6) Engineers Inspired by a Magazine

  
Picture A: The Electrotechnical Laboratory group that developped the first IC in Japan
(From left: Denda, Tarui, Rumiko Inoue, and Nagaaki Narukami )


Picture B: External view of the prototype IC



Picture C: The thesis which was presented at the Joint Convention of Four Institutes of Electrical Engineering in 1961 (Provided by Mr. Yasuo Tarui, Click to enlarge)

The group that made the first Japanese-made IC prototype was a group in Electrotechnical Laboratory, affiliated with the former Agency of Industrial Science and Technology, and was inspired to make an effort by the big news about IC from the United States. At that time, the head of the transistor section of electronics dept. (later to become a professor at Tokyo Agricultural Engineering University), Yasuo Tarui, focused on the importance of the IC and worked on the prototype with a fellow researcher, Seiichi Denda.

The first concrete information from the United States regarding IC came to Japan in the beginning of 1960. Recalling the strong empathy he had when reading about the result from Westinghouse (WH) in the February 1960 issue of the American magazine, “Semiconductor Product,” Tarui suggested that “This will be the future of mainstream technology of semiconductor. We too, want to take a part in this.” At that time Westinghouse, separately from Texas Instruments, and Fairchild succeeded in integration development, and they named it “Molectronics.” 

The group would try to make assumptions and to find clues with little information they received from America. However, Denda wondered, “Isn't it okay to use any method in order to acquire the function we desire?” and then decided on germanium for the chip material, and a multi-vibrator circuit structure.

Doing so, the first domestically produced IC was completed in December 1960, made up of three germanium pellets arranged parallel on a 1cm-square resin container. Depending on the perspective, it was also said the IC was a multi-chip hybrid IC structure. For two of those pellets, each had a transistor (alloy diffusion type), and a condenser. The remaining pellet had four integrated resistors. The pellets were soldered and wired together.

Picture A is the Electrotechnical Laboratory group that developped the first IC in Japan (From left: Denda, Tarui, Rumiko Inoue, and Nagaaki Narukami),
Picture B is an external view of the prototype IC, and Picture C is the thesis which was presented at the Joint Convention of Four Institutes of Electrical Engineering in 1961. (Provided by Mr. Yasuo Tarui, Click to enlarge)


| To page top | To Part 2 index |

“Mr. Shimura’s Essays with Historic Photos”    Semiconductor History Museum of Japan
Society of Semiconductor Industry Specialists (SSIS), General Incorporated Association
Shiota Bldg 202, 6-27-10 Shinjuku, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo Japan, 160-0022, Tel:81-3-6457-3245 Fax:81-3-6457-3246 E-mail:info@ssis.or.jp Url:http://www.ssis.or.jp
All the contents including the texts and the photos herein published are neither allowed to be reproduced, nor copied without permission of SSIS.
Copyright (C) 2016, SSIS All Rights Reserved