Artifact Details

Title

Levy, Ken (Kenneth) oral history

Catalog Number

102743016

Type

Document

Description

Ken Levy was the founder and CEO of KLA, a leading manufacturer of semiconductor processing equipment. In this oral history, he describes his early years growing up in New York City in a very poor family. He talks about the early influencers in his life, including important teachers, etc. He spent time at Singer Link, where he gained experience in flight simulators, and then joined some former Singer Link employees at Computervision, an early CAD (computer aided design) company. He made the jump to the semiconductor equipment business when CV bought an invention to do photomask alignment on silicon wafers. Ken’s responsibility was to take that invention to market and make it a business success Although successful, CV decided to exit the semiconductor equipment business. Ken, wanting to stay in that field, subsequently left CV and formed his own company, KLA in 1976. Ken has spent over 30 years in the semiconductor industry, and remains active as a board member, mentor, and investor.

Date

2010-09-16

Contributor

Gruca, Ken, Cameraperson
Levy, Kenneth, Interviewee
Myers, Stanley T., Interviewer

Publisher

Computer History Museum

Place of Publication

Mountain View, California

Extent

13 p.

Copyright Holder

Computer History Museum

Category

Transcription

Subject

Levy, Ken; semiconductor history; Computervision (CV); KLA-Tencor; Cobilt; Singer Link; CAD-CAM

Collection Title

Oral history collection

Lot Number

X5946.2011