Integrated Circuit Design

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[ 334413 ] = Semiconductor and related device manufacturing – Hybrid integrated circuits manufacturing

[ 334515 ] = Instrument manufacturing for measuring and testing electricity and electrical signals – Integrated-circuit testers manufacturing

[ 423690 ] = Other electronic parts and equipment merchant wholesalers – Circuits, integrated, merchant wholesalers

Two men created the first integrated circuits.  Working independently, Jack Kilby at Texas Instruments (September 12, 1958) and Robert Noyce at Fairchild Semiconductor (January, 1959) each created their own working model, using different approaches to make a complete circuit built from a single silicon crystal. 

Both men are acknowledged as having independently created the concept.  Today, versions of Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI) Circuit Boards or “Chips” are being manufactured in clean room environments, using the most advanced techniques.  Since 2008, processor chips having a billion or more transistors have been commercially available. 

In the future, specially designed chips may be manufactured for use with home network applications.  These will likely use the latest manufacturing capabilities to produce chips with the greatest functionality.  By then, today’s 65 nm ( 1 nanometer = one-billionth of a meter ) processes will have been upgraded successfully to the 45 nm generation.

In the future, however, the most advanced VLSI chips may not use the traditional silicon-based techniques of the past.