Japanese Pioneers

Yoshiyuki Takeishi was born in 1927. He started at Tokyo Shibaura Electric Co., Ltd. in 1953 and there became director of the Integrated Circuits Laboratory of the Research and Development Center in 1973. In 1975, he received the Okochi Memorial Technology Prize. After that, he became director of the Semiconductor Technology Laboratory in the semiconductor business division in 1979, and a deputy director of the Research and Development Center in 1981. The Minister of State for Science and Technology awarded him a commendation in 1981. He was the director of the VLSI Research Center within the Research and Development Center in 1984 and was given executive status in 1986. He became the director of the ULSI Research Center (treated as an executive position) in 1988 and was awarded the Medal with Purple Ribbon in the same year. The IEEE gave him the J.J. Ebers Award for 1990.

Notwithstanding his significant achievements as a researcher at Toshiba, he made a tremendous contribution to the general development of IC technologies and promotion of the IC business. He also dedicated himself to the development of technologies in Japan by organizing frequent overseas exchange postings.

Immediately after entering Toshiba, he was engaged in basic research into electron emission from the cathodes of vacuum tubes. In 1962, he went abroad to study at Bell Laboratories, where as well as making many lasting international friendships, he presenting a number of papers on the physics of solid surfaces. After returning to Japan, he became interested in the interface between silicon and SiO2, and research into this drove him from purely basic research and further into the research and development of integrated circuits. In 1973, he established the first Japanese independent laboratory for integrated circuits, and Toshiba was soon followed in this by other companies. After his temporary transfer to the VLSI Technology Research Association with its establishment in 1975, he was involved in promoting the development of lithographic technology using electron beams. In 1979, he was promoting the memory and microcomputer businesses as director of the Semiconductor Technology Laboratory of Toshiba’s Semiconductor Business Division. While encouraging and supporting the activities of Japanese engineers at international institutes, he also worked towards easing conflicts between the U.S. and Japanese semiconductor industries in various ways, including donations to U.S. research institutes.

In 1988, he was awarded the Medal with Purple Ribbon for his research into the development of MOS integrated circuits with double-gate transistors. He also received a number of prizes, including the J.J. Ebers Award in 1990 for his achievements in developing programmable memory and VLSI technology.