Double PhD & brilliant scientist Jean Hoerni was not only the inventor of the planar process at Fairchild (the basis of the integrated circuit), but also an entrepreneur. In 1964, he founded Union Carbide Electronics and in 1967 Intersil. Yet Hoerni had difficulty recruiting & retaining people at the companies he founded, because he was tough to get along with.

Bernie Marren explains how Fairchild made ICs based on the planar process, with silicon dioxide & then coated with silicon varnish. Alan expresses his appreciation for personal, “inside stories” of semiconductor history like those Bernie told about Hoerni.

[Thanks to Alan Weissberger for the above description.]