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Robert Noyce : Co-Founder of Intel & Co-Inventor of the Integrated Circuit

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A scuba diver, a pilot, an inventor and what not? Known as the Mayor of the Silicon Valley, the legendary inventor Robert Noyce made his mark in the history of Semiconductors. Noyce was a sharp student and had shown his traits as an inventor, from his childhood. From building a boy-sized aircraft to creating a transistor from scratch, he always loved playing with machines. Having a sharp mind, he also gained the name Rapid Robert from his classmates. This remarkable physicist had brought a revolution in the field of personal computers with its the first integrated circuit and gave Silicon Valley its name.

Early Life

Robert was born to Rev. Ralph Brewster Noyce and Harriet May Norton, on 12 December 1927, in Burlington, Iowa. He was the third of his three siblings, Donald Sterling Noyce, Gaylord Brewster Noyce and Ralph Harold Noyce. Noyce was a brilliant student, and was also, good at other co-curricular activities like sports, acting and singing. He completed his high school from Grinnell High School and enrolled himself into the physics course in Grinnell College. During his school days, he excelled in mathematics. Later, he joined MIT and received a PhD in solid-state physics in 1953.

Early Career

During his PhD, Noyce found his interest in transistors. After the completion of his PhD, he joined Philco Corporation in Philadelphia as the research engineer. In 1956, he left the job at Philco and joined the Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory in Mountain View, California, owned by the co-inventor of transistor and Nobel prize winner, William Shockley. He worked there for a year and left the company with the infamous ‘traitorous eight’ on having a dispute with William Shockley, on his way of working.

Founding Intel

After quitting the Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory, he co-founded a semiconductor company named Fairchild Semiconductor, with Sherman Fairchild, the owner of Fairchild Camera and Instrument, in 1957. At Fairchild Semiconductor, Noyce co-invented the first Integrated Circuit built with Silicon. During the invention of this IC, he also developed a planar process, that made it easy to develop the transistors at a lower cost.

Robert Noyce
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Working for 9-long years, Noyce left the Fairchild Semiconductors and co-founded NM Electronics, with his former co-worker, Gordon Moore, from Shockley Semiconductor Labs, in 1968. Later, NM Electronics was renamed to Intel Corporation. Noyce served as the President of Intel till 1975 and in 1978, chaired the board of directors of Intel, till 1978.

The team intel invented the first commercially successful product, the 3101 Schottky bipolar 64-bit static random access memory (SRAM) chip, in May 1969. In 1971, Intel made the first single-chip microprocessor in the world, that made Intel more famous, that ignited the personal computer revolution.

Noyce was popular for his working style and employee administration, that was the main reason of his leaving the Shockley Semiconductor Labs. He provided the employees with rewards and bonuses to encourage teamwork. He created a relaxed working environment for the employees, and avoided any type of luxuries, to maintain equality among every employee.

In 1978, he left Intel and joined the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) as the chairman. In 1988, Noyce decided to get retired and established an association named SEMATECH, a semiconductor manufacturing consortium with the help of SIA and held the position of the President of the company.

Personal Life and Death

Noyce married Elizabeth Bottomley in 1953 and had four children with her. The two got divorced in 1974. Noyce on 27 November 1974, got married to Ann Schmaltz Bowers, who became the first Director of Personnel for Intel Corporation.

On 3 June 1990, Noyce died of heart attack, at the age of 62.

In his life, Noyce kept himself busy in various inventions and got his name recorded as a great inventor. He received many awards for his contribution to the technology, including the Stuart Ballantine Medal in 1966, IEEE Medal of Honor in 1978, National Medal of Science in 1979 and National Medal of Technology in 1987.

Morris Chang: The Father of Taiwan’s Chip Industry

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China is known as the major manufacturer of electronics all over the globe. The reason is simple, it is blessed with leaders, who have worked hard to be ahead of everyone else and took the sole responsibility, to make their company as well as China, the leader of electronics manufacturers. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) is the world’s first and biggest silicon foundry. The company became what it is today only because of the leader who served it for 30 years – Morris Chang.

Early Life

Born on 10th July 1931, in Ningbo, Chekiang, China, Morris Chang is the founder, former chairman and CEO of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company. His father was an official in the Yin county government. Chang’s life’s ambition was to become a novelist or a journalist. But his father persuaded him to take up something else.

In 1948, Chang moved to Hong Kong at the age of 17, as it was the peak time of the Chinese Civil War. Just the next year the People’s Republic of China was established. In 1949, Chang moved to the United States to study at Harvard University. Later on, he transferred to Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he completed his bachelors and master’s degree in mechanical engineering.

Career

In 1955, just after graduating, Chang landed his first job in the industry in Sylvania Semiconductor in the United States. After working for three years, in Sylvania Semiconductor he moved to Texas Instruments, in 1958. Chang spent the next 25 years of his life in this company. While working at TI, he learned everything about semiconductors and made advancements in it. He referred to these years as ‘youth of semiconductors’.

Morris Chang
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After his continuous hard work, Chang received a promotion in TI. He became the manager of the engineering section in 1961, i.e. just after three years of his joining the job at TI. Looking at his potential, Texas Instruments decided to invest a bit more in Chang and gave him the opportunity to obtain his PhD. He went to Stanford University and received his PhD in electrical engineering in 1964. He finally rose up to the rank of Vice President and took the responsibility of TI’s worldwide semiconductor business. During his time at TI, Chang worked on the four-transistor project, for which, IBM was handling the manufacturing unit. He also brought forward the idea of pricing semiconductors at low costs to gain larger profits in the long term.

Chang left Texas Instruments in 1983, and later, became the president and chief operating officer of General Instrument Corporation, from 1984-85. He left GIC and got a proposal from the government of the Republic of China for the post of chairman and president of Industrial Technology Research Institute. He accepted the proposal and set out to change the whole course of science and technology development in Taiwan.

Morris Chang was responsible to promote industrial and technological development in Taiwan. He used his decades of experience and founded TSMC, in 1987. This was the time when big companies considered outsourcing the manufacturing capabilities to Asia. Chang’s visionary aim became successful, as TSMC became the leading semiconductor foundry. It acquires 50% of the total global market share. Its major customers include Apple, Qualcomm, Nvidia, and Intel. TSMC became the profitable and biggest chip makers in the world.

Chang’s vision was clear and, that was not to pivot the direction of the company. It will always be a pure play foundry and will never compete with its customers. Chang retired from ITRI, in 1994 and took the position of chairman at Vanguard International Semiconductor Corporation the same year till 2003. He continued to serve as the chairman of TSMC. In 2005, Chang handed the CEO position to Rick Tsai, but, returned back again in June 2009.

Morris Chang announced his retirement from the company on June 5, 2018, but had already planned the future of the company. The new CEO of the company would be C.C.Wei and the chairman position would be filled in by Mark Liu.

Personal Life

Chang won many accolades due to his leadership quality and achieving great heights of success. Forbes magazine named Morris Chang as one of the most visionary leaders in the world. After retiring from his service, which took the electronics industry to next level, Chang wants to spend time with his family. He lives with his wife Sophie Chang and three children.

Analog Devices – American Multinational Semiconductor Company

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This century is highly technologically dominated one. Each aspect of our lives involves technology in one or other way in the form of various devices. These devices that are dominating our lives are made by combining small and tiny electronic parts such as semiconductors and ICs. Companies, like Analog Devices, thrive on the production of these small parts and, has become one of the largest American multinational semiconductor production company across the world.

History of Analog Devices Inc.

It was on 18th January 1965, that two MIT graduates, Ray Stata and Matthew Lorber, came up with an idea, to start a business focusing on manufacturing electronic devices. The company launched its first product the same year. It was a model 101 op amp device, used in test and measurement equipment. The size of this model was almost similar to a hockey puck. The company has become a leader, in the production of electronic equipment used in signal processing. Their equipment is widely used in defense, space research, communications, and various such sectors.

In 1967, the company launched its first issue of Analog Dialogue – a technical magazine which focuses on newest development in engineering across the globe.

Analog Devices went public in 1969 and filed an initial public offering. A decade later the company was listed on New Your Stock Exchange. The company now focused more on the research and development of its products. This included the launching of the first digital to analog device – CMOS and first laser trim wafers, in 1973.

Analog Devices
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During Stata’s CEO period, the company achieved humongous success in the market all over the world and in 1996, it reached $1 billion in revenue. The same year, Stata retired from the post of CEO and Jerald G. Fishman took over the President and CEO position, serving till 2013.

By 2000, ADI’s sales reached $2.5 billion. Analog Devices acquired five companies, including the thick film semiconductor manufacturing company, BCO Technologies, for a huge $150 million.

Fishman retired in 2013 and, was replaced by Vincent Roche as the new President and CEO. Executive Vice President Position is helmed by Rick D. Hees, Chief Technology Officer by Peter Real, and Director of Finance by David A. Zinser.

Products

The company started with, manufacturing analog signal processing and digital signal processing technologies, which include data converters, radio frequency, etc. Company’s main products include data converters used in fields, like medical systems, scientific instrumentation, radar, defense equipment, etc. Data converters account for more than 50% of ADI’s revenue.

Power management products are used in wireless, industrial, and digital camera manufacturing industries. Radio Frequency integrated circuits product portfolio includes TruPwr, RMS power detectors, etc.

Analog Devices’ most popular product micro-electromechanical systems (MEMs), which was found in smartphones, tablet PCs, security systems, etc., was sold to InvenSense in 2013.

The company has become a pivotal player in various fields including healthcare, automotive, industrial, and consumer-based markets. Its main competitors include Texas Instruments, Maxim Integrated Products, and Linear Technology. Analog Devices was ranked at number three analog semiconductor supplier in 2011.

Employees and Company Locations

As of 2016, around 10,000 employees work for Analog Devices. Each employee is given a health care benefit and, shares in the company stocks. The employees are also given the housing and transportation allowances.

The company’s headquarters is situated in Norwood, Massachusetts, United States and, its subsidiaries are situated all across the world in countries, such as Israel, India, China, etc. There are four regional headquarters situated in Tokyo, Munich, Shanghai, and Limerick.

To encourage new innovations and, start a conversation between engineers, the company launched ‘Engineer Zone’ – an online support platform. Analog Devices publishes about the latest technological advances in the engineering field, every month.

The company’s dedication, towards supplying top-quality products to its customers, has led to the rise in its stocks and, gain the trust of their thousands of customers.