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Semiconductor logic technology in IBM

 Award plaque by E. J. Rymaszewski,
J. L. Walsh,
and G. W. Leehan

In the last twenty-five years the performance of integrated circuits has improved by more than three orders of magnitude and the unit cost has been reduced by approximately the same factor. This paper describes the evolution of semiconductor logic technology in IBM from its early replacement of vacuum tubes in the mid-1950s to the beginnings of VLSI. It highlights the major challenges and accomplishments in the development of bipolar and field-effect transistor technologies and their embodiment in components for a wide spectrum of IBM products.

Originally published:

IBM Journal of Research and Development, Volume 25, Issue 5, pp. 603-616 (1981).

Significance:

This paper describes the evolution of semiconductor logic technology at IBM from the 1950s to the early era of VLSI. Since the first use of transistors in the mid-l950s, IBM technologists have been the catalysts for many revolutionary changes in solid-state device structure, design techniques, packaging, manufacturing, and testing of integrated circuits—and they have invented several important device and circuit configurations. The authors also discuss the major challenges encountered with semiconductor evolution. They note that “perhaps the most dramatic increase in circuits per module was achieved by the thermal conduction (cooled) module—TCM—of the IBM 3081. It interconnects, powers, and cools about 100 masterslice chips with up to approximately 700 circuits each.”

Since the time this paper was published, several other papers have appeared in the IBM Journal of Research and Development on the topic of semiconductor logic and related topics. See, for example, T. H. Ning, “Why BiCMOS and SOI BiCMOS?” [Vol. 46, No. 2/3, pp. 181-186 (2002)] and R. D. Isaac, “The future of CMOS technology,” [Vol. 44. No. 3, pp. 369-378 (2000)].

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