Steve DeCollibus, Managing Editor, Semiconductor Packaging News

Last week we linked to an EDN article entitled, "Innovating out of a downturn." It started me thinking about what the development roadmap for the integrated circuit might look like. In other words what was the path that innovation traveled, what was the basis of that technology, what needed to be known in order to create an IC.

As I am always reminded when I start these things, you discover interesting people and things along the way to any explanation.

What got me started was the discovery of this quote by Dr. Walter Brattain a man who has made significant contributions to solid state physics including the discovery of the photo-effect at the free surface of a semiconductor; the invention of the point-contact transistor and work leading to a better understanding of the surface properties of semiconductors, work and discoveries that occurred during his tenure at Bell Labs, that began in 1929.

Dr. Brattain said, “The transistor came about because fundamental knowledge had developed to a stage where human minds could understand phenomena that had been observed for a long time.

In the case of a device with such important consequences to technology, it is noteworthy that a breakthrough came from work dedicated to the understanding of fundamental physical phenomena, rather than the cut-and-try method of producing a useful device.” In other words a lot of basic research had to occur and be proven before this innovative technological breakthrough could happen. The roadmap might look something like this:

• In the latter 19th century, scientists studied the atomic spectra of various elements.
• In 1885, Johann Balmer discovered his formula for the spectral lines of the hydrogen atom; the Lyman, Pfund, Brackett, and Paschen spectral series followed.
• In 1900, Max Planck proposed the concept of the quantum in the emission of energy; and in 1905, Albert Einstein developed the idea of the quantum of energy in the radiation field (the photon).
• In 1911, Ernest Rutherford discovered the atomic nucleus in alpha-particle scattering experiments and confirmed the “planetary model” of the atom.
• Two years later, Niels Bohr developed a semiclassical model of the hydrogen atom based on a quantization of the electron orbit; it accounted for the observed discrete spectra of hydrogen and established a new model for the atom’s stability.
• In 1925 and 1926, Werner Heisenberg and Erwin Schrödinger developed quantum mechanics.
• In 1928, Felix Bloch applied the full machinery of quantum mechanics to the problem of conduction in solids, spearheading the development of the modern theory of solids.
• In 1929, Walter Schottky and others found electron “holes” in the valenceband structure of semiconductors, uncovering the mechanism of semiconductor behavior.
• In 1933, solid-state diodes were used as receiving rectifiers.
• In the late 1930s and early 1940s, investigators began doping silicon and germanium to create new semiconductors.
• In 1947, John Bardeen and Walter Brattain took out a patent for the transistor, and William Schockley applied for a patent for the transistor effect and a transistor amplifier.
• In 1951, semiconductors entered the world market. Four years later, transistors had replaced nearly all tubes. 
• In 1959, Robert Noyce and Jack Kilby invented the integrated circuit.

This innovation took almost 80 years to happen! A lot of basic research had to occur and connections (really no pun intended) needed to be made before this innovation could take off.

My point is that in order to innovate out of a downturn or innovate at all, research and development needs to be on going and built into the basic structure of discovery at all levels, schools, universities, research laboratories and corporations with collaboration at all levels.

There is no such thing as innovation on demand, and that is what makes it hard to innovate out of a downturn.