Robert N. Noyce

Noyce's career was closely interwoven with the IC evolution and the multibillion dollar industry that it created. Not only was Noyce responsible for key inventions that made the IC practical, but he co-founded and managed two of the major companies manufacturing ICs today: Fairchild Semiconductor Corp. in 1957, and Intel Corp. in 1968. At Fairchild, Noyce was responsible for the commercial realization of the double-diffused mesa and planar silicon transistors. In 1959, as general manager of the Fairchild semiconductor operation and a vice president of the Fairchild Camera and Instrument Corp., Noyce saw his IC-based inventions incorporated into a wide range of electronic products. He held 16 patents on semiconductor methods, devices, and structures, as well as the basic patent relating to metal interconnect schemes.