While working at Texas Instruments, Jack Kilby invented the world's first integrated circuit in 1958, and he was a co-inventor of the world's first electronic handheld calculator in 1967. He is the recipient of two of the nation's most prestigious honors in science and engineering -- the National Medal of Science and a member of the National Inventors Hall of Fame. Photo courtesy of Texas Instruments. (13K JPG)

Jack St. Clair Kilby, co-inventor of the integrated circuit or microchip and a 1950 masters degree graduate in Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, died of cancer Monday, June 20, at his home in Dallas. He was 81.

On Sept. 12, 1958, in a lab at Texas Instruments, Kilby successfully demonstrated the first electronic circuit in which all of the components, both active and passive, were fabricated in a single piece of semiconductor material half the size of a paper clip. His accomplishment was recognized with the 2000 Nobel Prize in physics.

His demonstration opened the door to miniaturizing the transistor, co-invented 10 years earlier by electrical engineering alumnus John Bardeen. The transistor replaced the vacuum tubes of the earliest computers.

"The impact of Kilby's invention is profound," says UW-Madison College of Engineering Dean Paul Peercy. "In the space of Kilby's first transistor, engineers can now fit about 100 million transistors. It was the genesis of very many more innovations that continue to improve our lives. It set the stage for the computing revolution which in turn made possible the information age. Researchers are now working on single-electron transistors and self-assembling circuits. Kilby's invention not only set the stage for all of this, it forever changed the pace of innovation."

Kilby, joined Texas Instruments in 1958. He held a number of positions in semiconductor research and development management, including assistant vice president and director of engineering until his retirement in 1970. Since then, he worked as an independent consultant and inventor of integrated circuit technology. From 1978 to 1984, he also held the position of distinguished professor of electrical engineering at Texas A&M University.

In an interview for Texas Instruments, Kilby reflected on his thoughts at the time the circuit was invented: "I think I thought it would be important for electronics as we knew it then, but that was a much simpler business and electronics was mostly radio and television and the first computers. What we did not appreciate was how much the lower costs would expand the field of electronics into completely different applications that I don't know that anyone had thought of at that time." Kilby held more than 60 patents, including the first on monolithic integrated circuits, reduced titanate capacitors, semiconductor thermal printers and hand-held calculators.

The electronic hand-held calculator was invented at Texas Instruments in 1967 by Jack Kilby, Jerry Merryman, and James Van Tassel. Measuring 4-1/4 x 6-1/8 x 1-3/4-inches, it was the first mini-calculator to have the high degree of computational power found only at the time in considerably larger machines. Photo courtesy of Texas Instruments. (11K JPG)

Jack Kilby invented the integrated circuit at Texas Instruments in 1958. Comprised of only a transistor and other components on a slice of germanium, Kilby's invention, 7/16-by-1/16-inches in size, revolutionized the electronics industry. The roots of almost every electronic device we take for granted today can be traced back to Dallas more than 40 years ago. Photo courtesy of Texas Instruments. (22K JPG)

He received a BS in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana in 1947. After graduation, he worked for the Centralab Division of Globe-Union Inc. in Milwaukee, where he worked on ceramic-based printed circuits.

Kilby was the recipient of numerous national and international awards. He was a member of the National Academy of Engineering, a recipient of the National Medal of Science, an inductee of the National Inventors Hall of Fame and was the 1995 winner of the Robert N. Noyce Award, the Semiconductor Industry Association's highest honor.

Kilby was born in Jefferson City, Mo. in 1923, and grew up in Great Bend, Kan. His father was the owner of a small electric company, and Kilby became interested in radio tubes while listening to big band radio in the 1940s.

He is survived by two daughters: Janet Kilby Cameron of Palisade, Colo., and Ann Kilby of Austin, Texas.; five granddaughters, and a son-in-law. His wife, Barbara, died in 1981.

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