History of Semiconductor Engineering

This revised and updated second edition provides a unique and comprehensive history of early microelectronics in the 1960s. Notable revisions include expanded coverage of research at Bell Laboratories, Shockley Laboratory, RCA, and Fairchild Semiconductor. The extensive new content addresses the development of the first planar integrated circuit, MOS and CMOS technology, and nonvolatile memory cells.

Historical accounts of successful laboratories and businesses often consist primarily of reminiscences by their directors and eminent people. Such recollections are frequently inaccurate, and when they have to be tested against the facts, they fail. This richly illustrated book, with some never-before-published images, is based only on verifiable documents and authorized oral interviews.

This book provides young scientists and engineers working in the microelectronics field with a description of where and how the microelectronics era began. It is an essential resource for anyone seeking to understand the complexities of industrial research and the role of time in shaping political realities.

Reviews of the First Edition

"Your book is going to make a major contribution to semiconductor history. You and I agree that, while the world loves a hero, semiconductor progress depended on the efforts and ideas of a large number of people, and that moving forward depended on contributors going back a few decades in some cases. Also, as is the case with most inventions, a number of people with access to the same pool of common knowledge were working independently at the same time to put it all together and to make the necessary extensions to the existing technology and who realized that the time was right for society to accept the new concepts. Your diligent research points all this out."

Dr. Jay Last, former Shockley Laboratory employee, co-founder of Fairchild Semiconductor, co-founder of Amelco Semiconductor, and manager of the Fairchild group which designed and produced the world s first planar integrated circuit

"Bo Lojek presents a remarkable document of the most important and significant technical development of our times. He describes in astounding detail the engineering efforts of modern microelectronics. He concentrates on the history of silicon semiconductor devices. California s "Silicon Valley" is the center of attention, together with its ancestry of transistor invention at Bell Laboratories. He has collected a wealth of illustrative documentation, gives incisive insight into the lives of the main actors and shows the often tragic fates of the engineers and businessmen. He does not hide his firm belief in the individual engineer and warns of the retarding influence of present-day political correctness."

Dr. Hans J. Queisser, former Shockley Semiconductor scientist and retired director of the Max Planck Institute