Officials say they want to attract a semi-conductor plant, a hope that has become the Holy Grail for aspiring cities across America.

ECONOMIST: Oklahoma��s capital three years on

Using patent analysis studying US semi-conductor firms, they examined the transfer of knowledge between pairs of firms: the firm from which the employee was poached and the poacher.

FORBES: Seeing your employees getting poached -- it's not all bad

Lin, Justin, and Marie examined the semi-conductor industry, where the initial reliance on vacuum tubes was replaced by bipolar technology, which in turn was replaced by complementary metal-oxide semiconductors (CMOS).

FORBES: Big Firm Innovators: What Large Companies Can Do to Be Just as Innovative as Small Entrepreneurial Ones

Notably, INTC recently closed its acquisition of Infineon Technologies (IFNNY), maker of the chips inside the iPhone 3GS. INTC remains one of the best-positioned and strongest companies in the high-growth-potential semi-conductor sector.

FORBES: Back Up The Truck And Load Up With Intel