![]() Initially, Intel focused on creating semiconductor-based memory for computers. Moore began as Intel’s executive vice president and rose to become its CEO and chairman of the board. In 1968 Moore and Robert Noyce, who had been Moore’s colleague since Shockley Semiconductor and was the inventor of the integrated circuit, founded the Intel Corporation. Under Moore’s leadership Fairchild made contributions to the development of the metal oxide semiconductor (MOS) field-effect transistor, the kind of transistor most used today as components of chips. The circuit can contain many millions of microscopic transistors and other components, all electrically connected in a certain way to perform a function. Among the seminal contributions accomplished during his watch was the planar process (1960), which provided a smooth silicon dioxide surface on which would be printed the circuits of the first integrated circuit (1961).Īn integrated circuit-commonly known as a microchip or simply a “chip”-is a thin slice of silicon or other semiconductor material that has been specially processed so that a tiny electric circuit is chemically etched on its surface. Meanwhile, Moore rose from being engineering manager to director of research and development. Then he worked on manufacturing processes for creating the transistor’s contacts, settling on aluminum, still the metal of choice for contacts in silicon devices. At first he developed the firm’s diffusion processes and built its diffusion furnaces. ![]() Moore quickly established himself as one of Fairchild Semiconductor’s principal technologists and managers. When Beckman refused to replace Shockley, the group found another backer, Fairchild Camera and Instrument, and formed Fairchild Semiconductor. Scarcely more than a year after Moore joined Shockley Semiconductor, he and a group of other scientists and engineers from the company rebelled against Shockley’s heavy-handed management style and his strategic decisions. To make transistors and other semiconducting devices, one needs to begin with nearly pure silicon, but to turn the silicon into an electronic switch or other device, there have to be areas of excess electrons, introduced by atoms of some impurity, and other areas with a shortage of electrons, introduced by another impurity. ![]() At Shockley Semiconductor, Moore specialized in the complex solid-state processes for diffusing tiny impurities, or dopants, into silicon. He jumped at the opportunity presented to him in 1956 by Shockley, who had recently formed Shockley Semiconductor-the company that gave birth to California’s Silicon Valley-with financial backing from Arnold O. Moore was disappointed with the nature of his work at his first job after his PhD, at the Applied Physics Laboratory of Johns Hopkins University in Maryland, and he wanted to move back West. He then earned a doctorate in physical chemistry at the California Institute of Technology in 1954. He spent his first two years of college at San Jose State University and completed his bachelor’s degree at the University of California, Berkeley. He pursued his interest in chemistry, although not so much its explosive capabilities, in school and college. When the family moved to Redwood City, Moore was introduced to chemistry through a neighbor’s chemistry set and spent hours happily engaged in making explosives. His father was the local sheriff in the small town of Pescadero in San Mateo County south of San Francisco, and he eventually rose to be the county’s chief deputy sheriff. His great-grandfather Moore settled in California in 1847. Moore (1929–2023) comes from one of the oldest Anglo-American families in California. In the course of time, Moore cofounded two major corporations, Fairchild Semiconductor and Intel. Moore entered the silicon electronics industry in the 1950s when it was just getting started in California, after the move from Bell Laboratories in New Jersey of several prominent researchers, including William B. Science History Institute Before Silicon Valley All Rights Reserved.As a child, Gordon Moore learned to love chemistry (and explosions) by tinkering with a neighbor’s chemistry set, possibly one like this A. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |