Jack S. Kilby

The Nobel Prize in Physics 2000

Nobel Lecture

Turning Potential into Reality: The Invention of the Integrated Circuit

Jack S. Kilby held his Nobel Lecture December 8, 2000, at Aula Magna, Stockholm University. He was presented by Professor Stig Hagström.

Summary: In seeking practical solutions to replace the vacuum tube as a switch or amplifier for controlling the flow of electrons, Bell Labs successfully used semiconductor materials to create the transistor in 1956. The rapid development of electronic computer technology started at Texas instruments in the summer of 1958. Kilby's notebook has the first diagram of an integrated circuit where all components were made of the same material. The integrated circuit concept was accepted around 1960 and many applications followed, beginning with the pocket calculator in 1964. Since then, development has been rapid, following Moore's law, where the number of integrated circuits on a chip doubles every 18 months.

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