THE 100 MOST INFLUENTIAL INVENTORS OF ALL TIME

7 The 100 Most Influential Inventors of All Time 7

design and manufacture. But Noyce saw further. Noyce
saw that the solution to the problem of connecting the
components was to evaporate lines of conductive metal
(the “wires”) directly onto the silicon wafer’s surface, a
technique known as the planar process. Kilby and Noyce
share credit for independently inventing the integrated
circuit. However, after much litigation, Fairchild Semi-
conductor was granted the patent on the planar process,
the basic technique used by subsequent manufacturers.
The patent made both Noyce and Fairchild wealthy.

Intel Corporation

In 1968 Noyce and Moore left Fairchild Semiconductor to
start their own company. Soon they were joined by Andrew
Grove, another Fairchild colleague, and formed Intel
Corporation. In 1971 Intel introduced the first micro-
processor, which combined on a single silicon chip the
circuitry for both information storage and information
processing. Intel quickly became the leading producer of
microprocessor chips.
Noyce served as president of Intel until 1975 and then
as chairman of the board of directors before stepping
down in 1978 to become chairman of the Semiconductor
Industry Association (SIA).

Statesman

The SIA was formed to address the growing economic con-
cerns of the American semiconductor industry, especially
with respect to foreign competition. Noyce played an
important role in establishing Sematech, a joint industry-
government consortium formed with sometimes conflicting
goals—research to keep the American semiconductor
industry at the forefront and efforts to maintain a domestic