Morris Tanenbaum

Inventor of silicon chips

guy, 94; died February 26

Tanenbaum’s research in the mid-1950s proved that silicon was a better semiconductor material for transistors than germanium, which was widely used at the time. His discovery paved the way for more efficient transistors, crucial to the technology that ushered in the information age.

He began his career in 1952. Bell Labs, in Murray Hill, New Jersey, as a Research Fellow in the Department of Chemical Physics. Two years later, under the guidance of physicist and inventor William Shockley, then at Bell Labs, Tanenbaum began to investigate whether silicon crystals could be used to make transistors.

In 1955, he and his colleague Ernest Buehler demonstrated the first silicon transistor.

Tanenbaum later developed the first silicon gas diffusion transistor that could amplify and switch signals above 100 megahertz at a switching speed 10 times faster than previous silicon transistors.

Despite Tanenbaum’s early work on silicon transistors, AT&T did not support further research or advancement of the technology. At the time, Bell Labs was the research arm of AT&T. Although Bell Labs had “a significant technological advantage in silicon transistor technology, it stopped doing proper research in this area—in part because it simply wasn’t directly related to AT&T’s business—so silicon transistor technology, including integrated circuits, was developed by the company. information another Texas Instruments instead,” Tanenbaum said in 1999. oral history held IEEE History Center.

Instead, Tanenbaum worked on other new technologies in the following decades. In 1962, he was appointed Associate Director of the Metallurgical Division of Bell Labs. There he led the team that created the first high-field superconducting magnets, which are now used in MRI machines and other medical imaging technologies. He later helped develop optical fiber and digital telephone switching.

Tanenbaum continued to serve as president of AT&T New Jersey Bell (now part Verizon) in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

He was appointed president AT&T communications in 1984. Five years later, he stepped down as vice chairman and chief financial officer of AT&T.

Member American Academy of Arts and Scienceshe was also a member American Physical Society and member MIT board of trustees.

In 1949 he received a bachelor’s degree in chemistry. Johns Hopkins University, in Baltimore, and received his Ph.D. in physical chemistry from Princeton.

Adolf Goetzberger

Pioneer of photovoltaics

Lifetime comrade, 94; died February 24

Goetzberger was an early proponent of solar energy technology. Today solar energy third largest renewable electricity sector after hydropower and wind.

Together with physicist Armin Zastrow, he developed the concept agrovoltaics– use of land for both agriculture and solar energy production.

After receiving his doctorate in physics in 1955, Ludwig Maximilian Universityjoined the Munich Goetzberger Siemens, a multinational conglomerate, i.e. in Munich. He then moved to the United States in 1958 to work as a senior fellow at Shockley Semiconductor Laboratoryin Palo Alto, California.

After five years at Shockley, he left to join Bell Labsin Murray Hill, New Jersey, where he did research on metal-oxide-semiconductor technology. He returned to Germany in 1968 and became director Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Solid State Physics (IAF), in Freiburg. Three years later, while working at the IAF, he was awarded the title of honorary professor Freiburg University department of physics.

In 1981 Goetzberger founded Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (ISE)– currently Europe’s largest research institute for solar energy – also in Freiburg. That same year, he and Zastrow introduced an agro-electric concept in which solar panels are installed over greenhouses or over field crops to maximize land use. As of 2021, agro-electric systems were capable of producing more than 14 gigawatts of electricity, according to an ISE estimate.

In the early 1980s, Goetzberger pioneered research into fluorescent planar collector concentrators, using photovoltaic (PV) material mixed with fluorescent dyes to separate different wavelengths of light and convert them using solar cells with different band gaps. The research paved the way for more efficient solar energy production. Under Goetzberger’s leadership, ISE developed the first high-efficiency all-electronic inverter for off-grid photovoltaic systems.

Goetzberger was director of the ISE until his retirement in 1993. German Solar Energy Society (DGS)from 1993 to 1997. Based in Berlin, DGS supports the integration of solar technology and renewable energy into the grid.

He co-authored the seminal 2005 textbook. Photovoltaic solar energy.

Goetzberger, holder of over 30 patents in Europe, was awarded Lifetime Achievement Award from European Patent Office in 2009. In 1997 he received three prestigious awards: Carl Boer Solar Meritorious Service Medal from International Solar Energy Society, Becquerel Prize from European CommissionAnd Cherry Awards from IEEE Electronic Device Society. IEEE EDS also honored him with their award in 1983. Ebers Prize for the development of the silicon field-effect transistor, which uses an electric field to control the flow of current in a semiconductor. Goetzberger was the first German to receive this honor.

Peter Sauer

2022 IEEE Nikola Tesla Award Winner

LifeFellow, 75; died December 27

what a sour professor of electrical and computer engineering V University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, where he taught courses and directed research in the field of power systems.

He got 2022 IEEE Nikola Tesla Award “for contributions to dynamic modeling and simulation of synchronous generators, and for leadership in the field of energy education.”

Sour served in USAF as an electrical engineer, designed and built airfield lighting and electrical distribution systems in Langley Air Force Base, in Va. He left active duty in 1973 but continued to serve in Air Force reserves for nearly three decades, retiring in 1998 with the rank of lieutenant colonel.

He joined the University of Illinois in 1977 as a professor. His research there focused on how to improve the stability of power supply systems through large-scale simulations.

In 1991 and 1992 he worked as a program director for energy systems in National Science Foundationdivision of electrical and communication systems.

In 1996 he co-founded power world, a power systems information and analysis company based in Champaign, Illinois. Transmission planners and system operators use the company’s PowerWorld Simulator, a suite of interactive software tools, to simulate power system operation under various conditions. He retired in 2019.

Sauer, member National Academy of Engineeringwrote Energy System Dynamics and Stabilityand he has authored or co-authored over 200 technical articles.

He received IEEE Energy and Energy SocietyLifetime Achievement Award in 2020 “for exceptional long-term contributions to the modeling and dynamic analysis of energy systems, and for leadership in the field of energy education.”

After receiving a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering in 1969 from the University of Missouri at Rolle (now Missouri University of Science and Technology), he went on to earn master’s and doctoral degrees in EE from Purdue Universityin West Lafayette, Indiana in 1974 and 1977 respectively.

Robert W. “Bob” Lawson

Telecommunications engineer

senior member, 89; died November 18

Lawson worked for Bell Telephone of Pennsylvania (now part of AT&T) in Pittsburgh for 35 years. He rose through the ranks and retired in 1988 as a member of the executive team.

During the Korean War he served in US Navy as a cryptological technician specializing in airborne, shipborne and ground-based radar signals.

He began his civilian career in 1953 as a telephone installer for Bell. He was also attending night school at the time. University of Pennsylvaniain Philadelphia, where he received an associate engineering degree in 1963.

After leaving Bell in 1988, he began working with the US government as a telecommunications contractor. He also worked for several years as an engineer for an IT services company. Unisis in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania. He then became a consultant; his main client was Philippine long distance telephone company. (now PLDT) in Makati. He retired from consulting in 1998.

Lawson enjoyed playing billiards, flying kites, singing, playing golf, and helping his neighbors solve technical problems.