Semiconductor History

Raytheon sold its semiconductor operations in Mountain View CA to Fairchild in 1997. Fairchild was then a re-incarnation, not the original Silicon Valley pioneer. Raytheon had originally purchased Mountain View's Rheem in 1959, two years after it had spun out from Fairchild, led by Ed Baldwin who had moved from Hughes Semiconductors to Fairchild. Raytheon was expanding its transistor manufacturing into California through the acquisition. Like many companies, Raytheon expanded into bipolar and MOS circuits. Cyrus Madavi, who led Burr-Brown through to acquisition by TI came from Raytheon. I worked for Hughes, Raytheon and Burr-Brown.

2N38 Germanium Alloy Junction Transistor from the Early to Mid 50s  CBS purchased vacuum tube manufacturer Hytron (based in Danvers Mass) and established a semiconductor facility in an old mill in Warren St, Lowell in the early 1950s. In 1961 the market consolidated and Raytheon bought the CBS-Hytron semiconductor business around the same time it acquired Rheem Semiconductor. I stayed in Lowell several times on business in a hotel off Warren St, so possibly walked past the old facility several times without knowing it. Lowell is an old mill town with lots of 19th century brick mill buildings.