Semiconductor History

At the moment other advances in semiconductors are taking a backseat when compared to the AI boom. They're still happening, and not all about adding the next few billion transistors. As a young engineer everyone's desk had 'The TTL (Transistor-Transistor Logic) Data Book for Design Engineers'. Details of the complete families of standard logic ICs. It was the way most electronic products were designed. To be honest, I thought they might have disappeared. But they're still here, and in tiny packages - some as small as 0.6mm. For example it can make sense when you design an ASIC, spend a fortune on masks, it doesn't quite work, but a few tiny standard logic ICs can be added externally instead. It was Fairchild's introduction of the integrated circuit and its 900 series RTL (Resistor-Transistor Logic) in 1961 that completely revolutionised electronics. Interestingly around the same time, IBM were developing an equivalent for its revolutionary System/360 that we...

  Fairchild's introduction of the integrated circuit and its 900 series RTL logic in 1961 revolutionised electronics. Eventually 25 standard logic circuits comprised the 900 series. The major downside of RTL (Resistor Transistor Logic) was the very high power dissipation through its on-chip resistors. In 1962, Signetics a spin out from Fairchild introduced the SE-1000 series, the first major DTL (Diode Transistor Logic) family of ICs. In 1963, Sylvania introduced the first family of the further improved and faster TTL (Transistor - Transistor Logic), called SUHL (Sylvania Universal High Level Logic). Very quickly, Texas Instruments and others introduced their own families of standard logic functions. Initially TI gave the logic family the prefix 54, then the 74 series with a narrower operating temperature range. Fairchild and Signetics like other semiconductor companies, eventually followed the lead of TI and the part numbering system for bipolar TTL. '000' in the series wa...

ELSA (Italy) RFID access control tag/fob using a Hughes Microelectronics (Scotland) H223 chip.  Hughes were an early RFID innovator, with chip design in Scotland (and the US), access control and animal tag manufacturing in Spain and a separate Hughes Identification Devices business, which became the company HID. HID is still a leader in access control.  The above is an early 125kHz access control keychain fob. Like today, access control cards and fobs are not self-powered. The energy to operate comes from the reader. Hughes was a pioneer in EEPROM and used this early advantage in a number of emerging technologies and markets. There would have been unique codes programmed into every chip. Before 2000 I never had an access control card or fob at my workplace.

Micro Alloy Diffused base germanium transistor 2N501 from the late 1950s. Philco invented a diffusion and chemical etching process which thinned the base region of alloy junction transistors producing very fast switching speed devices.  The process was subsequently licensed to other transistor companies including Semiconductors Limited (Semics) of Swindon in the UK.

  Cosem (CSF) created a manufacturing facility in St Egreve (near Grenoble) in 1955. By 1964 it was producing many millions of diodes and transistors per year, employing 1500 people. In 1968 the French Government merged Cosem (CSF) with Sesco (Thomson). Thomson was another French semiconductor manufacturer, established in the early 1960s to manufacture transistors.  In time Thomson-CSF's microelectronics interests would merge with Italian firm SGS to form SGS Thomson, later ST Microelectronics. The St Egreve facility still exists as Teledyne e2v, however the fab is no longer there, having reduced its wafer production when it was SGS Thomson then Atmel. 

  In 1965 the joint venture between Hughes Aircraft and EMI in the UK was named EMIHUS. They manufactured a wide range of electronic components in Glenrothes, Fife including semiconductors, passives and connectors. They also performed subcontract manufacturing, including for calculators. In 1975 the name was changed to Hughes Microelectronics. Shown above is an analog ASIC designed in the UK for the company Pye TMC. Telephone Manufacturing Company (TMC) was acquired by Pye Ltd in the 1960s and produced various equipment for the GPO, including telephones. The ASIC function is likely to be a DTMF dialler chip, designed in the 1980s, but still in production in 1990. Hughes in the UK manufactured diodes and transistors starting in 1960. They transitioned to MOS in 1967, and to CMOS sometime later. Amongst its many achievements was the production of the first non volatile memories, invented in Hughes Newport Beach by Eli Harari.

The Unijunction Transistor was developed at General Electric in the early 1950s, and became a widely used semiconductor device. It was a three terminal device with one emitter and two base contacts, originally using a germanium grown 'bar' with two diffused base regions. Before the development of the first timer IC it was used in a range of timing circuits. It was also used in sensing circuits, phase control and SCR trigger applications. It was the latter which benefitted GE the most. GE produced the first Silicon Controlled Rectifiers in the late 50s which drove their pre-eminence in power electronics.  

Western Electric opened a small office in London in 1883. In 1925 the International Western Electric Company was bought by the International Telephone and Telegraph Company (ITT) and later became Standard Telephones and Cables Ltd (STC). STC used the brand name “STANDARD” for their valves/tubes, and from 1934 “BRIMAR”. The Brimar valve and cathode ray tube division was sold to Thorn Electrical Industries Ltd in 1960, and in 1961 there was a JV created between Thorn and Associated Electrical Industries (AEI) for the development and sale of valves, CRTs and semiconductors. According to the CV list, Thorn-AEI manufactured at Footscray, Kent, which became a large IC development and manufacturing site for STC up until its closure in 1993. However for Thorn-AEI (Brimar) it mentions manufacture at Rochester, Kent. So manufacturing could have taken place there as well.  Germanium pnp, very high Gain=212, Vf=149mV

    GEC first developed transistor devices at their research facility in Wembley, then transferred production to the GEC Radio Works in Coventry, where a point contact diode line had been established.  In 1956 GEC established a dedicated semiconductor manufacturing facility at School St, Hazel Grove (Greater Manchester). In 1962 GEC merged their semiconductor business with Mullard into a business called ASM (Associated Semiconductor Manufacturers), creating the UK's dominant semiconductor company of the 1960s. Mullard (Philips) owned 2/3 of the company. GEC devices were subsequently marketed as Mullard. GEC sold most of their share in 1968. Nexperia, formerly NXP (and Philips) still have an operating semiconductor facility in Hazel Grove. Decent gain and germanium, hfe=70, Vf=120mV  

Raytheon (Light from the Gods) started in the 1920s and quickly became a major player in tube (valve) based early electronics. By 1938 they were producing miniature and sub-miniature tubes, including for early hearing aids. They subsequently became an early adopter of semiconductors, including the first commercially available transistor in 1948 (CK703). A very early licensee of Bell Labs' point contact transistor, and very quick off the mark. Raytheon continued to produce tubes for many years.  This is a low noise sub-miniature triode, introduced in 1962 that can be used as a microphone input amplifier. It looks to be designed for avionics applications, given its focus on reliability.