IEEE Spectrum October, 2016 - 50

burnT
by The
sun

n the summer of 1958, a new employee at texas Instruments, Jack st. Clair Kilby,
had not yet accrued enough time off to take a company-wide vacation. Alone in the lab,
Kilby pondered the then-current "tyranny of numbers" problem: the time-consuming and
imperfect process of soldering connections between very large numbers of discrete solidstate components. Within a few short weeks, Kilby came up with a solution-the integrated
circuit. this revolutionary invention, for which Kilby usually shares credit with robert
noyce, launched the entire field of modern microelectronics and more than a half century
of staggering technological progress.

Kilby's integrated circuit helped
make his employer a dominant
chip manufacturer for much of
the Cold War era. And over the
years, texas Instruments has
worked hard-quite justifiably-
to associate Kilby with the firm
and to use his invention and subsequent honors to enhance tI's
reputation for high-tech innovation. As a result, however, few
people are aware that Kilby was
a full-time employee of tI for just
12 years. In 1970, he took a leave
of absence to become a consultant and independent inventor.
Kilby's post-tI career resulted
in a number of inventions. But
it was defined by one project: a
household solar-energy and fuelcell system that could generate
electricity around the clock. Kilby
had high hopes for his idea; he
believed it would be just as revo-

lutionary and society changing
as the integrated circuit, and he
worked for a decade to make it
happen. to Kilby's great disappointment, his technology didn't
catch on. Kilby is rightly better
remembered for the integrated
circuit-but that doesn't mean we
should forget his deep involvement in an equally important and
challenging technology.

when kilby lefT Ti, he didn't completely cut ties. he still received
a generous retainer, in return for
which he represented the company on various national committees and filed monthly reports
on industry developments and
his own projects. formally, tI
had right of first refusal to license
Kilby's inventions. Informally, he
remained a frequent and generally beloved visitor to his old firm.

By leaving tI, Kilby gained the
time and autonomy to become a
classic American inventor. And
he did in fact file a string of patent applications through the 1970s,
though none came near the inventiveness or commercial success of
the integrated circuit-or the later
work he did before leaving tI on
the handheld calculator. Kilby's
inventions in his first independent
years included a reliable flashlight,
a theft-proof cash register, and an
electronic checkwriter.
he also invested significant
energy, time, and money in developing a personalized, interactive
electronic teaching machine.
Although he attempted to sell
the idea to numerous companies, including mcGraw-hill, sony,
Westinghouse, and Xerox, as well
as tI, nobody agreed to commercialize it. Interestingly, his device

TheTheliTTle-known
ofJack
Jackkilby's
kilby's
liTTle-known hisTory
hisTory of
50

oct 2016

North AmericAN

SPectrUm.ieee.orG

http://SPectrUm.ieee.orG

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Spectrum October, 2016