James M. Early

James M. Early (born July 25, 1922 in Syracuse , New York , † January 12, 2004 in Palo Alto , California ) was an American electrical engineer. He became known for his work in the field of semiconductor development , in particular for the early effect in transistors that was named after him .

Life

James M. Early was born in Syracuse, United States, the second of nine siblings. He first studied at the New York State College of Forestry in his hometown, where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in pulp and paper manufacture in 1943. During his service in the US Army , he got to know and appreciate electrical engineering at Ohio State University , so that he then enrolled there as a full-time student, obtained a Master of Science degree in 1948 and completed his studies in 1951 with a successful doctorate .

In September 1951, he began working at Bell Labs in Murray Hill , New Jersey. In the following 18 years at Bell, he researched the theoretical basis for the production of bipolar transistors, discovered the change in the space charge zone width, known as the Early Effect , developed transistors and solar cells for the first satellites and was instrumental in the development of the first integrated circuits (IC) involved.

In September 1969, he left Bell Labs as director of the Allentown, Pennsylvania, semiconductor device laboratory and joined Fairchild Semiconductor as director of research and development. Many new techniques were developed here under his guidance and personal assistance, including:

• the bipolar isoplanar process in semiconductor technology ,
• the prototypes of the first semiconductor memories ,
• the "buried-channel" technology for CCD photosensors , which significantly improved their use under difficult lighting conditions,
• the prototypes of the CMOS IC series 4000C in 15 volt technology,
• the ECL -IC series 100K.

Under his leadership, Fairchild was the first semiconductor manufacturer to use an ion implanter in 1970 and in 1977 the first commercially available system for electron beam lithography , a MEBES-1 from Etec Systems. From 1983 onwards, Early only worked as a technical consultant and then retired from professional life in 1986, during which time he published a large number of technical articles and received 14 patents.

James Early died at the age of 81, leaving behind a wife, son and seven daughters.

Fonts

• Effects of space-charge layer widening in junction transistors. In: Proceedings of the IRE. 40, 1952, pp. 1401-1406.

Awards

Early has received several awards for his results:

• 1967 Texnikoi Award from the College of Engineering at Ohio State University
• 1979 JJ Ebers Award from the IEEE Electron Device Society

Early was a Fellow of the IEEE , Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science , a member of the American Physical Society , Sigma Xi and a variety of committees.

Web links

• CV and picture of James M. Early