Historical, entrepreneurial and supply chain management perspectives on the semiconductor industry

Abstract

This paper traces the history and evolution of two earliest companies in the semiconductor industry: Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory and Fairchild Semiconductor. Starting from the invention of the transfer resistor (transistor) by three Nobel laureates (John Bardeen, Walter Houser Brattain and William Shockley), the founding of the "most successful failure" in Silicon Valley, Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory and the Shockley Eight (aka Traitorous Eight or Fairchild Eight), the paper details some earliest entrepreneurial attempts in the industry and how these attempts influenced over seventy semiconductor companies in Silicon Valley, including Intel Corporation, National Semiconductor, and Advanced Micro Devices. The paper then examines the industry's developing manufacturing models, including the emergence of the foundry model. Finally, the paper looks at the industry's growing trend of globalization together with its outsourcing/off-shoring and supply chain management issues. Taking advantage of the three authors' interdisciplinary expertise, the paper studies the semiconductor industry from three major perspectives: historical, entrepreneurial, and supply chain management.