BANGALORE, INDIA: Texas Instruments India today celebrated the 50th anniversary of the invention of the Integrated Circuit (IC) - a Nobel Prize winning discovery that led to the generation of life-changing technological advances in the field of electronics globally and expanded the possibilities of how we learn, connect, grow and discover in our day-to-day lives. The naïve yet dynamic IC that was invented way back in 1958 by Sir Jack Kilby, a Texas Instruments scientist and Nobel Laureate today practically sits on every mobile phone in the world and is making waves in fields as diverse as medical, energy, automotive, security and surveillance, etc.

As part of the ongoing global celebrations to commemorate this milestone, TI India named the 100-seater auditorium in their Bangalore campus as the “Jack Kilby Auditorium” and unveiled an exhibition of Sir Jack Kilby’s rare photographs and the integrated circuit accompanied by a story board on the invention of the chip. The company will also organize a series of talks on Innovation by technical experts culminating in a seminar in the weeks to come.

As a befitting homage to this great inventor, Texas Instruments India also organizes the Jack Kilby Science and Technology Quiz for school children each year, in five major Indian cities. Intended to ingrain the scientific rationale and fire young minds with the desire to imagine and innovate, this is an endeavor to bring out the nascent spirit of invention in children at a time when ideas take form. This year, this quiz which is in its sixth edition, will be launched in October. 

On a global level, to commemorate the event, Texas Instruments announced its new “Kilby Lab” at Dallas, Texas. This lab will be a center of innovation designed to foster creative ideas for breakthrough semiconductor technology and will build on Jack Kilby’s legacy of revolutionizing lives through chip innovation.

In his commemoration address, Dr. Bobby Mitra, Managing Director, Texas Instruments India said, “The best way we can celebrate Jack Kilby’s contributions is by providing people with the opportunity to carry on his work and find new ways for a microchip to dramatically improve millions of lives around the world through technology innovation”.

 “Our endeavor will be to combine TI’s experience in developing new chip technologies and our understanding of customer needs with the dreams of a new generation of innovators. Technology springs from imagination, and at TI, we want to create an environment where people can both imagine a better world and help build it”, Dr. Mitra added. 

During the 50 years since the invention of the IC, technology continues to take on critical problems in healthcare, power efficiency and public safety, touching people in every corner of the globe. Engineers worldwide are creating innovative applications to help tackle many of the world’s most pressing challenges. For example, portable healthcare equipments, previously unaffordable in countries like India, are now available even in remote regions. More energy efficient consumer products with low power consumption and recycled components are feeding the global “green movement”. In medicine, new applications of the IC are helping turn large imaging devices into hand-held products. Other advances being made include cardiac defibrillators planted inside the human body, powered indefinitely by ambient energy or the body’s own heat.

Kilby’s invention also made possible one of the greatest educational resources of this century – the Internet. Today, people work on their keyboards and set the thousands of microchips inside a PC to retrieve information. The current worldwide demand for microchips represents a $250 billion-a-year industry. It continues to feed technological revolutions in every industry, from aerospace and electronics to medicine and zoology.

Thus, the Kilby dream of the IC has revolutionized the way the world lives; in communication, in healthcare, in safety and security. The Internet, the low-cost mobile phone, the hand-held blood-pressure meter: the IC has indeed stepped into our lives, and changed it. That is the power of Jack Kilby’s dream: to inquire, to ideate, to invent. We will hear of more…