The current levels of integration in computing and electronics are extraordinary. Today we can talk about systems on a chip, practically ready to use in multiple formats. However, this technological vision has nearly a century on its shoulders, and the integrated circuit represents its highest expression. Analyzing the history of the first integrated circuit is a fascinating process, with some conflicting data and several names involved…
"Valves and Taxes"
The concept of all in one can become a nightmare when poorly developed, resulting in mediocre products or lower quality. But electronics quickly understood its potential benefits. At first, we didn't even have PCBs to work with: circuits were built point to point and essentially floated inside a case. The old valve radios are excellent examples, and one of the first major cases of integration came through them, with the Loewe 3NF valve.
The company Loewe-Audion GmbH (which still exists as Loewe in Germany) created this valve in 1926, combining a total of three triodes, two capacitors, and four resistors in the same package. By adding passive components, Loewe managed to reduce the number of pins to six, but that increased the design complexity. Each component had to be encapsulated in its own mini-valve to avoid vacuum contamination.
There's another interesting aspect besides the technical one: Loewe manufactured the 3NF as a way to evade taxes and improve its competitiveness. At that time, German radios were taxed according to the number of valves they used. Loewe began offering radios based on the 3NF, but the high level of integration created a new problem: if one filament failed, the whole radio stopped working. Loewe responded with a repair service to replace damaged filaments.
From Theory to Manufacturing
In the following decades, several experts explored the idea of the integrated circuit. German engineer Werner Jacobi of Siemens published in 1949 his amplifier patent "Halbleiterverstärker". English engineer Geoffrey Dummer was one of the first to share the potential of this technology with the public, and something similar happened with engineers Jack Morton from Bell, Sidney Darlington, and Yasuo Tarui with his quadrupole transistor.
One of the elementary bases for the development of the integrated circuit was established thanks to the passivation process of Egyptian scientist Mohamed M. Atalla, which stabilizes silicon surfaces via thermal oxidation. This led to the so-called planar process, created by Jean Hoerni from Fairchild Semiconductor in early 1959, and to "p-n junction isolation". The process was extended to independent transistors by Kurt Kehovec from Sprague Electric and Robert Noyce from Fairchild in 1959 (both separately).
Kilby and Noyce
However, in 1958 engineer Jack Kilby joined the ranks of Texas Instruments, and it was there that he managed to expand his idea of the integrated circuit, as well as create the first prototype in September of that year. Kilby filed a patent on February 6, 1959, describing a sheet or wafer of semiconductor material in which the components of the electronic circuit are integrated.
Parallel to Kilby, Robert Noyce continued working on his own version of the integrated circuit, and in July 1959 he filed a patent for his "Semiconductor Device and Lead Structure", derived from Hoerni's planar process. The result was the first monolithic silicon integrated circuit, while Kilby's circuit had a hybrid configuration and was based on germanium. From a practical point of view, Noyce's design proved superior, and almost all modern chips use the monolithic structure.
One Invention, Many Names
In summary, talking about the first integrated circuit is complicated because of the large number of names and developments involved. If we guide ourselves by practical and commercial parameters, one might say that Loewe's valve was first. Years later, Fairchild and Texas Instruments clashed over their integrated circuit patents for years, but finally managed to establish a special agreement between the two companies.
Kilby and Noyce have been (in general terms) equally recognized as co-inventors: both received the National Medal of Science, and Kilby won the Nobel Prize in 2000, although many believe he would have shared it with Noyce had he been alive. Noyce suffered a heart attack in June 1990, and Kilby left in June 2005. True giants who left their mark and created the fundamental pillars of modern electronics.
Sources: NASA, Computer History Museum (1, 2), Mike's Electric Stuff
