Microchip pioneer Jack Kilby dead at 81

DALLAS (AP) _ Microchip pioneer Jack Kilby, who won the 2000 Nobel Prize for his part in creating the microscopic brains powering many of today's digital devices, has died after a brief battle with

Tuesday, June 21st 2005, 12:54 pm

By: News On 6

DALLAS (AP) _ Microchip pioneer Jack Kilby, who won the 2000 Nobel Prize for his part in creating the microscopic brains powering many of today's digital devices, has died after a brief battle with cancer. He was 81.

Kilby died Monday, according to Texas Instruments, the company where Kilby worked for many years.

``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,'' TI chairman Tom Engibous said in a statement Tuesday.

``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,'' Engibous said.

Kilby pioneered military, industrial and commercial applications of microchip technology. He headed teams that built the first military system and the first computer incorporating integrated circuits. He later co-invented the hand-held calculator and the thermal printer that used in portable data terminals.

In 1970, he took a leave of absence from TI to work as an independent inventor exploring the use of silicon technology for generating electrical power from sunlight.

Kilby held more than 60 U.S. patents, including one filed in 1959 for a solid circuit made of germanium.

In 1970, in a White House ceremony, he received the National Medal of Science. In 1982, he was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.

Kilby spent his later years as a consultant to TI, working on industry and government assignments throughout the world.

Kilby grew up in Great Bend, Kan. With degrees in electrical engineering from the Universities of Illinois and Wisconsin, he began his career in 1947 with the Centralab Division of Globe Union Inc. in Milwaukee, developing ceramic-base, silk-screen circuits for consumer electronic products.

Kilby is survived by two daughters, five granddaughters, and a son-in-law.

Funeral arrangements were pending.