A brief history of the silicon chip   

A silicon chip - otherwise known as an integrated circuit, is made from a very small piece of silicon on which various electronic circuits enclosing numerous parts are built. Silicon chips are just a few millimeters in size and yet they are so powerful and the unseen intelligence behind most electronic devices. There are stacks of them in a modern computer. Today they are so common place and cheap that when your computer breaks down, it's often cheaper to through the entire device away. But it wasn't always like this....

The Beginning of the silicon chip

It started with the transistor being devised in 1947 by John Bardeen, William Shockley and Walter Brattain. At that time, vacuum tubes were at the forefront of technology widely used in TV sets and radios as amplifiers. With the advent of the transistor, vacuum tubes were effectively replaced because they not only occupy large spaces in the device but they can also become hot and eventually bust when in use for long periods.

Nevertheless, like the other electronic components, the transistor also has its limits and it became evident in the late 1950s. Makers of electronic devices at that time were yearning to have something that was smaller in size than the transistor. This was to make their products lighter and more compact. Another reason for the transistor’s downfall was that it cannot keep up with the complexity of technology as the transistor’s components were assembled together manually.

The Invention of the silicon chip

The concept of the silicon chip was first conceived by a British radar scientist named Geoffrey Dummer when he was still connected with the British Ministry of Defence. He worked with this idea of putting a complete electronic circuit in a small portion of a semiconductor substance. In 1952, he disclosed his hypothesis in Washington D.C. at a convention about Quality Electronic Components. He worked for 4 years on his concept but was unsuccessful in producing the first silicon chip.

It was a man named Jack Kilby who produced the first integrated circuit in 1958. While working on a special project involving electronic circuits for Texas Instruments at that time, he was able to successfully integrate the various components putting them together in a single block of germanium. As a result, the integrated circuit was born. Kilby filed a patent for his invention on the 6th of February 1959.

Robert Noyce on the other hand created his own version of the integrated circuit in 1959. But instead of using germanium, he used silicon. Today, he shares the honor of inventing the silicon chip along with Jack Kilby. Noyce worked on Kilby’s concept, improving it so that it could be mass produced. He came up with an easier and faster way to integrate the components together forming the chip. In 1968, Noyce co-founded Intel which became the largest chip manufacturer in the world today. Noyce’s version of the silicon chip is popularly known now as the microchip.

The Present - silicon chips today

Today, silicon chips are used in a wide range of electronic applications. They are ever present from the common household appliance to the most sophisticated satellites in orbit. These silicon chips dominate the most important tool in business which is the computer. They are even used to control artificial organs or implants to humans. The silicon chip is probably the single greatest invention by mankind.

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