Bob Widlar
Robert J. Widlar ( born November 30, 1937 in Ohio; † 27 February 1991 in Puerto Vallarta ) was a pioneer in the design of analog integrated circuits (IC).
Life
Widlar joined in 1958 as a technical instructor in the U.S. Air Force a. A year later he began his studies at the University of Colorado, which he finished in 1962 with a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering. During this time he worked at Ball Brothers Research on Control System for the Orbiting Solar Observatory. In 1963 Widlar joined Fairchild Semiconductor, where he went into the development of linear ICs. He began there the development of the world's first monolithic operational amplifier μA702 without the knowledge of the Fairchild management and elaborated together with the process engineer Dave Talbert a suitable manufacturing process for it. The chip was a success because it offered the opportunity for strong miniaturization of analog computing circuits. Up to this time were still operational amplifier constructed from discrete components, thus were large and expensive.
After a series of successful products for Fairchild left Widlar Fairchild, because you did not want there to meet his salary demands. Along with Dave Talbert and Mineo Yamatake he went in 1966 to National Semiconductor, where he established the department of linear ICs. In 1970 he got out at the age of 34 years and moved to Puerto Vallarta, by its own account as a millionaire. He eventually worked since 1974 as a freelance developer for National Semiconductor and Linear Technology until his death by heart attack, which overtook him while jogging on the beach near his home. He died unmarried at the age of 54 years without children, leaving his brothers Jim and Tom and his sister Jane West.
Bob Widlar was considered extremely eccentric and difficult. He was heavy drinker and known that he still was able to maintain excellent technical presentations in a drunken state.
By Bob Widlar originate a large number of innovations in integrated circuit technology, such as the band gap reference in the first integrated voltage regulator LM109, the Widlar current mirror and the super -gain transistor in the LM102. Many of his developments are also still used today in billion numbers.
He has published more than 40 technical articles (in addition to numerous product-related publications) and worked inter alia on the following products:
- μA702, μA709, μA710, μA711, μA712, μA726 at Fairchild
- LM100, LM101, LM101A, LM102 LM113 up, LM216, LM10, LM11, LM12 and LT10 ( power transistor, never went into series) at National Semiconductor
- LT1017, LT1018, LT1016, LT1010, LT1011 for Linear Technology
Quotes about Robert J. Widlar
" I mean, hey what such a great public Spokesman and such a great engineer he did was like literally a religious symbol to analog users. And people would come across the country just to listen to him talk and he would lecture on circuit design and synthesis things and he would do it helped smashed most of the time. [ ... ] There have not been many personalities like him. He had courage. Hey what aggressive. Hey what the hey, what insane. Hey what all of Those Things. Ego. Widlar what natural. Hey just what, hey what the meanest, toughest son of a bitch you've ever seen. "
" He Brought National to the top of the large largest market share in linear, just a very prolific guy. A very, very strange guy, but talent out the eyeballs and he would design a product, he'd not only design it, it would be thoroughly designed. I mean no flaws in this design. He'd write the datasheet perfect in all respects. The English was perfect. Application notes, extensive and thorough. And it would drive you nuts Because He would not allow you to introduce the product until everything was perfect. But this man Could work, you know, on a device for, you know, three or four months, sort of night and day until it finished what and then he would go on a drunk. He drank excessively, Which I tolerated. I had no choice. I mean this guy what the company for a while. "
" Charlie Spork, (who recently retired as the president of National ) told me about the first time he met Bob. Hey what in the Fairchild hospitality suite falling on the IEEE show in New York City back in 1966. Reading what He did in Electronic News Raytheon had just Brought out at RM709 as a second source to the Fairchild UA709. Bob, who what not pleased at being second- sourced, came over and, uttering a generalized profanity, set fire to Charlie's newspaper. Charlie what astonished, and threw it into a metal wastebasket. Unfortunately the fire did not go out. As they tried to extinguish the fire, the smoke alarms went off and the fire department arrived. So much for first impressions [ ... ]. "