Silicon-Gate Self-Aligned MOS Process

Federico Faggin and colleagues at Fairchild Semiconductor developed the self-aligned silicon-gate MOS fabrication process, first working device April 1968, first commercial IC (the Fairchild 3708) the same year. Adopted industry-wide from Intel's founding (July 1968) onward as the base MOS fabrication technology for decades. Named by Gordon Moore, alongside High-k Metal Gate (2007), as one of the two \"biggest change[s]\" in 40 years of transistor technology. Attached directly to Transistor (is_precursor_to) rather than inserted into the Planar CMOS-to-FinFET chain specifically: it is a fabrication-process advance that enabled MOS ICs broadly -- Planar CMOS's own 1963 concept originally used metal-gate fabrication and migrated to silicon-gate only over subsequent years -- not a link strictly between the two. See docs/HISTORICAL_TECH_SCOPING.md Sec9.2 for the open-question discussion this resolves. No live tracking planned.