Outside the US, it operated locations in Australia;[5] Singapore; Bucheon, South Korea; Penang, Malaysia; Suzhou, China; and Cebu, Philippines, among others.

At first he attempted to hire some of his former colleagues from Bell Labs, but none were willing to move to the West Coast or work with Shockley again at that time.

Shockley then founded the core of the new company with what he considered the best and brightest graduates coming out of American engineering schools.

Noyce also expressed his belief that silicon semiconductors would herald the start of disposable appliances that, due to cheap electronic components, would not be repaired but merely discarded when worn out.

Fairchild's Noyce and Texas Instrument's Kilby had independently invented the integrated circuit (IC) based on bipolar technology.

[12] In turn, Hoerni's planar process was inspired by the surface passivation method developed at Bell Labs by Carl Frosch and Lincoln Derick in 1955[13][14] and 1957.

[21][22] In 1948, Bardeen and Brattain patented at Bell Labs an insulated-gate transistor (IGFET) with an inversion layer, this concept forms the basis of CMOS technology today.

[26] Hence, Fairchild dominated the analog integrated circuit market, having introduced the first IC operational amplifiers, or "op-amps", Bob Widlar's μA702 (in 1964) and μA709.

In The Shiprock Dedication Commemorative Brochure released by the Fairchild company, the Diné (Navajo) women circuit makers were celebrated as "culture workers who produced circuits as part of the 'reproductive' labor of expressing Navajo culture, rather than merely for wages."

This claim was based on the opinion that circuits of the electronic chips had a mere resemblance with the complex geometric patterns on the Navajo rugs.

Paul Driscoll, the Shiprock plant manager, spoke of the "untapped wealth of natural characteristics of the Navajo...the inherent flexibility and dexterity of the Indians."

Sporck, Pierre Lamond and most managers had grown upset and disillusioned with corporate focus on unprofitable ventures at the expense of the semiconductor division.

[32] Actually, Lamond had previously assembled a team of Fairchild managers in preparation to defect to Plessey, a British company.

Fairchild MOS Division was slow in understanding the potential of the SGT which promised not only faster, more reliable, and denser circuits, but also new device types that could enlarge the field of solid state electronics – for example, CCDs for image sensors, dynamic RAMs, and non-volatile memory devices such as EPROM and flash memories.

Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore were among the last of the original founders to leave, at which point the brain-drain of talents that had fueled the growth of the company was complete.

Judge William Copple ruled that Fairchild's results were so unimpressive that it was impossible to assess damages "under any theory".

In 1979, Fairchild Camera and Instrument was purchased by Schlumberger Limited, an oil field services company, for $425 million.

In the early 1980s, Fairchild was one of several silicon valley tech companies involved in a lawsuit brought on by residents of San Jose, California.

The case pertained to industrial solvent contamination of ground water and soil in San Jose's Los Paseos neighborhood.

[44] In 1997, the reconstituted Fairchild Semiconductor was reborn as an independent company, based in South Portland, Maine, with Kirk Pond as CEO.

[48] In August 1999, Fairchild Semiconductor again became a publicly traded company on the New York Stock Exchange with the ticker symbol FCS.

[citation needed] On March 19, 2001, Fairchild Semiconductor announced that it had completed the acquisition of Intersil Corporation's discrete power business for approximately $338 million in cash.

On September 6, 2001, Fairchild Semiconductor announced the acquisition of Impala Linear Corporation, based in San Jose, California, for approximately $6 million in stock and cash.

Impala brought with it expertise in designing analog power management semiconductors for hand-held devices like laptops, MP3 players, cell phones, portable test equipment and PDAs.

Thompson would also be President, Chief Executive Officer and a member of the board of directors of Fairchild Semiconductor International.

[50] On March 15, 2006, Fairchild Semiconductor announced that Kirk P. Pond would retire as Chairman at the company's annual stockholders' meeting on May 3, 2006.

In April 2011, Fairchild Semiconductor acquired TranSiC, a silicon carbide power transistor company originally based in Sweden.

A description on the commemorative plaque reads: "At this site in 1959, Dr. Robert Noyce of Fairchild Semiconductor Corporation invented the first integrated circuit that could be produced commercially.

Based on 'planar' technology, an earlier Fairchild breakthrough, Noyce's invention consisted of a complete electronic circuit inside a small silicon chip.

His innovation helped revolutionize 'Silicon Valley's' semiconductor electronics industry, and brought profound change to the lives of people everywhere.