From Bell Labs to Silicon Valley: A Saga of Semiconductor ...

36 TheElectrochemicalSocietyInterface•Fall2007

From Bell Labs to Silicon Valley:A Saga of Semiconductor Technology Transfer, 1955-61*

Despite the fact that the BellTelephone Laboratories hadoriginatedalmostallthesilicon

technology eventually used to inventtheintegratedcircuit,ormicrochip,thisrevolutionary breakthrough occurredelsewhere—at Texas Instruments, Inc.,inDallas,andFairchildSemiconductorCorporation in Mountain View,California. In the latter case, thetransfer of this technology occurredlargelythroughtheofficesofapivotalbut ultimately unsuccessful company,Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory,which had been formed by transistorpioneer William Shockley. Afterleaving Bell Labs in 1955, he broughttogether a stellar team of scientistsand engineers who later departed (inSeptember 1957) to found Fairchild,bringing a deep understanding of thediffused-silicon technologies they hadlearned while employed by Shockley.

One pivotal contribution to silicontechnology,however,originatedentirelyatFairchild—theplanarmanufacturingprocess invented and developed bythephysicist JeanHoerni.Thiscrucialtechnique, inwhichanoxide layeronthe silicon surface is used to protectthe sensitive p-n junctions beneath it,hasservedeversince1961asthebasisofmicrochipfabrication.AndHoerni’sconception of this method occurredsubstantiallyearlierthanmosthistoricalaccountshavethusfarreported.

Inthisarticle,Itrytosettherecordstraight by recounting the importantstepsandmajorinfluencesthatbroughtsilicon technology to California—inthe process laying the technologicalfoundationsofSiliconValley.

Silicon Technology Heads West

By 1954 William Shockley wasbecoming increasingly frustrated byhislackofprofessionaladvancementatBell Labs. Although head of transistorresearch, he had been passed over forhigher positions and seemed miredat this middle-management leveldespite his many publications andpatents, including the all-importantones on the junction transistor. Thushe began casting around for otherpossible positions, taking a leave ofabsencetoserveasavisitingprofessorat Caltech and as a military advisorin the Pentagon’s Weapons SystemsEvaluation Group. But neither option

proved satisfying. So by early 1955Shockley was seeking to get back intoindustrial research—this time as theheadofhisowncompany.1

In March 1955 his sense of urgencyintheseeffortswasstimulatedbynewsfrom Bell Labs. Not only had chemistHenry Theurer finally producedsilicon with impurity levels of lessthanapartperbillionusingfloat-zonerefining. But Morris Tanenbaum andD. E. Thomas had also succeeded informing the first diffused-base (andemitter)silicontransistorusingsamplesprovided by Calvin Fuller (see articleby Nick Holonyak on p. 30). “MorrieTann has AlSb plus Al bonded,” readsa cryptic note in Shockley’s pocketnotebook dated 23 March 1955, whilehe was still at the Pentagon, referringto micrometers-thin aluminum andantimonyimpuritylayersdiffusedintothesilicon.2

Overthenextfewmonths,Shockleybegan talking with executives at RCA,Raytheon, Texas Instruments andelsewhere about the possibility ofstarting a firm expressly devoted toproducing diffused-silicon devices. Formost of that summer, he met withonly passing interest until he spokewith his friend and fellow CaltechalumnusArnoldBeckman,founderandpresidentofBeckmanIndustries,Inc.Inearly September they met in NewportBeach,California,andagreedto founda new division led by Shockley whosepurposes included “the development

of automatic means for production ofdiffused-basetransistors.”3

His original plan was to lure awaysome of his most accomplished BellLabs colleagues, such as TanenbaumandMorganSparks,whohadfabricatedthe first junction transistors. But onebyonetheyturnedhimdownthatfall,claimingtheirfamiliesweretoodeeplyrooted in New Jersey and they couldnot bear to leave Bell Labs. Thus hesubsequently criss-crossed the UnitedStates,tryingtorecruitthebestpossiblescientists and engineers for ShockleySemiconductorLaboratory.Andhehiredsome top-notch ones, too: physicistsHoerni from Caltech, Jay Last fromMIT,andRobertNoycefromPhilco—aswellasphysicalchemistGordonMoorefromtheJohnsHopkinsAppliedPhysicsLaboratory. Among the eldest of thisgroup at age 28, Noyce was about theonlyonewithextensivesemiconductorexperience, having developed high-frequency germanium transistors atPhilco.4

Only Noyce among them hadattendedthethirdBellLabssymposiumon transistor technology in January1956, devoted to the advancedsilicon technologies just then beingdeveloped—especially diffusion. ButbecauseBeckmanhadlicensedtherightsto the transistor patents from Bell’sparentcompany,AT&T,Shockleyandhisnewemployeeshadreadyaccesstotheinformationpresented there, includingearly preprints of the papers that

*AdaptedinpartfromCrystal Fire: The Birth of the Information Age,byMichaelRiordanandLillianHoddeson,W.W.Norton&Co.,NewYork(1997),esp.pp.225-275.SeealsoM.RiordanandL.Hoddeson,“TheMosesofSiliconValley,”Physics Today,pp.42-47(December1997).

Fig. 1. Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory at 391 San Antonio Road in Mountain View, California, as it appeared in 1960 after Clevite Corporation had purchased it and renamed it Shockley Transistor Company. (Courtesy of Kurt Hübner)

by Michael Riordan

TheElectrochemicalSocietyInterface•Fall2007 37

wouldbepublishedin1958asthefinalvolume in the classic series, Transistor Technology,whichwasbecomingknownthroughoutthesemiconductorindustryas “Ma Bell’s cookbook.”5 ShockleycouldalsocalluponhisoldcolleaguesSparks, Tanenbaum, and Jack Morton,headofdevicedevelopment,tovisitthenew California company and consultwith his charges in their convertedQuonset hut at 391 San AntonioRoad (Fig. 1). They spent most of thatfirst year purchasing or building thenecessary equipment, such as siliconcrystal growers anddiffusion furnaces,and learning how to use it in makingsemiconductordevices.

On 1 November 1956, marvelousnews reached theMountainView firmthatShockleyhadwonthe1956NobelPrizeinphysicsfortheinventionofthetransistor, shared with John BardeenandWalterBrattain.Thenextdaytheystopped working before noon for acelebratoryluncheonatnearbyRickey’sStudio Inn in Palo Alto. A photographofthatgathering(Fig.2),withShockleyattheheadofthetablebeingtoastedbyNoyce,Moore,Last,andothersaroundhim, has achieved iconic status in theloreofSiliconValley.6

Upon returning from Stockholmin mid-December, Shockley found apackage in his mail from the patentlicensing engineer at Western ElectricCompany, AT&T’s manufacturing arm.ItcontainedapreprintofanarticlebyCarl Frosch and Lincoln Derick titled“SurfaceProtectionandSurfaceMaskingduring Diffusion in Silicon.” Froschhad delivered a paper on diffusion inthe third transistor symposium, butit did not contain much informationabout use of a silicon-dioxide layer topassivate the silicon surface becauseBellLabswasstillapplyingforapatent

onthisimportantmethod.Thepreprintalsocontainedcrucialnewinformationabout how to etch tiny openings inthat layer and to use the remainingoxide as a mask against the diffusionof trace impurities into the silicon.Thattechniquewouldallowworkerstoestablishintricatepatternsofn-typeandp-typematerial in the silicon.Shockleycirculated thisdocumentamong his technical staff (Fig.3), giving them all a crucial earlyglimpseofwhatwouldbecomeoneof the core enabling technologiesfor silicon integrated circuits andultimatelyleadtotheemergenceofSiliconValley.7By the timeFroschand Derick’s paper was publishedintheJournal of The Electrochemical Society the following September,Shockleyandhisstaffwerealreadydevelopingwaystoimplementthisdisruptivenewtechnology.8

A Rebellion Erupts

But all was not well at theMountain View laboratory. By1957, members of the technicalstaffhadbeguntoresentShockley’soften heavy-handed managementstyle and his quirky selection ofR&D projects. After a couple ofworrisome incidents, he startedinvestigating the backgroundsof a few of his employees. Andhe gave one of them a vicious,embarrassing tongue-lashing thatmany others overheard. Several oftheearlyemployeeswereextremelydissatisfiedandreadytoquit.9

Forreasonsaboutwhichwecanonlyguess,Shockleyhadlostinterestin the original goal set for thefirm—manufacturing diffused-base transistors. He instead began

to focus the company’s talents andenergiesondevicesthatwerethenatthefrontiersofsemiconductortechnology,suchasfield-effecttransistorsandthefour-layer p-n-p-n diode, often calledthe Shockley diode because he helda patent on it. At a given potentialcalled the breakdown voltage, currentwouldsuddenlybegintoflowthroughthe two-terminal device, switchingit from “off” to “on.” A remarkablysimple,compactsemiconductorswitch,it was the ultimate realization of agoal that had been subtly implantedin Shockley’s mind at Bell Labs twodecadesearlier.10

Although a brilliant conception,however, the four-layer diode wasextremely difficult to fabricate withuniformity and reliability. Workershad to polish a silicon wafer to haveexactingly parallel planes on itstwo sides and then carefully diffuseimpurities into the wafer fromboth sides simultaneously. Lack ofenough precision meant the diffusedimpuritieswouldpenetratetoirregular,unpredictable depths, leading tovariations in the breakdown voltageandotherelectricalcharacteristics.11

Noyce, Moore, and others thoughtthatthisdiodewasmuchtoodifficulta project for the young company toattempt at such an early stage in itsevolution. We should concentrate

Fig. 2. Senior staff of Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory toast their illustrious leader William Shockley (seated at head of table) at a celebratory luncheon on 2 November 1956, the day after the announcement of his Nobel Prize. Seated at left is Gordon Moore and right of him is Sheldon Roberts. Robert Noyce stands in the middle and Jay Last is at far right, both lifting glasses.(Courtesy of Intel Corporation)

Fig. 3. Copy of the 14 December 1956 letter to Shockley from the Western Electric patent engineer that accompanied a preprint of Frosch and Derick’s paper on oxide masking, plus the initialed routing list of technical staff members of Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory who read this paper. (Stanford University Archives)


Riordan(continued from previous page)

first on three-layer devices such as thediffused-basetransistor,theyargued,andgetaproductoutthedoor.Afterthattheycouldbeginattemptingthemoredifficultproblem of fabricating the four-layerdiode.ButShockleywasnotlisteningandbegan devoting more and more of thecompany’s resources to this pet project.He eventually set up a separate R&Dgroup working mostly in secret on thefour-layer diode, which further angeredtechnical staff members left out of theloop.

Theconflictreachedtheboilingpointin mid-May 1957, when Beckman cameupforameetingtodiscussthedivision’sproblems and plans. Taking umbrageat his partner’s proposals and requestto control expenses, however, Shockleystoodupand stompedoutof the room,shouting, “If you don’t like what we’redoinghere,Icantakethisgroupandgetsupportanyplaceelse!”12

But nobody left the room exceptShockley. His outburst triggered a four-month sequence of events that led inSeptembertothedepartureofeightofhistop lieutenants—including Hoerni, Last,Moore,andNoyce.Apivotalmomentinthehistoryofthesemiconductorindustry,it is briefly recorded in yet anotherShockley notebook: “Wed 18 Sep—Group resigns.”13

A Successful Semiconductor Company

Within days the group of eightrebels—which also included themetallurgist Sheldon Roberts andengineersJuliusBlank,VictorGrinich,andEugene Kleiner—signed a $1.38 millionagreement brokered by the investment-bankingfirmHaydenStonewithFairchildCamera and Instrument Corporation ofSyosset, New York, on Long Island (Fig.4).Using these start-up funds, the eightbegan setting up a new firm known astheFairchildSemiconductorCorporationjustoveramileawayonCharlestonStreetinPaloAlto.14

At almost exactly the same moment,Frosch and Derick’s revolutionary paperwaspublishedintheSeptember1957issueoftheJournal of The Electrochemical Society.ButbecausetheyhadreadthepreprintofthispaperwhileworkingatShockleyLab,theFairchildupstartshadabigheadstartonmostofthecompetition.AccordingtoRoberts,someofthem—includingHoerni,Moore, and Noyce—had already begunexperimentingwithdoublediffusionandoxidemaskingwhiletheywerethere.15

The first commercial productattempted by Fairchild was a high-frequency, diffused-base silicon tran-sistortodrivecorememoryinanonboardcomputer that IBM was making for theguidance-and-controlsystemoftheB-70bomber. The eight partners beganapplying the silicon technology they

had learned and developed at ShockleySemiconductor. Roberts grew siliconcrystals while Moore tackled issues ofdiffusing impurities into them.LastandNoycetookontheintricatetasksinvolvedinoxidemaskingandphotolithography,developinga“step-and-repeat”cameratoaidthemindefiningtiny,precisen-typeandp-typeareasinthesiliconwafers.16

By May 1958 the group hadsuccessfully fabricated prototype n-p-nsilicon transistors, based on the “mesa”structure pioneered by Tanenbaum andThomasatBellLabs.17Insuchastructure,a thin p-type base layer and an n-typeemitterlayerwerediffusedintoann-typesilicon wafer that formed the collectorofthisbipolarjunctiontransistor.Oxidemaskingandphotolithographywereused

todefinetheseregions.Butafterattachingtheelectrical leads,workersetchedawayany remaining portions of the silicon-dioxide sheath,exposing theunderlyingjunctions. This was standard practice inthe semiconductor industry at the time,fortheoxide layerwaswidelyviewedas“dirty”—especiallyatBellLabs.

Fairchild’s transistors were the firstcommerciallysuccessfulmesatransistors,beating out Texas Instruments, whichwas also working on similar devices.Not only did they meet IBM’s stringentspecifications, but they also began tobe used in other avionics applications.Fairchild Semiconductor recorded salesof over $500,000 —almost all of itcoming from this product—in 1958, itsfirstfullyearofoperations,andendedtheyearintheblack.18Meanwhile,theloyal

Fig. 4. Official photograph (circa 1960) of the eight Fairchild founders, who later became famous in Silicon Valley lore as the “Fairchild Eight.” Left to right, Gordon Moore, Sheldon Roberts, Eugene Kleiner, Robert Noyce, Victor Grinich, Julius Blank, Jean Hoerni, and Jay Last. (Wayne Miller photograph courtesy of Fairchild Semiconductor Corp. and Magnum Photos)

staff members remaining at ShockleySemiconductor Laboratory were stillstrugglingtomakefour-layerdiodes.

The Planar Manufacturing Process

But a serious problem emerged withthese mesa transistors that threatenedthe continued success of the fledglingcompany. Some of these devicesexperienced catastrophic failures thatwere traced to bits of foreign materialbeing dislodged and becoming attachedto the exposed junctions, attractedby strong electric fields there. Merelytapping on the metal cans housingthesetransistorswithapencileraserwasoften sufficient to trigger such failures.

This was a fundamental design flaw ofthe exposed mesa structure. A possiblesolution being considered was to try toleave the oxide layer in place over thejunctions—ordeliberatelyformonethereinordertoprotectthemduringthefinalprocessingsteps.19

A far more elegant approach was putforth by Jean Hoerni, who had beenleadingFairchild’seffortstofabricatep-n-ptransistorstosatisfyIBM’sspecifications.A theoretical physicist by training,Swiss-bornHoernihadearnedadvanceddegrees from the Universities of Genevaand Cambridge, and often worked onhis own. At Shockley Lab he at firsthadanofficeseparatefromtheQuonsethut, where he could go off by himselfto calculate diffusion curves and otherusefultheoreticalquantities.20


While the Fairchild founders werebusysettingupofficesandequipmenton Charleston Street, Hoerni hadalready begun to consider a new anddifferent way to fabricate transistors.Anadmitted contrarian,he suggestedthat instead of etching away theoxide layer at the end of processing,itinsteadbeleft in placetoprotectthesensitive junctions. He entered thisrevolutionarynewideaonpages3and4 of his crisp new lab notebook on1 December 1957, hardly more thantwo months after the firm had beenfounded!21

Titled “Method of protectingexposed p-n junctions at the surfaceofsilicontransistorsbyoxidemaskingtechniques,” it was witnessed thatsame day by Noyce. The very firstparagraphisrevealing:

The general idea underlyingthis invention is thebuildingup of an oxide layer prior todiffusion of dopant atomsat the places on the surfaceof the transistor at which p-n junctions are expected toemerge from the body of thesemiconductor.Theoxidelayerso obtained is an integrant(sic)partofthedeviceandwillprotecttheotherwiseexposedjunctionsfromcontaminationandpossibleelectrical leakagedue to subsequent handling,cleaning,[and]canningofthedevice.22

This approach had the furtheradvantages that all electrical leadscouldbeattachedandallprocessingsteps performed from the same side of the silicon wafer—featuresthat would eventually prove tobe of inestimable value when thisplanar manufacturing processwas later applied to fabricatingintegrated circuits. With onlyslight exaggeration, historian oftechnologyChristopheLécuyerhas

Fig. 5. Cross-sectional drawings of mesa and planar transistors, copied from Jean Hoerni’s 1961 publication, “Planar Silicon Transistors and Diodes,” Fairchild Semiconductor Corp. Report No. TP-14. (Stanford University Archives)

Fig. 6. Drawings from Robert Noyce’s patent on the integrated circuit, showing how he proposed to use Hoerni’s planar processing technique to form the necessary p-n junctions in silicon beneath a protective oxide layer. Silicon is denoted by 11 here and silicon dioxide by 12.

called this planar process “the mostimportant innovationinthehistoryofthesemiconductorindustry.”23

When Hoerni conceived thisapproach in December 1957, Fairchildlacked the technical abilities neededto implement it. And the new firm’stalentsandenergieshad tobedevotedalmostentirelytogetting its firstmesatransistors out the door. But once thetechniquesofdiffusion,oxidemaskingand photolithography had beenmastered in 1958, he returned to hisconception as a way to address theirreliability problems. With the help ofLast, who made the extra mask heneeded,Hoerniprovedoutthis ideainMarch1959,fabricatingprototypeplanartransistorsthatavoidedtheproblemsof

thefailure-pronemesas(Fig.5).What’smore, he soon showed they had farsuperiorelectricalcharacteristics—withhigher gains, and leakage currentsoften less than a nanoampere. AsHoerni concluded in a paper that hepresented at an October 1960 meetingonelectrondevicesinWashington,DC,“the planar design offers considerableimprovement and stabilization of theparameters most likely to suffer fromsurfacecontamination.”24

On 14 January 1959, Hoerni hadhad a Fairchild secretary type up aformal patent disclosure to give thecompany’s attorney. Apart from a fewtypographical changes and improveddrawings, it is completely identical tothe 1 December 1957 entry in his lab

notebook—indicating the greataccuracyofhisoriginaltheoreticalinsight.25 Just a few months laterMooreandNoyce,whohadbythenemerged as the natural leaders ofthe new firm, decided to reorientFairchild’s transistor productionlines to thispromisingnewplanarapproach.26

The Monolithic Idea Becomes Reality

Only nine days after Hoerni’sformal patent disclosure, Noyce,stimulatedinpartbytheurgingsofthepatentattorney,beganwritinginhislabnotebookundertheheading,“Method of isolating multipledevices.”27 He thought it a terriblewastethatallthesetransistorsonasinglewaferhadtobecutapart,haveleadsattachedtothemindividually,andthenbesolderedbacktogetherwithothercomponentstoassemblecomplete circuits. What if all theinterconnections could be insteadplaceddirectlyonthewafersurfaceduringthemanufacturingprocess?Here again, the silicon-dioxide


layerplayedthekeyroleasanenablingtechnology.

“Inmanyapplicationsnowitwouldbe desirable to make multiple devicesonasinglepieceofsiliconinordertobeabletomakeinterconnectionsbetweendevices as part of the manufacturingprocess, and thus reduce size, weight,etc.,aswellascostperactiveelement,”Noyce began.28 To Hoerni’s planarprocess, he added the provision thataluminum interconnections betweentheindividualdevicesbeplacedontopoftheoxidelayer,whichwouldinsulatethese leads from the silicon beneathit. And these circuit componentscould be electrically isolated from oneanotherby interposingback-to-backp-n junctionsbetween them.Thesewerethe principal new ideas at the heartof Noyce’s famous integrated-circuitpatent, titled “Semiconductor Device-and-Lead Structure,” which he appliedforlaterthatyear(Fig.6).29

The difficult task of actuallyfabricating microelectronic circuitsaccording to these prescriptions fell toJay Last, who formed a developmentgrouptorealizethisgoal.InMarch1959Noyce took over as Fairchild’s GeneralManager and Moore replaced him asresearch director. Noyce rarely showedup in the laboratory after that—and

Fig. 7. One of the earliest prototype integrated circuits fabricated by Jay Last’s development group at Fairchild using the planar processing technique. This “flip-flop” logic circuit employed four transistors. (Courtesy of Fairchild Semiconductor Corp.)

Riordan(continued from previous page)

thenonlytocheckuponhowworkwasprogressing.30

Productionofplanar transistorswasproceeding apace in 1959, especiallyat the urging of Autonetics, a divisionof North American Aviation that wasbuilding computer systems for theMinuteman missile and had extremelystringent demands for precision andreliability. It helped Fairchild to learnthat a Bell Labs group under M. M.Atallahaddeveloped“thermal”methodsof growing the oxide, mitigating theproblems of dangling bonds and“surfacestates”attheinterfacebetweentheoxidelayerandthesilicon.31Usingthis thermally grown oxide layer,Atalla andDawonKhang subsequentlymade the first truly successful field-effect transistors in 1960—what soonbecame known as the metal-oxide-semiconductor, or MOS, transistor (seearticlebyRossBassettonp.46).32

IttookLast’sdevelopmentteamnearlytwo years to produce commerciallyavailable integrated circuits usingplanar processing. Higher precisionwas needed for oxide masking andphotolithography—andmorestepswereinvolved.Andabigproblemwasisolatingthe circuit elements. Workers evenattemptedaphysical-isolationapproachsuggestedbyLastthatinvolvedetchingchannelsbetweenthecomponentsfromthebackofthewaferallthewaytothefragile oxide layer, then filling these

channelswithaninertepoxyresin.Butinthefallof1960,p-njunctionisolationproved the superior alternative. Thegroup made successful prototype flip-flop circuits involving four transistors(Fig.7)andfollowedthemupwithotherintegratedlogiccircuits.InMarch1961Fairchild announced the “Micrologic”family of integrated circuits, half ayear ahead of the Texas Instrumentscompetition.TheuseofHoerni’splanarprocessing techniquehadmadeall thedifference.33

Summary

Throughout this technological evo-lution, from diffused-base transistorsto planar integrated circuits, thesilicon-dioxide layer discovered in1955 by Frosch and Derick remainedat the center of the action. Withoutthis supple, flexible interface betweensilicon and its environment, themicrochip as we know it today wouldbeunthinkable.Itisthesine qua nonofthe semiconductor industry, and whatmostdistinguishessiliconfromallothermaterialalternatives.

Although ultimately unsuccessfulfinancially, the Shockley Semicon-ductorLaboratoryplayedanimportanttechnology-transfer role in this saga.It acted as the crucial incubatorwheremen came together with ideas on theWestCoast,andbeganworkingtogetherontherevolutionaryimplicationsofthenew silicon technologies pioneered inthemid-1950sbyBell Labs.Theywereso revolutionary, in fact, that it tooka small rebellion, much celebrated inSilicon Valley lore, to realize them.The development and implementationof planar processing at FairchildSemiconductor Corporation was whatreally threw the floodgates open toextremely reliable silicon transistorsand microchips of endlessly growingcomplexity.

The junction transistor’s inventor,William Shockley, dimly perceivedthis bright future, but he lacked themanagementskillstobringitoffunderhis direction. In the early 1960s, hebegan teaching at Stanford University,first as a lecturer and then as aprofessor of engineering and appliedscience, while his company slowlyfailed and was eventually dissolved.Yet without Shockley’s contributionsin bringing together this stellar groupofresearchersandintroducingthemtosilicon technology, there would be noSiliconValley—atleastnotinNorthernCalifornia.

About the Author

Michael RioRdan earned his PhD inphysics from MIT. He is an adjunctprofessorofphysicsattheUniversityofCalifornia, Santa Cruz, and a Lecturer


at Stanford University. He is authorofThe Hunting of the Quark (Simon&Schuster,1987)andcoauthorofCrystal Fire: The Birth of the Information Age(W.W.Norton,1997),whichwonthe1999SallyHackerPrizeoftheSocietyfortheHistoryofTechnology.AFellowoftheAmericanPhysicalSocietyandaGuggenheim Fellow, he received theprestigiousAndrewW.GemantAwardof the American Institute of Physics.Hemaybereachedatmriordan@ucsc.

edu.

References

1. M. Riordan and L. Hoddeson,Crystal Fire, pp. 225-230, W. W.Norton&Co.,NewYork(1997).

2. Riordan and Hoddeson, Crystal Fire, pp. 230, W. W. Norton &Co., New York (1997); RiordanandHoddeson,Physics Today,p.43(December1997).SeealsoWilliamShockley, “Memorandums,”(personaldiary1955–56),StanfordUniversity Archives, Shockleypapers, accession listing 95-153,box2B.

3. Riordan and Hoddeson, Crystal Fire, pp. 231-234, W. W. Norton& Co., New York (1997); RiordanandHoddeson,Physics Today,p.44(December1997).

4. RiordanandHoddeson,Crystal Fire,pp.236-240,W.W.Norton&Co.,NewYork(1997).

5. F.J.Biondi,etal.,Editors,Transistor Technology,3Vols.,D.VanNostrand,NewYork(1958);Vol.3isdevotedtodiffusiontechnologies,includingcontributions by Frosch, Fuller,and Tanenbaum. Noyce attendedthe third symposium as a Philcoemployee.

6. RiordanandHoddeson,Crystal Fire,pp.241-243,W.W.Norton&Co.,NewYork(1997).

7. Riordan and Hoddeson, Physics Today,p.45(December1997).

8. C.J.FroschandL.Derick,Journal of The Electrochemical Society,104,547(1957).

9. Gordon Moore, interview withL. Hoddeson and M. Riordan, 11January1996.

10. Soon after Bell Labs researchdirector Mervin Kelly hiredShockleyin1936,heimpressedonhisnewemployeetheneedsoftheBellSystemtoreplaceitsunreliableelectromechanical switches witha better, faster solid-state version.Kelly’s urgings helped stimulateShockley to invent the junctiontransistor and probably promotedhisinterestinthefour-layerdiode.SeeRiordanandHoddeson,Crystal Fire,pp.81-82,W.W.Norton&Co.,NewYork(1997).

11. On the difficulties of fabricatinguniform,reliablefour-layerdiodes,see W. J. Pietenpol, “TransistorDesigns: The First Decade,” Bell

Laboratories Record (June 1958), pp.202-206.

12. ShockleyquotedbyMoore,interviewwithHoddesonandRiordan.

13. William Shockley, “Golden WestThemeBook”(personaldiary,1956-57), Stanford University Archives,Shockleypapers,accessionlisting95-153,box2B,p.58.

14. Themostcompete referenceontheformation and early years of theFairchildSemiconductorCorporationisChapter4ofChristopheLécuyer’sMaking Silicon Valley: Innovation and the Growth of High Tech, 1930-1970,pp.129–167,TheMITPress,Cambridge,MA (2006). See also Riordan andHoddeson,Crystal Fire, pp. 262-269,W. W. Norton & Co., New York(1997);LeslieBerlin,The Man Behind the Microchip: Robert Noyce and the Invention of Silicon Valley,pp.82-157,Oxford University Press, New York(2005); and Ross Knox Bassett, To the Digital Age: Research Labs, Start-Up Companies, and the Rise of MOS Technology, pp. 45-53, The JohnsHopkinsUniversityPress,Baltimore,MD(2002).

15. C. Lécuyer, Making Silicon Valley: Innovation and the Growth of High Tech, 1930-1970, p. 150, The MITPress,Cambridge,MA(2006).

16. C. Lécuyer, Making Silicon Valley: Innovation and the Growth of High Tech, 1930-1970, pp. 140-148, TheMITPress,Cambridge,MA(2006).

17. M. Tanenbaum and D. Thomas,“Diffused Emitter and Base SiliconTransistors,” Bell System Technical Journal, Vol. 35 (January 1956), pp.1–22.


19. C. Lécuyer, Making Silicon Valley: Innovation and the Growth of High Tech, 1930-1970, pp. 149-150, TheMITPress,Cambridge,MA(2006).

20. C. Lécuyer, Making Silicon Valley: Innovation and the Growth of High Tech, 1930-1970, pp. 150-152, The MITPress, Cambridge, MA (2006); alsoJayLast,privatecommunication.

21. Jean A. Hoerni, Fairchild Semi-conductorCorp.labnotebook,pp.3-4(1December1957),copyprovidedcourtesyofJayLast.

22. Jean A. Hoerni, Fairchild Semi-conductor Corp. lab notebook, p. 3(1 December 1957), copy providedcourtesyofJayLast.


24. Jean A. Hoerni, “Planar SiliconTransistors and Diode,” FairchildSemiconductor Report No. TP-14,p. 9, Fairchild Collection, StanfordUniversityArchives.

25. Jean A. Hoerni, Fairchild patentdisclosure, “Method of Protecting

Exposedp-nJunctionsattheSurfaceof Silicon Transistors by OxideMasking Techniques,” 14 January1959, copyprovidedcourtesyof JayLast.

26. C. Lécuyer, Making Silicon Valley: Innovation and the Growth of High Tech, 1930-1970, .p. 152, The MITPress,Cambridge,MA(2006).

27. Robert N. Noyce, Fairchild Semi-conductor Corp. lab notebook,pp. 70–74 (23 January 1959), copyprovidedcourtesyofJayLast.

28. Robert N. Noyce, Fairchild Semi-conductor Corp. lab notebook, p.70(23January1959),copyprovidedcourtesyofJayLast.

29. Robert N. Noyce, U.S. Patent No.2,981,877, “Semiconductor Device-and-Lead Structure,” filed 30 July1959, awarded 25 April 1961. Hereit is crucial to note that Jack Kilbyhad conceived similar ideas severalmonthsearlieratTexasInstruments,andthatthetwomenaregenerallyperceived as the co-inventorsof the integrated circuit. Kilby,however, did not have any idea ofthe planar technology used in theNoyce patent, and proposed thatindividualcomponentsonachipbeconnected by what became knownas “flying wires.” See Jack Kilby,IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices,23,648(July1976);andMichaelS.Wolff,“TheGenesisoftheIntegratedCircuit,” IEEE Spectrum (August1976),pp.38–45.

30. Jay Last, private communications.Lécuyer observes, “Interestingly,Noyceplayednoroleinthiseffort.”SeeC.Lécuyer,Making Silicon Valley: Innovation and the Growth of High Tech, 1930-1970, p. 157, The MITPress,Cambridge,MA(2006).

31. M.M.Atalla,etal.,“StabilizationofSiliconSurfacesbyThermallyGrownOxides,”Bell System Technical Journal,Vol.38(1959),pp.749–783.

32. OntheoriginsoftheMOStransistor,seeRossKnoxBassett,To the Digital Age: Research Labs, Start-Up Companies, and the Rise of MOS Technology, pp.22–33,TheJohnsHopkinsUniversityPress, Baltimore, MD (2002); andDawonKahng, IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices,23,655(July1976).

33. C. Lécuyer, Making Silicon Valley: Innovation and the Growth of High Tech, 1930-1970,pp.155-59,TheMITPress, Cambridge, MA (2006); andJayLast,privatecommunication.

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