Semiconductor History

  Cosem (CSF) created a manufacturing facility in St Egreve (Grenoble) in 1950. By 1964 it was producing many millions of diodes and transistors per year, employing 1500 people. In 1969 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 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 ceased wafer production when it was Atmel. 

  In 1965 the joint venture between Hughes Aircraft and EMI in the UK was named EMIHUS. EMIHUS 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.