Conversation

Notices

1. Robert McNees (mcnees@mastodon.social)'s status on Sunday, 13-Aug-2023 14:45:11 UTC Robert McNees

   Engineer and inventor Frances Hugle was born #OTD in 1927.

   She pioneered techniques used in microcircuitry fabrication and obtained patents for many of them, including methods for printing circuits and producing semiconducting films.

   Image: IEEE

   • Robert McNees (mcnees@mastodon.social)'s status on Sunday, 13-Aug-2023 14:45:10 UTC Robert McNees

     in reply to

     Hugle's best known invention is probably the process we now call Tape-automated bonding (TAB), which she developed in 1966. It is an essential technique for the high-volume production of certain kinds of circuits.

     https://www.eesemi.com/tab.htm

     Hugle was awarded something like seventeen patents related to semiconductors and the production of integrated circuits.

     Some of the techniques she pioneered are still in use today.

   • Robert McNees (mcnees@mastodon.social)'s status on Sunday, 13-Aug-2023 14:45:22 UTC Robert McNees

     in reply to

     Frances co-founded a number of companies, including the early Silicon Valley firm Siliconix.

     According to Wikipedia, she is the only woman included in Don Hoefler's 1968 "Semiconductor Family Tree."

     Pdf: http://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/still-image/PENDING/X3665.2007/Fairchild/FSC_ENews_Hoefler_July68.pdf

   • Robert McNees (mcnees@mastodon.social)'s status on Sunday, 13-Aug-2023 14:50:26 UTC Robert McNees

     in reply to

     Frances Hugle, née Sarnat, was born in Chicago and attended school in Hyde Park.

     When she was seventeen she won a prominent math contest run by Wilson Junior College.

     Her first place finish in the math contest prompted a Chicago Tribune story with a truly magnificent headline.

   • Robert McNees (mcnees@mastodon.social)'s status on Sunday, 13-Aug-2023 14:53:49 UTC Robert McNees

     in reply to

     "34 Husky Boys Bow to a Girl in Math Tests”

   • Robert McNees (mcnees@mastodon.social)'s status on Sunday, 13-Aug-2023 14:55:16 UTC Robert McNees

     in reply to

     The IEEE awards an annual Frances G. Hugle scholarship. You can read about it — and donate to the memorial fund that supports it — here:

     https://wie.ieee.org/grants-scholarships/frances-b-hugel/

   • Robert McNees (mcnees@mastodon.social)'s status on Sunday, 13-Aug-2023 14:57:01 UTC Robert McNees

     in reply to

     [reporter flips open steno pad, licks the tip of their pencil]

     "And what can you tell our readers about these 34 boys she beat in the math contest?"

   • Robert McNees (mcnees@mastodon.social)'s status on Sunday, 13-Aug-2023 14:57:33 UTC Robert McNees

     in reply to

     Sorry I just think that headline is really funny.

   • Robert McNees (mcnees@mastodon.social)'s status on Monday, 14-Aug-2023 00:15:47 UTC Robert McNees

     in reply to

     ☝️Updated the third post in the thread so that the “Semiconductor Family Tree” image is readable when you zoom in.

   • Robert McNees (mcnees@mastodon.social)'s status on Monday, 14-Aug-2023 00:31:18 UTC Robert McNees

     in reply to

     • OddOpinions5

     @failedLyndonLaRouchite intel was incorporated 10 days after the date of this article! Moore and Noyce left Fairchild, which I think is on there.

   • OddOpinions5 (failedlyndonlarouchite@mas.to)'s status on Monday, 14-Aug-2023 00:31:19 UTC OddOpinions5

     in reply to

     @mcnees
     nice
     but I must be missing something: why is Intel not shown ?

   • Robert McNees (mcnees@mastodon.social)'s status on Monday, 14-Aug-2023 00:35:30 UTC Robert McNees

     in reply to

     Interesting historical note! Intel was incorporated on July 18, 1968 – 10 days after the date on the Semiconductor Family Tree article. Moore and Noyce left Fairchild, which is on the tree. Before that, they were among the “traitorous eight” who left Shockley (also on the tree) to found Fairchild.