Bob Widlar - Arrival at Fairchild

Arrival At Fairchild

Further information: History of the transistor, Traitorous eight, Fairchild Semiconductor

Work at Ball Research brought Widlar in contact with Jean Hoerni and Sheldon Roberts, the creators of radiation hardened transistors and co-founders of Fairchild Semiconductor. Widlar decided to move to a semiconductor manufacturing company, and in 1963 Jerry Sanders, a Fairchild Semiconductor salesman, provided him the opportunity. According to Thomas Lee, Fairchild also wanted to have Widlar on board, and breached professional ethics by recruiting a key employee of their customer. In September 1963 Widlar was invited for an interview with Fairchild research and development (R&D) manager Heinz Ruegg. Widlar arrived at the interview intoxicated, and frankly told Ruegg what he thought about Fairchild's analog circuits: "what they are doing is bullshit". Widlar was sent to another interview with the company's Applications Engineering division, which was based in Mountain View, California. The division head, John Hulme, hired Widlar despite objections from the first round interviewers. Widlar's first assignment at Fairchild targeted IC reliability through adjustments in fabrication processes. This early work, directed by process engineer David Talbert, reduced the price of planar process and made possible development of monolithic (fully integrated) linear ICs. Widlar, who formally reported to John Barrett, proved himself capable of quickly improving Barrett's own designs and very soon squeezed his nominal boss out of the company.

In 1963 Fairchild's analog IC lineup, designed to military specifications, consisted of three amplifier circuits. Fairchild engineers before Widlar designed analog ICs like conventional circuits built with discrete devices. They had already realized the severe limitations of early planar process, which made this approach impractical, but had not proposed working alternatives (active loads and active current sources had yet to be invented). When the original schematic required resistor values that were too low or too high for planar process, the designers employed external nichrome thin film resistors. The resulting hybrid ICs performed poorly and were prohibitively expensive. Fairchild's R&D chief Gordon Moore directed the company to favor digital integrated circuits, which were relatively robust and promised high production volumes. Widlar opposed this strategy and held digital electronics in low esteem: "every idiot can count to one". Talbert shared Widlar's belief and became his closest ally in the company.

Widlar was a hard person to work with, but the few men and women who could, like Talbert and Jack Gifford, joined his inner circle for life. Widlar and Talbert closely guarded their trade secrets and kept unwanted co-workers out of the loop. Gifford, one of those accepted by Widlar and Talbert, said that Widlar "would almost talk to nobody and he would only talk to me on, you know, if I could get him in the right mood. And he was still secretive as hell". Talbert pushed Widlar's experimental orders through his plant at top speed, saving his partner four weeks on every batch at the expense of other orders. Fairchild co-founder Don Valentine said in 2004: "This was a phenomenal duo of highly eccentric — or whatever the word is beyond eccentric — individuals". Former Fairchild photographer Richard Steinheimer said in 1995: "Talbert handling the fabrication and Widlar handling the design, they ruled the world and led the world in linear integrated circuits for a couple of decades."