Jack Kilby, the man who invented the integrated circuit and helped make the microprocessor possible has died at the age of 81. The cause of death was cancer. Kilby died at his Dallas home. He worked for Texas Instruments for many years.
Kilby built the first integrated circuit into a single piece of semi conducting material half the size of a paper clip during his first year at Texas Instruments. By 1962, TI had the first major contract for integrated circuits, working on the Minuteman Missile for the Pentagon.
Kilby was awarded the Nobel Prize for physics in 2000 and later co-invented the hand-held electronic calculator. When he was awarded the Nobel Prize, the citation said that Kilby 'laid the foundation of modern information technology.'
'TI was the only company that agreed to let me work on electronic component miniaturization more or less full time, and it turned out to be a great fit,' Kilby wrote in an autobiography completed for the Nobel Committee in 2000.
Tom Engibous, the chairman of TI released a statement praising Kilby on Tuesday. 'In my opinion, there are only a handful of people whose works have truly transformed the world and the way we live in it — Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, the Wright Brothers and Jack Kilby. If there was ever a seminal invention that transformed not only our industry but our world, it was Jack's invention of the first integrated circuit.'
Kilby holds over 60 patents. In 1970, he received the National Medal of Science in a White House ceremony. Twelve years later, he was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.
Kilby spent his final years working for TI as a consultant. He is survived by two daughters, five granddaughters and a son-in-law.
