Robert Noyce

Robert Noyce (1927–1990) was an American physicist and entrepreneur who independently developed a practical monolithic integrated-circuit concept and co-founded Fairchild Semiconductor and Intel.

Gordon Moore: Gordon Moore was an American chemist, engineer, and Intel co-founder who formulated Moore’s law. Moore co-founded Fairchild Semiconductor and Intel with Noyce, helping turn their technical work into companies.
Monolithic integrated circuit: A circuit whose components and connections are fabricated together on one semiconductor substrate. Noyce’s proposal made the monolithic circuit practical by connecting components on a single silicon chip.
Jack Kilby: Jack Kilby was an American electrical engineer who demonstrated an early working integrated circuit at Texas Instruments in 1958. Kilby’s earlier demonstration makes clear how Noyce’s silicon-based, interconnected design differed from another independent invention.
Intel: Intel is an American semiconductor company founded in 1968 by Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore, with Andy Grove as an early leader. Noyce co-founded Intel after Fairchild, extending his influence from chip design into a defining technology company.
William Shockley: William Shockley was an American physicist and co-inventor of the transistor who founded Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory. Noyce joined Shockley’s laboratory before leaving with colleagues to establish Fairchild Semiconductor.
Planar process: A semiconductor fabrication method that forms devices beneath a flat, protective oxide surface. The process enabled reliable components and metal connections to coexist on a silicon wafer.
Integrated circuit: An electronic circuit whose components and connections are fabricated together on a semiconductor substrate. Noyce’s work is one of the independent inventions that established the integrated circuit.
Silicon Valley: Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California known for its concentration of technology companies and startups. Noyce’s companies and leadership helped establish the region’s semiconductor-centered business culture.
Jean Hoerni: Jean Hoerni was a Swiss-American physicist and semiconductor engineer who developed the planar process. Hoerni’s planar process supplied the manufacturing foundation for Noyce’s integrated-circuit design.
Silicon dioxide: A compound of silicon and oxygen that forms an insulating layer and protective surface on silicon wafers. Its oxide layer insulated Noyce’s metal interconnections from the semiconductor beneath.

Linked from 13 pages