Jack Kilby

Jack Kilby
Born	Jack St. Clair Kilby 8 11, 1923
Birthplace	Jefferson City, Missouri, U.S.
Died	Template:Death date and age Dallas, Texas, U.S.
Nationality	American
Occupation	Electrical engineer
Employer	Texas Instruments (1958–1983)
Known for	Invention of the integrated circuit
Education	University of Wisconsin–Madison (BS), University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee (MS)
Children	2
Awards	Nobel Prize in Physics (2000), National Medal of Technology (1990), National Medal of Science (1969)

Jack St. Clair Kilby (November 8, 1923 – June 20, 2005) was an American electrical engineer who invented the first integrated circuit while working at Texas Instruments in the summer of 1958, a breakthrough that fundamentally altered the trajectory of modern technology. Along with Robert Noyce of Fairchild Semiconductor, who independently developed a similar device, Kilby is credited as a co-inventor of the microchip—the foundational component of virtually all modern electronic devices. For this achievement, Kilby was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2000. Beyond the integrated circuit, Kilby was a co-inventor of the handheld electronic calculator and the thermal printer, holding patents for these and several other inventions over the course of his career. A quiet, modest man who stood six feet six inches tall, Kilby spent the majority of his professional life at Texas Instruments in Dallas, Texas, where he worked from 1958 until his retirement in 1983. His invention laid the groundwork for the digital age, enabling the miniaturization of electronics that made possible everything from personal computers and mobile phones to spacecraft guidance systems and medical devices.

Early Life

Jack St. Clair Kilby was born on November 8, 1923, in Jefferson City, Missouri. He grew up in Great Bend, Kansas, a small city in the central part of the state where his father, Hubert Kilby, ran a small electric company. The elder Kilby's business served customers across a large swath of rural western Kansas, and young Jack was exposed to electrical equipment and the challenges of powering remote communities from an early age.

A formative experience in Kilby's youth came during a severe ice storm that knocked out power lines across the region. Watching his father use amateur radio equipment to communicate with utility customers and coordinate repairs left a strong impression on the young Kilby and sparked his interest in electronics. This early fascination with radio and electronic communication would guide his educational and professional path for the rest of his life.

Kilby attended Great Bend High School, where he demonstrated aptitude in mathematics and science. The city of Great Bend has honored its most famous resident with a bronze statue in the town square, commemorating his contributions to technology. After graduating from high school, Kilby attempted to gain admission to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) but narrowly missed the cutoff score on the entrance exam. He instead enrolled at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he began his studies in electrical engineering before his education was interrupted by World War II.

Education

Following his time at the University of Illinois, Kilby completed his Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering at the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1947. He later pursued graduate studies while working full-time, earning a Master of Science degree in electrical engineering from the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee. Kilby's graduate work allowed him to deepen his knowledge of semiconductor physics and solid-state electronics at a time when the field was undergoing rapid transformation following the invention of the transistor at Bell Labs in 1947. His combination of practical industrial experience and academic training in semiconductor technology positioned him to make the conceptual leaps that would lead to the integrated circuit.

Career

Early Work at Centralab

Before joining Texas Instruments, Kilby worked at Centralab, a division of Globe-Union Inc. in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where he spent roughly a decade developing electronic components. At Centralab, Kilby worked on miniaturizing electronic circuits for the U.S. military, gaining extensive experience with germanium transistors and the practical challenges of assembling circuits from discrete components. During this period, the electronics industry was confronting what was known as the "tyranny of numbers"—the problem that increasingly complex electronic systems required ever-larger numbers of individual components, each of which had to be separately manufactured, tested, and interconnected by hand-soldering. This problem limited the reliability and scalability of electronic systems and drove many engineers to seek solutions for component integration.

While at Centralab, Kilby attended seminars organized by the U.S. Army Signal Corps on the miniaturization of electronic components. These seminars exposed him to cutting-edge thinking about semiconductor technology and convinced him that the future of electronics lay in finding ways to combine multiple functions on a single piece of semiconductor material.

Joining Texas Instruments

In May 1958, Kilby moved to Dallas, Texas, to join Texas Instruments (TI), a company that was then emerging as a major player in the semiconductor industry. As a new employee, Kilby did not yet have accrued vacation time when the company shut down for a mandatory two-week break in July 1958. While most of his colleagues were away on vacation, Kilby remained in the laboratory, working alone on the problem that had preoccupied him: how to fabricate all the components of an electronic circuit—transistors, resistors, capacitors, and their interconnections—from a single block of semiconductor material.

During this solitary period of work, Kilby arrived at his breakthrough insight. He realized that all the components of an electronic circuit could be fabricated from the same semiconductor material, specifically germanium. Rather than manufacturing transistors, resistors, and capacitors separately and then wiring them together, it would be possible to build all of these components directly into a single semiconductor chip.

Invention of the Integrated Circuit

On September 12, 1958, Kilby demonstrated his first working integrated circuit to executives at Texas Instruments. The device was a simple oscillator circuit built on a small piece of germanium, roughly half an inch long. The components were connected by tiny gold wires bonded to the surface. When Kilby pressed the switch, the oscilloscope displayed a continuous sine wave—proof that the circuit worked as intended. It was a modest-looking device, but its implications were revolutionary.

On February 6, 1959, Kilby filed a patent application for "Miniaturized Electronic Circuits" (U.S. Patent 3,138,743). Unknown to Kilby at the time, Robert Noyce at Fairchild Semiconductor was independently working on a similar concept using a different approach. Noyce's design used silicon rather than germanium and employed a planar process with aluminum interconnections deposited on the surface, eliminating the need for the fragile gold wire bonds used in Kilby's prototype. Noyce filed his own patent application in July 1959.

The question of priority between Kilby and Noyce led to a protracted legal dispute between Texas Instruments and Fairchild Semiconductor that lasted for years. Ultimately, both men were recognized as co-inventors of the integrated circuit, with Kilby credited for demonstrating the concept first and Noyce credited for developing a more practical manufacturing method. The two men maintained a cordial personal relationship despite the corporate patent battle between their respective employers. The legal dispute was eventually settled through cross-licensing agreements, and both companies were able to produce and sell integrated circuits.

The integrated circuit—often referred to as the microchip—became the foundation of the modern electronics industry. By enabling the fabrication of entire circuits on a single chip, the invention made it possible to dramatically reduce the size, cost, and power consumption of electronic devices while increasing their reliability and performance. The technology enabled the development of increasingly powerful computers, led to the creation of the semiconductor industry as a major economic force, and ultimately made possible the digital revolution of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries.

The Handheld Calculator

Following his work on the integrated circuit, Kilby continued to innovate at Texas Instruments. In the mid-1960s, he led a team that developed the first handheld electronic calculator, a project undertaken in part to demonstrate the commercial potential of integrated circuits. The device, known internally as "Cal Tech" (an abbreviation for "calculator technology," not a reference to the California Institute of Technology), was completed in 1967. It could perform addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division, and its output was printed on a thermal printer—another device that Kilby co-invented.

Kilby held patents for both the handheld calculator and the thermal printer, along with patents for several other inventions. Jerry Merryman and James Van Tassel were co-inventors of the calculator alongside Kilby. The handheld calculator became one of the first mass-market consumer products to use integrated circuits and helped demonstrate the economic viability of semiconductor technology for everyday applications.

Later Career and Consulting

Kilby took a leave of absence from Texas Instruments in 1970 to pursue independent research. He spent time working on applications of semiconductor technology to solar energy conversion, exploring the use of silicon for generating electrical power from sunlight. He officially retired from Texas Instruments in 1983 but continued to serve the company as a consultant.

Following his retirement, Kilby also held a faculty position at Texas A&M University, where he was a Distinguished Professor of Electrical Engineering. Over the course of his career, Kilby was granted more than sixty patents for his inventions.

Personal Life

Kilby was known for his quiet, unassuming demeanor, traits that stood in contrast to the magnitude of his technological contributions. He married Barbara Annegers, and the couple had two daughters. Barbara Kilby died in 1981.

Colleagues and acquaintances frequently described Kilby as modest and self-effacing. Even after receiving the Nobel Prize, he was known to deflect attention from himself and credit the broader scientific and engineering community for advances in semiconductor technology.

In his later years, Kilby lived in Dallas, Texas. He was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma and died on June 20, 2005, at the age of 81 in Dallas. He was survived by his two daughters.

In 2025, the University of Texas at Dallas received a donation of a collection of Jack Kilby memorabilia, including silicon wafers signed by Kilby, from the family and friends of one of Kilby's longtime associates. The donation was made to honor the university's engineering legacy and to preserve materials related to Kilby's life and work.

Recognition

Kilby received numerous honors and awards over the course of his career, reflecting the transformative impact of the integrated circuit on technology and society.

In 1969, Kilby was awarded the National Medal of Science, presented by President Richard Nixon, for his contributions to miniaturized electronic circuits.

In 1982, Kilby was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame for his invention of the integrated circuit.

In 1990, he received the National Medal of Technology from President George H. W. Bush.

Kilby was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2000, sharing the prize with Zhores Alferov and Herbert Kroemer, who were honored for their work on semiconductor heterostructures. The Nobel Committee cited Kilby "for his part in the invention of the integrated circuit." Robert Noyce, who might have shared the prize, had died in 1990 and was therefore ineligible, as the Nobel Prize is not awarded posthumously. Upon receiving the Nobel Prize, Kilby remarked that he was certain Noyce would have shared the honor had he still been alive.

Among other honors, Kilby received the IEEE David Sarnoff Award for notable contributions in electronics. He was also a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).

The city of Great Bend, Kansas, honored Kilby with a dedicated public square featuring a bronze statue of the inventor, recognizing his roots in the community.

Legacy

The integrated circuit invented by Jack Kilby in 1958 is the foundational technology of the modern digital world. By enabling the miniaturization and mass production of complex electronic circuits, the microchip made possible the development of personal computers, smartphones, the internet, medical electronics, automotive control systems, and countless other technologies that define contemporary life.

The semiconductor industry that grew from Kilby's and Noyce's inventions became one of the largest and most economically significant industries in the world. Moore's Law—the observation by Intel co-founder Gordon Moore that the number of transistors on an integrated circuit doubles approximately every two years—has driven exponential improvements in computing power for more than half a century, all building upon the conceptual foundation that Kilby established.

Texas Instruments has continued to honor Kilby's legacy. The company's Kilby Center in Dallas, its primary research and development facility, is named after him. The IEEE Computer Society has noted that Kilby was one of a small number of individuals "whose insights and professional accomplishments have changed the world."

Kilby's invention has been recognized not only for its technological significance but also for its broader social and economic impact. An editorial in The New York Times described the integrated circuit as one of the most important inventions in the history of technology. The German Patent and Trade Mark Office has referred to Kilby as the "father of the microchip" in its historical records of computing pioneers.

Despite the enormous scale of his impact, Kilby remained characteristically humble about his contributions. In interviews, he often emphasized the collaborative nature of technological progress and the role of many engineers and scientists in developing the semiconductor industry. His combination of technical brilliance and personal modesty made him a respected figure not only among his peers in the engineering community but also among the broader public who came to learn of his work through the Nobel Prize and other honors.