Kilby, Jack St Clair (1923–2005)

US electrical engineer, co-inventor of the integrated circuit, popularly known as the microchip, for which he was awarded the 2000 Nobel Prize for Physics (shared with Zhores Alferov and Herbert Kroemer). The integrated circuit was developed independently by Kilby at Texas Instruments, Dallas, Texas, in 1958 and by Robert Noyce at Fairchild Semiconductor in California in 1959.

Kilby was the first to produce a working chip, but when Noyce's patent application was challenged by Texas Instruments, the courts found in Noyce's favour. While Noyce went into chip manufacturing at Intel, Kilby developed applications such as calculators – which helped to establish Texas Instruments as a leader in this field – and promoted the widespread use of microchips. Integrated circuits have allowed microelectronics to dominate all modern technology and can be regarded as the most influential invention of the 20th century. They are used in all modern electronics equipment, ranging from washing machines to satellites and have allowed the rapid development of increasingly faster and more compact computers.

Kilby was born in Jefferson City, Missouri. He works for Texas Instruments as a consultant and was distinguished professor of electrical engineering at Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas from 1978 until 1984.