The Brief but Spectacular History of Shockley Labs

If you read my post Who Put the Silicon in Silicon Valley? then you know my conclusion:

Let's go with Shockley. He invented the transistor, came here, hired a bunch of young PhDs, and sent them out (by accident, not design) to create the companies, that created the companies, that created the companies that we see today.

I also wrote earlier this week on The Birthplace of Silicon Valley: 391 South San Antonio Road.

On Wednesday there was a celebration of the birth of Silicon Valley at its birthplace, 391 San Antonio Road in Mountain View. This is where Shockley's lab was. The original lab was a Quonson hut but was knocked down several years ago. However, the developer of the site commissioned and installed a number of monuments and statues to recognize the importance of the location, along with a 10' long plaque showing photos and the timeline of the establishment of Shockley Labs, Fairchild, and many of the Fairchildren.

The event was organized by the IEEE and the City of Mountain View. The main speaker was Professor James Gibbons, a former dean of engineering at Stanford, whose first task (in 1957) was to work with Shockley and his team to transfer their silicon fabrication knowledge to Stanford, which could in turn train future engineers for what became the industry that we know today.

The Brief but Spectacular History of Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory

I will abbreviate Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory to SSL.

The Prequel

On June 26th 1948, Bell Labs filed for a patent on the bipolar junction transistor invented by Shockley. This is not the original point contact transistor, invented by Shockley, Bratten and Bardeen. This was wonderful science but not the basis for industrial manufacture. The bipolar junction transistor was not an experimental device, it was an extraordinary piece of imagination that Shockley came up with when he was bored in a three-day meeting. Then on April 7th 1949, Gordon Teal at Bell Labs used a crystal growth technique to build the first junction transistor (using germanium, not silicon). Finally, on June 1st 1955, Shockley left Bell Labs to start a company to make silicon bipolar devices (and other semiconductor devices).

SSL 1955-57

On September 23rd 1955, Shockley received funding for 2 years from Arnold Beckman, with the promise to collect "the most creative team in the world for developing and producing transistors". Beckman wanted to set up the company in Pasadena (southern California) but Shockley wanted to set it up in Palo Alto since his aging mother lived there (at 949 Waverley Street). He rented a Quonset hut at 391 San Antonio Road, where we all were last Wednesday. It was 2255 square feet (rent was 5.5¢ per square foot).

From October to the end of 1955, Shockley made good on his promise to hire the most creative team. He would just call and say: "this is Shockley calling." Everyone knew who he was. Noyce recalls thinking "I'm talking to God." He hired Noyce, Moore, Last, Hoerni, Roberts, Kleiner, Grinich, Blank. His pitch was "we will focus first on making silicon bipolar transistors." He was apparently extremely good at judging people, but he didn't trust his own judgment and was a big believer in IQ and personality tests, and made everyone take one. Noyce and Moore were "very bright but will never make good managers"!

In February Beckman and Shockley announced the company, and in April the team started work. Of course, there was no equipment manufacturing industry, so they had to build everything themselves.

In the fall, the seeds of the beginning of the end were planted. Shockley switched the company's principal focus to 4-layer diodes, since through his Bell Labs connections he had heard that Western Electric (the manufacturing arm of the Bell System) were tentatively planning on using them for switching, so this had the potential to be the first big market for semiconductors. Noyce and Moore argued to do silicon bipolar transistors first, and then move on to 4-layer diodes. But Shockley's mind was made up. However, there were a lot of difficulties building them, and Shockley berated employees in open meetings (Shockley's management skills were notoriously bad). However, the silicon bipiolar team still continued to develop the basic technology.

In November, Shockley won the Nobel Prize for Physics for the invention of the bipolar junction transistor, along with Bardeen and Brattain for the point-contact transistor. There was a champagne brunch with the team at Rickey's. "I've never seen Shockley so happy," Jim said. As it happened, VLSI Technology's first annual Christmas party was also held there (it no longer exists, it shut down in 2005).

Just one month later, on December 8th, the senior team wrote to Beckman describing the intolerable working conditions: "Please help us immediately." It was signed by the senior members of the technical staff. Beckman met with the team two days later. The team's proposal was:

• focus the company on silicon bipolar only
• appoint a new manager
• Shockley should take a position at Stanford and serve as technical advisor to the company,  but no longer manage it

Beckman appeared to agree, but then after discussion with Shockley decided to make no change. Jim thinks that the prestige of having a Nobel prize winner running the company was just too significant for Beckman to ignore.

In March 1957 Moore created a repeatable process for fabricating high-quality silicon diodes, and believes that the lab is within months of having a bipolar transistor. Shockley, now 3/4 of the way through his funding, moved Last, Hoerni, and Robert to the 4-layer diode team and puts extreme pressure on everyone to succeed.

Mid-May 1957, Beckman Instruments' finances are deteriorating, so he visits SSL and asks Shockley to "keep expenses down." Shockley says that he will "find new funding and take his team somewhere else." But, in what will turn out to be the beginning of the end, Gordon Moore calls Beckman, with everyone else hanging around the phone, and tells him that the transistor team will not follow Shockley anywhere. On June 1st, Beckman tells Shockley that the team will not follow him anyway, but will stay at SSL if Shockley himself goes. But once again Beckman chooses Shockley over the team. But Moore and the team realize that they have burned their bridges and prepare to resign individually and look for new employment.

Sometime in July 1957, the group meet at Gordon Moore's home at 1474 Alford Street in Los Altos. They realize that between them they posses all the expertise needed to make silicon transistors. They decide not to leave individually,  but to leave as a group and go to a new company that wants to build silicon transistors. They also decide to keep up the appearance of working full-time at SSL while they look for backing. Gene Kleiner's father knows bankers who undertake to find companies to hire the team. Bud Coyle and Arthur Rock (yes, that Arthur Rock) are asked to help.

On August 1st, Jim himself arrived at SSL for the first day of his apprenticeship. He took his IQ and personality test, and then was told Bob Noyce would be his device coach, Gordon Moore his diffusion coach, Jay Last his materials coach, and VicGrinich his circuits coach. Of course, he knew none of these people, and had no idea they had already decided to leave.

Mid-August to mid-September 1957, Coyle and Rock, unable to find a company to hire the whole team suggest starting their own company. They arranged for the group to meet Sherman Fairchild, the founder and CEO of Fairchild Camera and Instrument. He offered the group $1.4M for 18 months with additional funding given progress.

On 18th September 1957, each of the eight members of the group hands in individual resignation letters. Shockley wrote in his diary: "Wed 18 Sept — Group resigns." That's it.

Fairchild 1957-59

On 19th September 1957, the group signed an agreement to form Fairchild Semiconductor Corporation (from now on, FSC) at 844 South Charleston Road. Jim considers this the birth certificate of Silicon Valley.

March 1968, FSC announces its first silicon bipolar transistor, 6 months after leaving SSL, and 2 years after the formation of SSL. Meanwhile Shockley succeeds in producing 100 4-layer diodes per week, with initial uses in military applications.

Meanwhile, the end of SSL. SSL succeeds in getting 4-layer diode production to 1000 devices per month. It has important military applications but volume is low. But Western Electric finally decides against using the device in major telephone switching, eliminating the major market. In April 1960, Beckman sells SSL for $1M, and Shockley takes a position as Professor of Engineering Science at Stanford. The business is finally formally closed in 1968.

On 17th January 1959, Hoerni files for a patent on a planar process. Jim calls this "the single most important patent in the field, after Shockley's original invention of the bipolar transistor."

A week later, on 23rd January, Noyce files patent for the integrated circuit, proposing to use the Hoerni process to fabricate multiple transistors on a single chip and then connect them into a functioning circuit.

On 16th October, almost the last day possible, Fairchild Camera and Instrument exercises its option to buy out FSC. Each founder gets $300K (about $3M in today's dollars).

That's a picture of them just after the buyout, from left to right: Gordon Moore, Sheldon Roberts, Gene Kleiner, Bob Noyce, Vic Grinich, Julie Blank, Jean Hoerni, and Jay Last.

This is the only time, before or since, I've ever seen them in suits.

Fairchildren 1961 onwards

31st January 1961, Last and Hoerni leave FSC to form Amelco, a division of Teledyne. They are later joined by Roberts and Kleiner, dividing the original group of 8 into two groups of 4. Amelco creates a new paradigm for corporate formation with stock options for everyone and a flat organizational structure.

FSC manufacturing manager Charlie Sporck leaves in 1967 as CEO of National Semiconductor (now part of TI) specializing in analog ICs.

Noyce and Moore leave FSC in 1968 to form Intel. The microprocessor is invented by Ted Hoff in 1970, commercialized by Faggin and others, and the first products brought to market in 1971. Of course, Intel CPUs become the main force in the PC industry, and later the server industry.

In 1972, FSC alums for two new major venture capital firms:

• Kleiner and Perkins start Kleiner Perkins (later with Caulfied and Byers too).
• Don Valentine, sales VP at FSC and then National, starts Sequoia Capital.

These are still two of the most significant names in venture capital today.

Plaque Unveiled

Sculptures

In addition to the official IEEE plaque, and the older California State Historical Marker that used to be in the ground in front of the Quonset hut, there are other new sculptures. The biggest diode and transistor (30 billion nm technology node?), and the biggest silicon atom ever:

Watch the Dress Rehearsal

The circumstances for photography and video at the actual event were not great, in an unfinished building, with one wall hastily finished and painted white to be used as a screen. Folding chairs. But there was a dress rehearsal at the Computer History Museum a couple of weeks ago. They made a video of Professor Gibbons, and it is up on YouTube (35 minutes).

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