The sensor history.pdf

sensor history
Index
02 Introduction
03 The Fairchild Semiconductor Days
05 The National Semiconductor Days
08 The Sensym Days
12 Art Zias
14 Next Sensors
16 All Sensors
16 Hans Keller
17 Other Silicon Valley panies
21 Other US Silicon panies
27 Silicon Senors in Europe and the Rest of the World
30 Significant Applications
32 The Millionaires Club
33 Some People to Remember
34 ments from Art Zias
36 The Author
01
all sensors
Introduction
There are certain stories I tend to tell when we have visitors in Sunnyvale or when I first meet
people in the sensor business. The extent and detail of these stories vary as is appropriate with the
interests of our visitors or the occasion. I like to recount some of the history of silicon based sensors
in Silicon Valley and give some examples of applications we’ve worked on in the past. Often this
triggers mon ground upon which we might have interests, people or other experiences in
common to share. I shall try to share some of this by way of this news letter.
02
sensor history
The Fairchild Semiconductor Days
The beginning in the Valley
For all practical purposes I’ve been directly involved with the first silicon sensor work in Silicon
Valley. The person most responsible for bringing sensor technology to the area was Art Zias. Art was
a technical writer at Bell Labs while an engineering student in the late fifties. The physics of
piezoresistance in silicon and germanium was derived from the work of Phann, Thurston and Smith
at Bell and was chronicled by Art. Art also worked as a professional saxophone player at the major
New York studios during the fifties. In his own words “I was skilled enough to play with the top
jazz artists, but not talented enough to be ranked with them.” Pfann’s work inspired Art to make a
life long career of silicon sensors. Bill Pfann made ment at the time that not only inspired Art
but perhaps defined the industry “Now that we’ve studied the transduction eff