Jean Hoerni

Jean Hoerni (September 26, 1924- January 12, 1997) was a silicon transistor pioneer and a member of the Traitorous Eight. He was remembered for developing the planar process. (Note: Please see bibliography.)

He was born in 1924 in Switzerland. He received a Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge and another Ph.D. from the University of Geneva.

In 1952, he moved to the United States to work at the California Institute of Technology, where he became acquainted with William Shockley, the founder of Silicon Valley.

A few years later, Shockley recruited Hoerni to work with him at the newly founded Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory division of Beckman Instruments in Mountain View, California. But Shockley's strange behavior would compel the Traitorous Eight (aka the "Fairchild Eight" and "Shockley's Eight") to abandon him and create the Fairchild Semiconductor corporation, where Hoerni would go on to invent the planar process [patent|US|3025589|Hoerni, J. A.: "Method of Manufacturing Semiconductor Devices” filed May 1, 1959] [patent|US|3064167|Hoerni, J. A.: "Semiconductor device" filed May 15, 1960] , which allowed transistors to be created out of silicon rather than germanium. [ [http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/articles/moore/index.html "The Accidental Entrepreneur:] , Gordon E. Moore, "NoblePrize.org", December 3, 2001] The name "Silicon Valley" refers to this silicon. [ [http://www.britannica.com/eb/topic-705441/Jean-Hoerni "Jean Hoerni (American engineer)"] , "Encyclopædia Britannicaonline"]

Along with the Traitorous Eight alumni Jay Last and Sheldon Roberts, Hoerni founded Amelco (known now as Teledyne) in 1961.

In 1964, he founded Union Carbide Electronics, and in 1967 Intersil.

An avid mountain climber, Hoerni often visited the Karakoram Mountains in Pakistan and was moved by the poverty of the Balti mountain people who lived there. He contributed $12,000 for the building of the first school in the area, and later founded the Central Asia Institute with an endowment of $1 million to continue providing services for them after his death. [ [http://www.gregmortenson.com/Articles/FeaturedArticles/09-12-06ChristianScienceMonitor.htm "A gift for an entire village-- A failed mountaineer becomes a philanthropist after a village without a school saves his life"] , Marilyn Gardner, "Christian Science Monitor", September 12, 2006] Hoerni named Greg Mortenson as the first Executive Director of the organization, who has continued to build schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan. [ [http://www.ikat.org/history.html "Central Asia Institute History"] , Central Asia Institute]

In Dec. 2007, an article was published by Michael Riordan on Jean Hoerni and his planar process in IEEE Spectrum. The author claimed that Jay Last pointed out that Hoerni had incredible stamina and could hike for hours on little food or water. (Note: Please see bibliography.)

Bibliography

* "Red Herring" magazine, February 1997, in an article by Deborah Claymon
* "Three Cups of Tea," about the establishment of CAI and Hoerni's important early role
* Jean A. Hoerni, "Planar silicon diodes and transistors", IEDM Technical Digest, p. 50 (1960).
* Michael Riordan, "The Silicon Dioxide Solution: How physicist Jean Hoerni built the bridge from the transistor to the integrated circuit", IEEE Spectrum, pp. 50-56 (Dec. 2007).

References