Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory

Shockley Transistor Corporation
FormerlyShockley Semiconductor Laboratory
Company typePublic
IndustrySemiconductors
Founded1955 (1955)
FoundersWilliam Shockley
Defunct1968
FateAcquired by Clevite
Headquarters
391 San Antonio Road, Mountain View, California
,
United States
Area served
Worldwide
ProductsFour-layer diode
Number of employees
9,000
ParentBeckman Instruments (1955–1960)[1]
Clevite (1960-1968)
ITT (1968)
The original Shockley building at 391 San Antonio Road, Mountain View, California, was a produce market in 2006 and has since been demolished.
The 391 San Antonio Road, Mountain View, site of the Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory, in Dec. 2017. The new project being completed here includes a display of sculptures of packaged semiconductors, including a 2N696 transistor, a Shockley 4-layer diode, and another diode, standing above the sidewalk (seen at the left here).
Facebook's building 391, at the site of the Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory in Mountain View, California; pre-dawn view from the Hyatt Centric Hotel

Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory, later known as Shockley Transistor Corporation, was a pioneering semiconductor developer founded by William Shockley, and funded by Beckman Instruments, Inc., in 1955.[2] It was the first high technology company in what came to be known as Silicon Valley to work on silicon-based semiconductor devices.

In 1957, the eight leading scientists resigned and became the core of what became Fairchild Semiconductor. Shockley Semiconductor never recovered from this departure, and was purchased by Clevite in 1960, then sold to ITT in 1968, and shortly after, officially closed.

The building remained, but was repurposed as a retail store. By 2015 plans were made to demolish the site to develop a new building complex. By 2017 the site was redeveloped with new signage marking it as the "Real Birthplace of Silicon Valley."[3]

  1. ^ "Shockley's Historic Semiconductor Laboratory Honored with Two IEEE Milestones « IEEE University of Lahore".
  2. ^ "ON Shockley Semiconductor". www.pbs.org. 1999. Retrieved 2022-01-28.
  3. ^ IEEE [bare URL PDF]