Eberhard Spenke
Eberhard Spenke (born December 5, 1905 in Bautzen , † November 24, 1992 in Erlangen ) was a German physicist.
Life
Eberhard Spenke studied physics at the Universities of Bonn, Göttingen and Königsberg, and received his doctorate in 1928. Following his studies, Eberhard Spenke worked as a research assistant in the Berlin central laboratory of Siemens & Halske AG from 1929 to 1946 . Together with Walter Schottky (1886–1976) he investigated the properties and conduction processes of semiconductor materials . In the 1930s and 1940s Spenke was also involved in the development of thermistors (see his patents with W. Schottky, among others). In 1944 Spenke was assigned to the acoustics working group under Friedrich Spandöck .
After the end of the war, Eberhard Spenke built the semiconductor research laboratory of Siemens & Halske AG in Pretzfeld, Franconia . In 1954 he succeeded there for the first time in the extraction of high-purity silicon as a starting material for the production of electronic components. In October 1956, at a conference in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Siemens presented the first silicon power rectifiers with an unprecedented 1000 volt reverse voltage and a maximum current of 200 amps, based on a process developed by Spenke and colleagues. From his working group there are a number of patents for the production of high-purity semiconductor materials and the like. a. also von Spenke himself together with Heinrich Welker . Eberhard Spenke continued his process for the purification and crystal growth of silicon up to industrial maturity (see also zone pulling process ) and is therefore considered the "father of silicon semiconductors".
Awards
- 1958: VDE honor ring
- 1972 Wilhelm Exner Medal
Literature and Sources
- Ottfried Madelung Schottky-Spenke-Welker: Memories of the "founding years" of semiconductor physics in Germany after the Second World War , Physikalische Blätter, Volume 55, 1999, Issue 6, pp. 54–58
- The silicon pioneers - 100 years of central research at Siemens , in "Pictures of the Future" , 2005, pp. 94 + 95 (PDF; 9.6 MB)
Web links
- Literature by and about Eberhard Spenke in the catalog of the German National Library
- Entry about Eberhard Spenke in the database of the Wilhelm Exner Medal Foundation .
- Mathis, Wolfgang, "Spenke, Eberhard", in: Neue Deutsche Biographie 24 (2010), pp. 666–667
Patents
- ↑ Patent AT145751 : Arrangement for amplifying or stabilizing currents by means of negative resistors. Registered on May 25, 1936 .
- ↑ Patent DE738988 : Method for achieving a large control range for NTC thermistors. Registered on March 29, 1934 .
- ↑ Patent DE1208010 : Planar semiconductor rectifier. Registered on November 21, 1955 .
- ↑ Patent DE1061593 : Device for the production of the purest semiconductor materials for electrical purposes / Method for production of high-purity semiconductor materials for electrical purposes. Registered on June 25, 1956 .
- ↑ Patent DE1197058 : Method of producing single-crystalline flat semiconductor bodies / Method of producing crystalline semiconductor material on a dendritic substrate. Registered on April 2, 1960 .
- ↑ Patent DE1243641 : Process for the production of semiconductor rods by pulling them from the melt. Registered on December 12, 1962 .
- ↑ VDE ring of honor . Accessed January 31, 2018.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Spenke, Eberhard |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German physicist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | December 5, 1905 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Bautzen |
| DATE OF DEATH | November 24, 1992 |
| Place of death | gain |