated circuit made of semiconductor silicon.
Kilby of Texas Instruments certainly realized the great value of aircraft technology. Six months before Noyce, he successfully realized the idea of placing electronic circuits on germanium chips when manufacturing "phase-shifted oscillators". But the silicon integrated circuit made by Noyce is more practical and easier to produce than the germanium integrated circuit made in kilby.
When he later recalled that he invented the integrated circuit at the age of 32, Noyce said humorously, "I invented the integrated circuit because I was a lazy man." At that time, it was considered too much trouble to connect electronic components with wires. I hope the simpler the better. "
After kilby invented the "solid-state circuit" which was later called integrated circuit in Texas Instruments Company, he immediately got the attention of the person in charge of the company. They realized the importance of this new electronic equipment and predicted that it would be widely used, so it must be vigorously promoted.
1959 In February, kilby applied for a patent for his "solid state circuit". Soon after, Texas Instruments announced that they had made a semiconductor solid circuit smaller than a matchhead. Noyce of Fairchild Company, though he had made semiconductor silicon integrated circuits with planar technology before, did not apply for a patent in time. It was not until July 1959 that Noyce thought of going through the patent application procedure, but it was half a year later than kilby.
Since then, the two companies have argued for a long time about the invention right of integrated circuits, because Kirby Noyce applied for a patent earlier. Kilby got the patent first, but his design idea failed to come true. Noyce's plane technology later became the foundation of the microelectronics revolution, but he didn't apply for a patent until after kilby, not to mention that he didn't discover and perfect this technology alone at Fairchild.
Finally, the court ruled that the invention patent of integrated circuit belongs to kilby, and the key patent of integrated circuit interconnection technology belongs to Noyce. Since 196 1, their patents have brought huge economic benefits to their respective companies. Both of them have become well-known inventors and founders of microelectronics at home and abroad, and they have also won the "Valentin Medal" that American scientists and technicians are most eager to get together.