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Monday, April 11, 2016
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Texas History Minute: operate. Kilby’s invention, for which he secured three patents for different parts of the design, allowed computers to perform calculations faster and for computers to start becoming smaller and cheaper. Shortly afterward, the U. S. Air Force began contracted with Texas Instruments to experiment with Kilby’s integrated circuit, which were soon being incorporated into Dr. Ken Bridges new computer designs. Three more patents were secured as Technology has transformed the Kilby perfected the initial design. world in ways many can scarcely imagine in just the past few decades. Kilby’s breakthrough in circuit What once was the realm of science miniaturization set off a frenzy in the electronics industry as fiction are now indispensable tools engineers worked to make circuit for everyday life and even toys for children. Some of these remarkable designs ever smaller, faster, and devices, such as the integrated circuit more efficient. and the hand-held calculator were In 1965, Kilby and his team largely the result of the dedication and imagination of one man, adopted invented the thermal printer, using Texan and Nobel Prize winner Jack heat for printing with industrial devices instead of the cumbersome Kilby. mechanical keys used in typewriters for decades by this Kilby was born in Jefferson City, point. This allowed for increased Missouri, in 1923. When he was still very young, the family moved to speed and efficiency and fewer Great Bend, Kansas, where his father mechanical problems. It was soon being used in the new computers ran an electrical supply company. that Texas Instruments was This, coupled with his father’s interest in short-wave radio, nurtured producing. a fascination with electronics. After By 1967, one of the earliest his graduation from high school, practical applications of the Kilby enrolled at the University of integrated circuit was developed by Illinois at Urbana-Champlain and Kilby for the general public, the earned a bachelors degree in handheld electronic calculator. electrical engineering in 1947. The calculator was an instant success, transforming homes and After his college graduation, he businesses across the nation. The landed a job with an electronics patent for this invention was manufacturer in Milwaukee, granted in 1974. Wisconsin. Anxious to further his education while working full-time, From 1978 to 1984, he served as a he went to night school where he distinguished professor of eventually earned a masters degree electrical engineering at Texas in electrical engineering the A&M University. Kilby formally Milwaukee Extension of the retired from Texas Instruments in University of Wisconsin in 1950. Three years later, he created his first 1983, just as the computer revolution he had helped invention, a type of plug-in circuit. Though the patent was not approved inaugurate was getting underway. As the world embraced computers until 1959, it was the first of ten in the 1980s, an increasing number patents he would complete. of the new generation of designers, engineers, and programmers Texas Instruments in Dallas was pointed to the importance of interested in his ideas on circuit Kilby's work in making new miniaturization and hired him as a computer technology possible. He researcher and developer in 1958. Within a few months of his arrival, often spoke to colleges and businesses around the world in his he made a stunning breakthrough. retirement years. He helped develop the integrated circuit, a forerunner of the microchip In 2000, he received the highest that allows modern computers to
honor in science for his lifetime of achievement when he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics, sharing the award with Z. I. Alferov of Russia and Herbert Kroemer of Germany, who had also made major breakthroughs in semiconductor research. The Nobel Prize placed him among such great scientific minds of history as Albert Einstein. Kilby died in Dallas in 2005.
Dr. Bridges is a Texas native, writer, and history professor. He can be reached at drkenbridges@gmail.com.
