Fairchild Semiconductor

Fairchild Semiconductor was founded in 1957 as only the third company in what later became Silicon Valley. The company manufactured high performance power, electronics, analog, and optoelectronics products including transistors and integrated circuits.

In 1959, Fairchild researchers led by Robert Noyce invented the integrated circuit, which was the first whole circuit that could be made on a single chip using silicon. On April 25th, 1961, the US patent office awarded Noyce with the first patent for an integrated circuit, spurring Fairchild to grow from 12 employees to 12,000 employees within a couple of years.

Many of Fairchild's founders went on to establish other companies, helping Silicon Valley to become what it is today.

After Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore left in 1968 and founded Intel, Fairchild faded away from the forefront of the semiconductor industry for several decades. The company returned to relevancy in 1997 after going through a leveraged buyout, as they began acquiring other tech companies and developing new products.

In September of 2016, Fairchild Semiconductor was acquired by ON Semiconductor. The integration of the two companies was completed on October 30th, 2017.