Integrated Circuit by Jack Kilby

Computer technology and the Internet have been celebrated as ways of democratizing information sharing and communications. In 1958, Jack S. Kilby (1923-2005) at Texas Instruments demonstrated a revolutionary enabling technology: an integrated circuit. Instead of using discrete components to form a circuit, Kilby’s design combined a transistor, a capacitor, and the equivalent of three resistors on one piece of germanium.

To verify the feasibility of his idea, Kilby made three different types of monolithic circuits: a flip-flop, a multi-vibrator and a phase-shift oscillator. These were the basis of United States patent 3138743, “Miniaturized Electronic Circuits,” issued 23 June 1964. This object is the phase-shift oscillator. Since then, engineers and scientists have improved computer chips with untold numbers of innovations. As more people adopted computers, they created an information revolution that continues to this day.

A rectangular base made of a thin slice of germanium serves as a bulk resistor. A single bipolar transistor consists of four input-output terminals under the aluminum bar in the center. The large bar on the end serves as electrical ground. The wires are gold.