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News Release from: Texas Instruments (April 2001-March 2006)
Edited by the Electronicstalk Editorial
Team on 23 June 2005
Inventor of the integrated circuit dies
aged 81
Jack St Clair Kilby, retired TI engineer and inventor of the integrated circuit, died on 20th June 2005 in Dallas following a brief battle with cancer.
Jack St Clair Kilby, retired TI engineer and inventor of the integrated circuit, died on 20th June 2005 in Dallas following a brief battle with cancer He was 81
This article was originally published on Electronicstalk on 8 Nov 2004 at 8.00am (UK)
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Kilby invented the first monolithic integrated circuit, which laid the foundation for the field of modern microelectronics, moving the industry into a world of miniaturisation and integration that continues today.
He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2000 for his role in the invention of the integrated circuit.
"In my opinion, there are only a handful of people whose works have truly transformed the world and the way we live in it - Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, the Wright Brothers and Jack Kilby", said TI Chairman Tom Engibous.
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"If there was ever a seminal invention that transformed not only our industry but our world, it was Jack's invention of the first integrated circuit".
A man of few words, Kilby is remembered fondly by friends and associates for being in every sense of the word a gentleman and a gentle man.
At 6 foot 6 inches in height, he was occasionally called the "gentle giant" in the press.
"Ever practical and low-key, with good humour and quiet grace, Jack was a man with every right to be boastful, yet never was", said Engibous.
Kilby was always quick to credit the thousands of engineers who followed him for their impact on growing the industry and changing the world.
"For those of us who were fortunate enough to have known him, it's that dual legacy for which I personally will always feel privileged to have known Jack - not only the quality of what he did, but the quality of who he was", said Engibous.
Kilby knew he wanted to be an engineer relatively early in life.
When he was in high school, his father ran a small power company with customers scattered across the rural western part of Kansas.
When a severe ice storm downed telephone and power lines, Kilby's father worked with amateur radio operators to communicate with his customers.
This event triggered the younger Kilby's lifelong fascination with electronics.
He pursued that interest at the University of Illinois.
World War II interrupted his studies, when Kilby joined the US Army.
Following the war, he returned to the University of Illinois, completing his bachelor's degree in electrical engineering in 1947.
On graduation, he took a position with Centralab in Milwaukee, where he first worked with transistors, the building blocks for integrated circuits.
While at Centralab, he pursued graduate studies in electrical engineering at the University of Wisconsin and received a master's degree in 1950.
Kilby moved to Dallas in 1958 to work for TI.
As a new employee that summer, he was not yet entitled to the mass August vacation that was customary among TI employees at the time.
It was in this relatively quiet time that the idea of the integrated circuit first came to Kilby.
"I was sitting at a desk, probably stayed there a little longer than usual", he recalled in a 1980 interview.
"Most of it formed pretty clearly during the course of that day".
"When I was finished, I had some drawings in a notebook, which I showed my supervisor when he returned".
"There was some slight scepticism, but basically they realised its importance".
Kilby and TI officials put the circuit to the test on 12th September 1958.
It worked, and his invention transformed the industry.
In 1960, the company announced the first chips for customer evaluation.
Two years later, TI won its first major integrated circuit contract to design and build a family of 22 special circuits for the Minuteman missile.
The integrated circuit remains at the heart of all electronics today.
Kilby held several engineering management positions at TI between 1960 and 1968, when he was named Assistant Vice President.
In 1970, he became Director of Engineering and Technology for the Components Group before taking a leave of absence to become an independent consultant.
Kilby officially retired from TI in 1983, but he continued to do consulting work with TI.
He maintained a significant relationship with the company until his death.
"Jack was one of the true pioneers of the semiconductor industry", said TI President and Chief Executive Officer Rich Templeton.
"Every engineer, myself included, owes no small part of their livelihood to the work Jack Kilby did here at Texas Instruments".
"We will miss him".
In addition to his TI career, Kilby held the rank of Distinguished Professor of Electrical Engineering at Texas A and M University from 1978 to 1984.
In 1990, he lent his name to the Kilby Awards Foundation, which commemorates "the power of one individual to make a significant impact on society".
Its international awards programme honours exceptional individuals for their contributions to society through science, technology, innovation, invention and education.
Kilby considered himself first and foremost an engineer, a profession he viewed as transforming ideas into practical realities.
He held more than 60 patents for a variety of electronics inventions.
Among these were the handheld electronic calculator and the thermal printer, both of which he co-invented.
In addition to the Nobel Prize, Kilby received numerous honours and awards for his contributions to science, technology and the electronics industry.
He is one of only 13 Americans to receive both the National Medal of Science and the National Medal of Technology, the highest technical awards given by the US Government.
In 1993, he was awarded the Kyoto Prize in Advanced Technology.
Kilby also received the first international Charles Stark Draper Prize, the world's top engineering award, from the National Academy of Engineering in 1989.
In addition, he is honoured in the US Patent and Trademark Office's National Inventors Hall of Fame, celebrating individuals whose ideas have changed the world.
Kilby was the recipient of honorary degrees from several institutions of higher learning including the University of Miami, the Rochester Institute of Technology, the University of Illinois, Southern Methodist University, Texas A and M University and the Georgia Institute of Technology.
Jack Kilby leaves his family - daughters Janet Kilby Cameron of Palisade, Colorado, and Ann Kilby of Austin, Texas; five granddaughters, Caitlan, Marcy and Gwen Cameron of Palisade, Colorado, and Erica and Katrina (Katie) Venhuisen of Austin; and son-in-law Thomas Cameron - and friends, colleagues and admirers throughout the company, the industry and the world.
His wife, Barbara Annegers Kilby, and sister, Jane Kilby, preceded him in death.
More information will be posted on the TI website as arrangements are finalised by the family.
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