Follow the Scientist: Jack Kilby. Invented the first IC (Integrated Circuit).

Born 8 Nov 1923; died 20 Jun 2005 at age 81.

Jack St Clair Kilby was an American electrical engineer who invented the first integrated ciruit (IC), for which he shared the 2000 Nobel Prize in Physics. His interest in electronics grew out of his in school-age hobby of amateur radio. Year later, working at Texas Instruments, he devised a way to miniaturize a complicated transistor circuit by building its components on a block of silicon with internal connections that eliminated external wiring. On 12 Sep 1958, he demonstrated his first integrated circuit to his supervisor. A few months later, an IC device in an improved form was independently invented elsewhere by Robert Noyce. Geoffrey W.A. Dummer also had the concept years earlier, but not a working device. In Sep 1965, Kilby's team developed the first shirt-pocket electronic calculator using IC's.

This is Jack Kilby's first integrated circuit. He invented it at Texas Instruments in 1958. From TI: "Comprised of only a transistor and other components on a slice of germanium, Kilby's invention, 7/16-by-1/16-inches in size, revolutionized the electronics industry. The roots of almost every electronic device we take for granted today can be traced back to Dallas more than 40 years ago."

Issue No. 1 of "The International Calculator Collector" had a feature on the CalTech with a photograph on the front cover.

"The International Calculator Collector" was the journal of the International Association of Calculator Collectors, which is sadly no longer in operation.