Computing · 1959

Planar process

Flat, oxide-protected transistors that made mass production possible.

Jean Hoerni at Fairchild built transistors under a protective silicon dioxide layer with all contacts on one flat surface. It enabled Noyce's monolithic IC and remains the basis of chip fabrication.

See it in the living tree Wikipedia

Arcs above join it to what it stood on, arcs below to what it led to. The bar places this stretch on the tree's whole timeline.

What it built on 2

Photolithography 1957
Transistor 1947

What it led to 1

MOSFET 1959

Related measurements

The dashed line marks when it first worked.

Transistors per microprocessor Latest: 58.2B transistors (2021) Source: Our World in Data

Computation per constant dollar, 1850-2006 Latest: 7.3B million units of computer power per 2006 $ (2003) Source: Nordhaus 2007, Two Centuries of Productivity Growth in Computing, J. Econ. Hist. 67(1), Table 6