在短短的五个月，创始人（谢尔登罗伯茨）建立的晶形操作（1956关），发展光刻掩模技术，使用16毫米movie-camera镜头（罗伯特诺伊斯），建立了铝所需的特点，为使电气接触（穆尔），并建有自己的生产和试验设备（尤利乌斯空白，胜利格里尼奇，尤金克莱纳）在帕洛阿尔托设施。建筑在暴露于贝尔实验室技术（1954关）在肖克利，他们开发了第一个商用双扩散（发射器和基地）硅晶体管，所以命名为其提出的高原样结构。成功后交付的穆尔队的NPN晶体管的装置，在1958八月介绍了2n697型大获好评的惠施康贸易展。

lobby, circa 1960

In early 1958 Fairchild Semiconductor procured its first order, for 100 transistors at $150 apiece from IBM’s Federal Systems Division. No established manufacturer could meet its exacting specifications for a high-voltage silicon transistor to drive magnetic core memory in the B-70 on-board computer. Two development projects were pursued in parallel. A team led by Gordon Moore developed an n-p-n transistor and by Jean Hoerni, which worked on a p-n-p device.

In just five months, the founders (1956 Milestone) set up a crystal-growing operation (Sheldon Roberts), developed photolithographic masking techniques using 16 mm movie-camera lenses (Jay Last, Robert Noyce), established the aluminum characteristics needed for making electrical contacts (Moore), and built their own manufacturing and test equipment (Julius Blank, Victor Grinich, Eugene Kleiner) at their Palo Alto facility. Building on their exposure to Bell Labs techniques (1954 Milestone) at Shockley, they developed the first commercial double-diffused (emitter and base) silicon mesa transistor, so named for its raised plateau-like structure. After successful delivery of the Moore team's n-p-n transistor, the device was introduced as type 2N697 to great acclaim at the Wescon trade show in August 1958.

Autonetics selected the device for a guidance-and-control system on the Minuteman ballistic missile, the largest defense program of the era. In late 1958 a potential reliability problem put the new firm’s survival at stake. Tiny particles flaking off the inside of the metal package threatened to short across exposed junctions on the mesa structure. Hoerni's solution, the famous planar process (1959 Milestone), revolutionized the industry by covering the exposed junction with silicon dioxide.