1955

1957

1958

Robert Noyce develops the monolithic integrated circuit -- a miniaturized electrical circuit on a fingernail-size wafer of silicon. Noyce's Fairchild colleague, Jean Hoerni, takes the idea a step further and puts a collector, base and emitter all on one plane. The planar transistor is born, and so is a new industry. Today, nearly fifty years later, the planar process is the primary method for producing transistors.

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