Fairchild Semiconductor Company Profile and Details

Clues to the establishment

Fairchild Semiconductor was founded in 1957. This historical fact must start with two clues.

In 1955, Dr. W. Shockley, the "father of the transistor" who achieved "the greatest invention of this century", left Bell Labs and returned to his hometown of Santa Clara to create "Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory". This good news is exactly what Professor Terman is trying to do in Silicon Valley to recruit talents from all over the world: With Shockley as a "sycamore tree", why not attract hordes of "phoenixes"? The electronics and computer industry is anxiously paying attention to Shockley's development. whereabouts. It is said that when Newton announced his intention to build a factory in his hometown 300 years ago, the physics community around the world had the same mentality. Soon, because he admired the name of the "Father of Transistors", application letters flew to Shockley's desk like snow flakes. The next year, eight young scientists arrived in Silicon Valley from the eastern United States and joined the Shockley Laboratory. They are: Robert Noyce (N. Noyce), Gordon Moore (Gordon Moore), J.Blank (J.Blank), Claire (E.Kliner), J.Hoerni (J.Hoerni), Lars J.Last, S.Roberts and V.Grinich. They are all under 30 years old, in their prime, academically accomplished, and at the peak of their creative abilities. Among them, there are those who have obtained double doctorates, engineers from large companies, and researchers and professors from famous universities. This is a large gathering of talents that has never been seen in the western United States.

The 29-year-old Noyce is the elder among the eight and the most determined one to "dedicate" to Shockley. The first thing he did when he flew to San Francisco was to spend all his money to buy himself a residence and decided to settle down permanently, without taking into account the working environment, conditions and treatment. The other seven young people's experiences in coming to Silicon Valley were largely similar to Noyce's. It is a pity that Shockley is a talented scientist but lacks business ability; he is ambitious but knows nothing about management. Terman once commented: "Shockley is a very attractive figure in the eyes of talented young people, but it is difficult for them to do things with him." In one year, the laboratory did not develop any decent results products. Origin

Eight young people began to plan to run away without telling Shockley. Led by Noyce, they submitted their resignation to Shockley. Shockley angrily called them "The Traitorous Eight." The young people looked at each other, but left their "Bole" without hesitation. However, later even Shockley himself changed his tune and called them "the rebellion of eight geniuses." Among many works in Silicon Valley, the photos of the "Rebellious Eight" have the same historical value as the photos of HP's garage. Company Development

"Eight Rebels" found a photographic equipment company located in New York, USA to support their business. The name of this company is Fairchild, which is transliterated as "Fairchild", but is usually translated as " Fairy boy". The predecessor of Fairchild Photographic Equipment Company was the aerial photography company founded by Sherman Fairchild in 1920. Fairchild was not only an entrepreneur but also an inventor. His inventions were mainly in the field of aviation, including sealed cabin aircraft, folding wings, etc. Because the products were so popular, he split the company in two in 1936. Among them, Fairchild Photographic Equipment Co., which produced cameras and electronic equipment.

When the "Eight Rebels" approached him for cooperation, Mr. Fairchild, who was already in his 60s, only provided $3,600 in seed funds and asked them to develop and Produce commercial semiconductor devices and enjoy two-year purchasing privileges. As a result, the company founded by the "Eight Rebels" was officially named Fairchild Semiconductor Company, and the head of the "Fairchild" was naturally Noyce.

In October 1957, Fairchild Semiconductor still rented a cabin on Charleston Road in Lookout Mountain, Silicon Valley, about as far from Shockley Laboratory as it was from the original Hewlett-Packard garage. The "Fairy Boys" discussed creating a double-diffusion-based transistor to replace the traditional germanium material with silicon. This was an unfinished project in Shockley's laboratory that was not taken seriously by Shockley. Fairchild Photographic Equipment Company agreed to provide financial resources totaling $1.5 million. Noyce divided the work between his partners, with Herney and Moore responsible for researching new diffusion processes, while he and Laster specialized in flat photographic technology.

In January 1958, IBM gave them their first order, ordering 100 silicon transistors for use in the memory of the company's computers. By the end of 1958, the small company of "Eight Rebels" had sales of 500,000 and 100 employees. Relying on the advantages of technological innovation, it became the fastest growing company in Silicon Valley.

Under Noyce's careful planning, Fairchild Semiconductor's business has developed rapidly. At the same time, a set of planar processing technologies for manufacturing transistors have also become increasingly mature. The genius scientist Herni is the best among the "fairy boys". Like magic, he squeezes the oxide layer on the silicon surface to the maximum limit.

Fairchild's method of manufacturing transistors is also unique. They first diffuse impurities with semiconductor properties onto high-purity silicon wafers, then draw the transistor structure on a mask, shrink it using photolithography, and develop the structure. Oxide the layer on the surface of the silicon wafer, and then use photolithography to remove the unnecessary parts.

The whole process of diffusion, masking, photography, photolithography... is called planar processing technology. It marks a big leap in the mass production of silicon transistors and seems to open up a new world for "fairy children". A wonderful door opened their eyes to a bottomless abyss: If one transistor can be made using this method, why not make dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of them? January 23, 1959 On that day, Noyce recorded this flash idea in detail in his diary.

In February 1959, Noyce was shocked when news came that Texas Instruments (TI) engineer J. Kilby had applied for the first integrated circuit invention patent. He immediately summoned the "Eight Rebels" to discuss countermeasures. The problems Kilby faced at TI, such as double diffusion and interconnection of wires on silicon wafers, were exactly what Fairchild Semiconductor was good at. Noyce proposed that the method of evaporating metal deposition can be used instead of thermal welding wires. This is the best way to solve the problem of interconnecting components. Fairchild Semiconductor began to catch up. On July 30, 1959, they also applied for a patent with the U.S. Patent Office. The two companies began a protracted dispute over the right to invent the integrated circuit. In 1966, Kilby and Noyce were awarded the Ballantine Medal by the Franklin Institute at the same time. Kilby was hailed as "the inventor of the first integrated circuit" and Noyce was hailed as "proposing the invention suitable for industry." The man who produced "Integrated Circuit Theory". In 1969, the court issued its final judgment, which also legally recognized the integrated circuit as a simultaneous invention.

In 1960, Fairchild Semiconductor achieved further development and success. Because the invention of the integrated circuit made it famous, the parent company Fairchild Photographic Equipment Company decided to purchase its shares for US$3 million. Each of the "Eight Rebels" owned stocks worth US$250,000. In 1964, Dr. Moore, one of the founders of Fairchild Semiconductor, published a peculiar law in three pages. Moore's genius predicted that the number of transistors that can be integrated on integrated circuits will steadily double every 18 months and maintain this momentum in the next few decades. This prediction made by Moore was proven by the subsequent development of integrated circuits and maintained its validity for a long time. It was hailed as "Moore's Law" and became the "First Law" of the emerging electronic computer industry. Leaving Fairchild

In the 1960s, Fairchild Semiconductor entered its golden age. By 1967, the company's turnover was close to US$200 million, which was an astronomical figure at the time. According to the memory of Dr. Yu Youcheng (now the Chinese vice president of Intel Corporation) who entered the company that year: "Entering Fairchild is equivalent to stepping into the gate of the Silicon Valley semiconductor industry." However, it was during this period that Fairchild The company also began to breed crises. The general manager of the parent company continued to transfer profits to the East Coast to support the profitability of Fairchild Photographic Equipment Company. Witnessing the unfairness of the parent company, Hurney, Roberts and Claire in "Eight Rebels" first left in anger and established Anelco. It is said that Hurney later founded as many as 12 new companies. Subsequently, another member of the "Rebel Eight", Glass, also led several people to leave Fairchild and founded Signatex Semiconductor Company. Since then, a large number of talented people have flocked to Fairchild, and have left to start their own businesses.

Just as Apple's Steve Jobs metaphorically said: "Fairchild Semiconductor is like a mature dandelion. When you blow it, the seeds of this entrepreneurial spirit will fly everywhere in the wind." Among those who left Fairchild Semiconductor to start companies, the more famous are Charles Sporck (C. Sporck) and Jerry Sanders (J. Sanders). Spock once served as general manager of Fairchild Semiconductor Company. After leaving in 1967, he came to National Semiconductor Company (NSC) as CEO. He carried out drastic reforms and moved NSC from Connecticut to Silicon Valley, allowing it to rapidly grow from a loss-making company to the world's sixth largest semiconductor manufacturer. Sanders is the director of the sales department of Fairchild Semiconductor. In 1969, he led seven Fairchild employees to found Advanced Micro Instruments (AMD). This company is already the second largest microprocessor manufacturer after Intel. Microprocessor products such as K6 and K6-2 sell well all over the world.

In 1968, Noyce and Moore, the last two of the "Eight Rebels", also took A. Grove to leave Fairchild and set up their own business. The company they founded was the famous Intel. Although they said goodbye to Fairy Boy, the "Eight Rebels" still made appointments to gather together. The most recent time was in 1997. Only 6 of the 8 are still alive. As if to promote the "defection" spirit of the "Eight Rebellions", batches of "fairy boys" rushed out, setting off a huge entrepreneurial boom. In this regard, the famous best-selling book "Silicon Valley Fever" published in the early 1980s wrote: "Half of the approximately 70 semiconductor companies in Silicon Valley are direct or indirect descendants of Fairchild Corporation.

A career at Fairchild is a gateway into the semiconductor industry, which spans across Silicon Valley. At a semiconductor engineers conference in Sunnyvale in 1969, fewer than 24 of the 400 attendees had never worked for Fairchild. "In this sense, it is no exaggeration to say that Fairchild Semiconductor is the "cradle of talent in Silicon Valley." The company was sold

The massive loss of talent is the "gospel" for the development of Silicon Valley and has brought great benefits to Fairchild Semiconductor. It was a disaster. From 1965 to 1968, the company's sales continued to decline, less than 120 million US dollars, and it had no profit for two consecutive years. People clearly realized that it was no longer a "miracle created by naughty children." ".

In order to find someone to take over Noyce's job, Sherman Fairchild offered the highest salary in the history of Silicon Valley - a salary of US$1 million over three years plus US$600,000 in stock. Dr. Lester Hogan was invited from Motorola to make up for the situation and show his "hunger for talent" attitude. Hogan was not an incompetent general manager and had brought a major turnaround to Motorola. Within six years, he tried his best to triple the company's sales. However, the soul of Fairchild Semiconductor Company had left, and its collapse was only a matter of time in 1974. Hogan handed over the power to the 36-year-old Corrigan, but his successor quickly caused the company to fall from the second place in the semiconductor industry to the sixth place in the semiconductor industry.

In the late 1970s, Corrigan finally discovered that the best way to save Fairchild Semiconductor was to sell it. After many twists and turns, he finally selected Schlumberger, a company with assets of $2.1 billion. This is a French company, and it is a company operating in the oil services industry. In the summer of 1979, Fairchild Semiconductor, once the best company in the United States, was taken over by French foreign investors for US$350 million, which caused great damage both inside and outside Silicon Valley. The sensation. Other information

Foreign capital seems unable to inject vitality into the declining Fairchild Semiconductor, although Schlumberger has recruited a group of talents to research artificial intelligence, which could have allowed Fairchild to quickly enter robot production. In fact, after continuing to lose money, Fairchild was resold to another American company for one-third of the original price, and the buyer was National Semiconductor (National Semiconductor Company) managed by former Fairchild General Manager Spock. NSC), the Fairchild Semiconductor brand once came to an end. In 1996, National Semiconductor moved the original Fairchild headquarters to Maine and restored the old name of "Fairchild Semiconductor". However, the "Silicon Valley Talent" with 6,500 employees. "Cradle" had to withdraw from Silicon Valley.

As early as 1962, Fairchild Semiconductor established a production line to develop and manufacture transistors in Maine, in California, in Utah, and even in South Korea. It has its branches in China and Malaysia, and it still has strong strength in the field of semiconductor devices, mainly developing and producing semiconductor memory equipment. After the headquarters moved to South Portland, Maine, the company's leaders tried to regain its glory, but had a bad fate. The ill-fated "Fairy Boy" was sold again by National Semiconductor Corporation for 550 million in March 1997. The reason is self-evident - National Semiconductor Corporation bought Cyrix, the world's third largest microprocessor manufacturer, for the same price. , trying to compete with Intel and AMD in the PC semiconductor market.

It definitely feels uncomfortable to be bought and sold by others. The current CEO and President of Fairchild Semiconductor, K. Pond, hopes to implement a strategic reorganization of the company. Pound studied electrical engineering at the University of Arkansas and received a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from Pennsylvania. Since joining Fairchild Semiconductor in 1968, he has held senior positions in many departments and has been the main leader of Fairchild Semiconductor since 1994. Fortunately, the investment acquired this time was a venture capital company, and Fairchild Semiconductor finally had a neutral identity. Pound said excitedly that this transformation will help develop Fairchild's internal value and allow us to develop independently and become a semiconductor company with a variety of product supplies.

As expected, Fairchild Semiconductor, a subsidiary of Pangde, continued to make amazing moves, and it also began corporate acquisitions: In November of that year, Fairchild Semiconductor spent 120 million to buy a company with an annual revenue of 70 million. Semiconductor division of Raytheon Company; in December 1998, Fairchild once again spent 455 million to acquire a semiconductor factory under South Korea's Samsung Company that manufactures special wafers. This acquisition will make Fairchild's semiconductor products more suitable for televisions, video recorders and audio equipment, making a big move into the consumer electronics manufacturing industry.

As the "myth" that supports the rise of Silicon Valley, Fairchild Semiconductor has gone through a glorious and tortuous journey. Both success and failure are caused by talents. As the saying goes, "Succeed with Xiao He and fail with Xiao He." .