6) Engineers Inspired by a Magazine
Picture A: The Electrotechnical Laboratory group that developped the first
IC in Japan
(From left: Denda, Tarui, Rumiko Inoue, and Nagaaki Narukami )
Picture B: External view of the prototype IC
Picture C: The thesis which was presented at the Joint Convention of Four
Institutes of Electrical Engineering in 1961 (Provided by Mr. Yasuo Tarui,
Click to enlarge)
The group that made the first Japanese-made IC prototype was
a group in Electrotechnical Laboratory, affiliated with the former Agency
of Industrial Science and Technology, and was inspired to make an effort by
the big news about IC from the United States. At that time, the head of the
transistor section of electronics dept. (later to become a professor at Tokyo
Agricultural Engineering University), Yasuo Tarui, focused on the importance
of the IC and worked on the prototype with a fellow researcher, Seiichi Denda.
The first concrete information from the United States regarding IC came to
Japan in the beginning of 1960. Recalling the strong empathy he had when reading
about the result from Westinghouse (WH) in the February 1960 issue of the
American magazine, “Semiconductor Product,” Tarui suggested that “This will
be the future of mainstream technology of semiconductor. We too, want to take
a part in this.” At that time Westinghouse, separately from Texas Instruments,
and Fairchild succeeded in integration development, and they named it “Molectronics.”
The group would try to make assumptions and to find clues with little information
they received from America. However, Denda wondered, “Isn't it okay to use
any method in order to acquire the function we desire?” and then decided on
germanium for the chip material, and a multi-vibrator circuit structure.
Doing so, the first domestically produced IC was completed in December 1960,
made up of three germanium pellets arranged parallel on a 1cm-square resin
container. Depending on the perspective, it was also said the IC was a multi-chip
hybrid IC structure. For two of those pellets, each had a transistor (alloy
diffusion type), and a condenser. The remaining pellet had four integrated
resistors. The pellets were soldered and wired together.
Picture A is the Electrotechnical Laboratory group that developped the first
IC in Japan (From left: Denda, Tarui, Rumiko Inoue, and Nagaaki Narukami),
Picture B is an external view of the prototype IC, and Picture C is the thesis
which was presented at the Joint Convention of Four Institutes of Electrical
Engineering in 1961. (Provided by Mr. Yasuo Tarui, Click to enlarge)
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