Carver Mead#Reconceptualizing physics

Carver Andress Mead was born in Bakersfield, California, and grew up in Kernville, California. His father worked in a power plant at the Big Creek Hydroelectric Project, owned by Southern California Edison Company.{{cite journal |title=Carver Mead |journal=American Spectator |date=2001 |volume=34 |issue=7 |page=68 |url=http://worrydream.com/refs/Mead%20-%20American%20Spectator%20Interview.html |access-date=June 8, 2015}} Carver attended a tiny local school for some years, then moved to Fresno, California to live with his grandmother so that he could attend a larger high school.{{cite web |title=The Life of a Caltech "Lifer" |url=https://www.caltech.edu/news/life-caltech-lifer-42727 |website=Caltech |date=May 2014 |publisher=Caltech News and Events |access-date=May 1, 2014}} He became interested in electricity and electronics while very young, seeing the work at the power plant, experimenting with electrical equipment, qualifying for an amateur radio license and in high school working at local radio stations.

Mead studied electrical engineering at Caltech, getting his BS in 1956, his MS in 1957, and his PhD degree in 1960.{{cite web |title=Carver Mead |url=http://cns.caltech.edu/people/faculty/mead.html |website=Computation & Neural Systems |publisher=California Institute of Technology |access-date=June 4, 2015}}{{cite book |last1=Mead |first1=Carver A. |last2=Cohen |first2=Shirley K. |title=Interview with Carver A. Mead (1934) |date=17 July 1996 |publisher=Oral History Project, California Institute of Technology Archives }}

Mead's contributions have arisen from the application of basic physics to the development of electronic devices, often in novel ways. During the 1960s, he carried out systematic investigations into the energy behavior of electrons in insulators and semiconductors, developing a deep understanding of electron tunneling, barrier behavior and hot electron transport. In 1960, he was the first person to describe and demonstrate a three-terminal solid-state device based on the operating principles of electron tunneling and hot-electron transport.{{cite journal |last1=Mead |first1=C. A. |title=The Tunnel-Emission Amplifier |journal=Proceedings of the IRE |date=1960 |volume=48 |issue=3 |pages=359–361 |url=http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechAUTHORS:20150126-165741502 |access-date=June 10, 2015 |doi=10.1109/jrproc.1960.287608|url-access=subscription }} In 1962 he demonstrated that using tunnel emission, hot electrons retained energy when traveling nanometer distances in gold.{{cite journal |last1=Mead |first1=C. A. |title=Transport of Hot Electrons in Thin Gold Films. |journal=Physical Review Letters |date=July 1, 1962 |volume=9 |issue=1 |pages=46 |doi=10.1103/PhysRevLett.9.46 |bibcode=1962PhRvL...9...46M |url=https://authors.library.caltech.edu/7581/1/MEAprl62.pdf}} His studies of III-V compounds (with W. G. Spitzer) established the importance of interface states, laying the groundwork for band-gap engineering and the development of heterojunction devices.{{cite web |last1=Mead |first1=Carver A. |title=Brief sketch of contributions |url=http://www.cns.caltech.edu/people/faculty/mead/carver-contributions.pdf |website=Caltech |access-date=June 9, 2015}}{{cite journal |last1=Spitzer |first1=W. G. |last2=Mead |first2=C. A. |title=Barrier Height Studies on Metal-Semiconductor Systems |journal=Journal of Applied Physics |date=1963 |volume=34 |issue=10 |pages=3061 |doi=10.1063/1.1729121 |bibcode=1963JAP....34.3061S |url=https://authors.library.caltech.edu/52912/1/1.1729121.pdf}}{{cite journal |last1=Mead |first1=C. A. |last2=Spitzer |first2=W. G. |title=Fermi Level Position at Metal-Semiconductor Interfaces |journal=Physical Review |date=May 4, 1964 |volume=134 |issue=3A |pages=A713–A716 |doi=10.1103/PhysRev.134.A713 |bibcode=1964PhRv..134..713M |url=https://authors.library.caltech.edu/54185/1/PhysRev.134.A713.pdf}}{{cite book |last1=Wilmsen |first1=Carl |title=Physics and Chemistry of Iii-v Compound Semiconductor Interfaces. |date=2012 |publisher=Springer Verlag |isbn=9781468448375 }}

In 1966, Mead designed the first gallium arsenide gate field-effect transistor using a Schottky barrier diode to isolate the gate from the channel.{{cite journal |last1=Mead |first1=C.A. |title=Schottky barrier gate field effect transistor |journal=Proceedings of the IEEE |date=1966 |volume=54 |issue=2 |pages=307–308 |doi=10.1109/PROC.1966.4661 |url=https://authors.library.caltech.edu/54042/1/01446591.pdf}} As a material, GaAs offers much higher electron mobility and higher saturation velocity than silicon. The GaAs MESFET became the dominant microwave semiconductor device, used in a variety of high-frequency wireless electronics, including microwave communication systems in radio telescopes, satellite dishes and cellular phones. Carver's work on MESFETs also became the basis for the later development of HEMTs by Fujitsu in 1980. HEMTs, like MESFETs, are accumulation-mode devices used in microwave receivers and telecommunication systems.{{cite book |last1=Voinigescu |first1=Sorin |title=High-frequency integrated circuits |date=2013 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge |isbn=9780521873024}}

Mead is credited by Gordon Moore with coining the term Moore's law,{{cite news |last1=Kanellos |first1=Michael |title=Moore says nanoelectronics face tough challenges |url=http://news.cnet.com/Moore-says-nanoelectronics-face-tough-challenges/2100-1006_3-5607422.html |access-date=June 4, 2015 |work=CNET News |date=March 9, 2005}} to denote the prediction Moore made in 1965 about the growth rate of the component count, "a component being a transistor, resistor, diode or capacitor,"{{cite web |url=http://www.lithoguru.com/scientist/CHE323/Moore1995.pdf |title=Lithography and the future of Moore's law |publisher=SPIE |first=Gordon E. |last=Moore |year=1995 |access-date=May 27, 2014}} fitting on a single integrated circuit. Moore and Mead began collaborating around 1959 when Moore gave Mead "cosmetic reject" transistors from Fairchild Semiconductor for his students to use in his classes. During the 1960s Mead made weekly visits to Fairchild, visiting the research and development labs and discussing their work with Moore. During one of their discussions, Moore asked Mead whether electron tunneling might limit the size of a workable transistor. When told that it would, he asked what the limit would be.{{cite book |editor-last1=Brock |editor-first1=David C. |title=Understanding Moore's law : four decades of innovation |date=2006 |publisher=Chemical Heritage Press |isbn=9780941901413 |pages=97–100}}

Stimulated by Moore's question, Mead and his students began a physics-based analysis of possible materials, trying to determine a lower bound for Moore's Law. In 1968, Mead demonstrated, contrary to common assumptions, that as transistors decreased in size, they would not become more fragile or hotter or more expensive or slower. Rather, he argued that transistors would get faster, better, cooler and cheaper as they were miniaturized. His results were initially met with considerable skepticism, but as designers experimented, results supported his assertion. In 1972, Mead and graduate student Bruce Hoeneisen predicted that transistors could be made as small as 0.15 microns. This lower limit to transistor size was considerably smaller than had been generally expected. Despite initial doubts, Mead's prediction influenced the computer industry's development of submicron technology. When Mead's predicted target was achieved in actual transistor development in 2000, the transistor was highly similar to the one Mead had originally described.{{cite news |last1=Kilbane |first1=Doris |title=Carver Mead: A Trip Through Four Eras of Innovation |url=http://electronicdesign.com/analog/carver-mead-trip-through-four-eras-innovation |access-date=June 9, 2015 |work=Electronic Design |date=2005}}

Mead was the first to predict the possibility of creating millions of transistors on a chip. His prediction implied that substantial changes in technology would have to occur to achieve such scalability. Mead was one of the first researchers to investigate techniques for very-large-scale integration, designing and creating high-complexity microchips.

He taught the world's first LSI design course, at Caltech in 1970. Throughout the 1970s, with involvement and feedback from a succession of classes, Mead developed his ideas of integrated circuit and system design. He worked with Ivan Sutherland and Frederick B. Thompson to establish computer science as a department at Caltech, which formally occurred in 1976.{{cite web |title=Frederick B. Thompson 1922–2014 |url=https://www.caltech.edu/news/frederick-b-thompson-43160 |website=Caltech |date=July 2014 |access-date=June 10, 2015}}{{cite web |title=Computer Science @ Caltech : History |url=http://calyptus.caltech.edu/cs25/history.html |website=50th Anniversary Celebration |access-date=June 10, 2015}} Also in 1976, Mead co-authored a DARPA report with Ivan Sutherland and Thomas Eugene Everhart, assessing the limitations of current microelectronics fabrication and recommending research into the system design implications of "very-large-scale integrated circuits".{{cite book |last1=Sutherland |first1=Ivan E. |last2=Mead |first2=Carver A. |last3=Everhart |first3=Thomas E. |title=R-1956-ARPA November 1976 Basic Limitations in Microcircuit Fabrication Technology |date=1976 |publisher=The Rand Corporation }}

Beginning in 1975, Carver Mead collaborated with Lynn Conway from Xerox PARC. They developed the landmark text Introduction to VLSI systems, published in 1979, an important spearhead of the Mead and Conway revolution.{{cite news |last1=Hiltzik |first1=Michael A. |title=Through the Gender Labyrinth |url=http://articles.latimes.com/2000/nov/19/magazine/tm-54188/7 |access-date=June 9, 2015 |work=Los Angeles Times |date=November 19, 2000 |archive-date=June 10, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150610050217/http://articles.latimes.com/2000/nov/19/magazine/tm-54188/7 |url-status=dead}} A pioneering textbook, it has been used in VLSI integrated circuit education all over the world for decades.{{cite book |last1=Hiltzik |first1=Michael |title=Dealers of lightning : Xerox PARC and the dawn of the computer age |date=2007 |publisher=HarperBusiness |isbn=9780887309892}} The circulation of early preprint chapters in classes and among other researchers attracted widespread interest and created a community of people interested in the approach.{{cite web |last1=Conway |first1=Lynn |title=Drafts of the Mead-Conway textbook, Introduction to VLSI Systems |url=http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/VLSI/VLSIText/VLSIText.html |website=University of Michigan |access-date=June 9, 2015}} They also demonstrated the feasibility of multi-project shared-wafer methodology, creating chips for students in their classes.[http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/VLSI/MPCAdv/MPCAdv.pdf THE MPC Adventures: Experiences with the Generation of VLSI Design and Implementation Methodologies], Lynn Conway, Xerox PARC Technical Report VLSI-81-2, January 19, 1981.[http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/VLSI/MPCAdv/MPCAdv-MM-TEJ.pdf THE MPC Adventures: Experiences with the Generation of VLSI Design and Implementation Methodologies], by Lynn Conway, Microprocessing and Microprogramming – The Euromicro Journal, Vol. 10, No. 4, November 1982, pp 209–228.{{cite web |title=MPWs: Catalyst of IC Production Innovation |url=https://www.mosis.com/pages/about/mpw-narrative |website=The MOSIS Service |access-date=June 9, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150610174631/https://www.mosis.com/pages/about/mpw-narrative |archive-date=June 10, 2015 |url-status=dead}}{{cite journal |last1=House |first1=Chuck |title=A Paradigm Shift Was Happening All Around Us |journal=IEEE Solid-State Circuits Magazine |date=2012 |volume=4 |issue=4 |pages=32–35 |url=http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/Memoirs/VLSI/Commentaries/A_Paradigm_Shift_Was_Happening_by_Chuck_House.pdf |access-date=June 10, 2015 |doi=10.1109/mssc.2012.2215759 |s2cid=8738682}}

Their work caused a paradigm shift, a "fundamental reassessment" of the development of integrated circuits, and "revolutionized the world of computers".{{cite journal |last1=Allman |first1=W.F. |title=The man who crafts cathedrals of sand |journal=U.S. News & World Report |date=October 21, 1991 |volume=111 |issue=17 |page=80}} In 1981, Mead and Conway received the Award for Achievement from Electronics Magazine in recognition of their contributions. More than 30 years later, the impact of their work is still being assessed.{{cite book |last1=Casale-Rossi |first1=Marco |title=Panel: The heritage of Mead & Conway What has remained the same, what was missed, what has changed, what lies ahead |date=18 March 2013 |pages=171–175 |doi=10.7873/date.2013.049 |isbn=9781467350716 |s2cid=1422292}}

Building on the ideas of VLSI design, Mead and his PhD student David L. Johannsen created the first silicon compiler, capable of taking a user's specifications and automatically generating an integrated circuit.Johannsen, D. L., "Bristle Blocks: A Silicon Compiler," Proceedings 16th Design Automation Conference, 310–313, June 1979.{{cite journal |last1=Lammers |first1=David |title=Moore's Law Milestones |journal=IEEE Spectrum |date=April 30, 2015 |url=https://spectrum.ieee.org/geek-life/history/moores-law-milestones|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150504001558/http://spectrum.ieee.org/geek-life/history/moores-law-milestones|url-status=dead|archive-date=May 4, 2015}} Mead, Johannsen, Edmund K. Cheng and others formed Silicon Compilers Inc. (SCI) in 1981. SCI designed one of the key chips for Digital Equipment Corporation's MicroVAX minicomputer.{{cite web |last1=Cheng |first1=Edmund |last2=Fairbairn |first2=Douglas |title=Oral History of Edmund Cheng |url=http://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/access/text/2015/02/102746882-05-01-acc.pdf |website=Computer History Museum |date=March 10, 2014 |access-date=June 10, 2015}}

Mead and Conway laid the groundwork for the development of the MOSIS (Metal Oxide Semiconductor Implementation Service) and the fabrication of the first CMOS chip. Mead advocated for the idea of fabless manufacturing in which customers specify their design needs to fabless semiconductor companies. The companies then design special-purpose chips and outsource the chip fabrication to less expensive overseas semiconductor foundries.{{cite book |last1=Brown |first1=Clair |last2=Linden |first2=Greg |title=Chips and change : how crisis reshapes the semiconductor industry |date=2011 |publisher=MIT Press |isbn=9780262516822 |edition=1st}}

Next Mead began to explore the potential for modelling biological systems of computation: animal and human brains. His interest in biological models dated back at least to 1967, when he met biophysicist Max Delbrück. Delbrück had stimulated Mead's interest in transducer physiology, the transformations that occur between the physical input initiating a perceptual process and eventual perceptual phenomena.{{sp|23–29}}

Observing graded synaptic transmission in the retina, Mead became interested in the potential to treat transistors as analog devices rather than digital switches.{{cite journal |last1=Indiveri |first1=Giacomo |last2=Horiuchi |first2=Timothy K. |title=Frontiers in Neuromorphic Engineering |journal=Frontiers in Neuroscience |date=2011 |volume=5 |pages=118 |doi=10.3389/fnins.2011.00118 |pmc=3189639 |pmid=22013408 |doi-access=free}} He noted parallels between charges moving in MOS transistors operated in weak inversion and charges flowing across the membranes of neurons.{{cite book |last1=Mead |first1=Carver |title=Analog VLSI and neural systems |date=1989 |publisher=Addison-Wesley |isbn=9780201059922 }} He worked with Nobelist John Hopfield and Nobelist Richard Feynman, helping to create three new fields: neural networks, neuromorphic engineering, and the physics of computation. Mead, considered a founder of neuromorphic engineering, is credited with coining the term "neuromorphic processors".{{cite news |last1=Markoff |first1=John |title=Brainlike Computers, Learning From Experience |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/29/science/brainlike-computers-learning-from-experience.html?_r=0 |access-date=June 8, 2015 |work=The New York Times |date=December 28, 2013}}

Mead was then successful in finding venture capital funding to support the start of a number of companies, in part due to an early connection with Arnold Beckman, chairman of the Caltech Board of Trustees. Mead has said that his preferred approach to development is "technology push", exploring something interesting and then developing useful applications for it.

In 1986, Mead and Federico Faggin founded Synaptics Inc. to develop analog circuits based in neural networking theories, suitable for use in vision and speech recognition. The first product Synaptics brought to market was a pressure-sensitive computer touchpad, a form of sensing technology that rapidly replaced the trackball and mouse in laptop computers.{{cite news |last1=Markoff |first1=John |title=Pad to Replace Computer Mouse Is Set for Debut |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1994/10/24/business/pad-to-replace-computer-mouse-is-set-for-debut.html |access-date=June 10, 2015 |work=The New York Times |date=October 24, 1994}}{{cite journal |last=Diehl |first=Stanford |author2=Lennon, Anthony J. |author3=McDonough, John |date=Oct 1995 |title=Touchpads to Navigate By |journal=Byte |issue=October 1995 |page=150 |issn=0360-5280}} The Synaptics touchpad was extremely successful, at one point capturing 70% of the touchpad market.

In 1988, Richard F. Lyon and Carver Mead described the creation of an analog cochlea, modelling the fluid-dynamic traveling-wave system of the auditory portion of the inner ear.{{cite journal |last1=Lyon |first1=R. F. |author-link1=Richard F. Lyon (engineer) |last2=Mead |first2=C. |title=An analog electronic cochlea |journal=IEEE Transactions on Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing |date=1988 |volume=36 |issue=7 |pages=1119–1134 |doi=10.1109/29.1639 |url=https://authors.library.caltech.edu/53125/1/388884.pdf}} Lyon had previously described a computational model for the work of the cochlea.Richard F. Lyon, "A Computational Model of Filtering, Detection, and Compression in the Cochlea", Proceedings IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing, Paris, May 1982. Such technology had potential applications in hearing aids, cochlear implants, and a variety of speech-recognition devices. Their work has inspired ongoing research attempting to create a silicon analog that can emulate the signal processing capacities of a biological cochlea.{{cite journal |last1=Lyon |first1=Richard F. |title=Analog implementations of auditory models |journal=Proc. DARPA Workshop on Speech and Natural Language |date=1991 |pages=212–216 |doi=10.3115/112405.112438 |s2cid=17814199 |url=http://www.aclweb.org/anthology/H91-1039}}{{cite journal |last1=Wen |first1=Bo |last2=Boahen |first2=Kwabena |title=A Silicon Cochlea With Active Coupling |journal=IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Circuits and Systems |date=December 2009 |volume=3 |issue=6 |pages=444–455 |doi=10.1109/TBCAS.2009.2027127 |pmid=23853292 |citeseerx=10.1.1.193.2127 |s2cid=14772626}}

In 1991, Mead helped to form Sonix Technologies, Inc. (later Sonic Innovations Inc.). Mead designed the computer chip for their hearing aids. In addition to being small, the chip was said to be the most powerful used in a hearing aid. Release of the company's first product, the Natura hearing aid, took place in September 1998.{{cite web |title=Sonic Innovations Inc. History |url=http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/sonic-innovations-inc-history/ |website=Funding Universe |access-date=June 10, 2015}}

In the late 1980s, Mead advised Misha Mahowald, a PhD student in computation and neural systems, to develop the silicon retina, using analog electrical circuits to mimic the biological functions of rod cells, cone cells, and other excitable cells in the retina of the eye.{{cite journal |last1=Mahowald |first1=Misha A. |last2=Mead |first2=Carver |title=The Silicon Retina |journal=Scientific American |date=May 1991 |volume=264 |issue=5 |pages=76–82 |doi=10.1038/scientificamerican0591-76 |pmid=2052936 |bibcode=1991SciAm.264e..76M}} Mahowald's 1992 thesis received Caltech's Milton and Francis Clauser Doctoral Prize for its originality and "potential for opening up new avenues of human thought and endeavor".{{cite web |title=Milton and Francis Clauser Doctoral Prize |url=http://www.gradoffice.caltech.edu/current/Clauser |access-date=June 10, 2015}} {{As of|2001}} her work was considered "the best attempt to date" to develop a stereoscopic vision system.{{cite news |title=An incurable itch |url=http://www.economist.com/node/779543 |access-date=June 8, 2015 |work=Technology Quarterly |issue=Q3 |date=September 20, 2001}} Mead went on to describe an adaptive silicon retina, using a two-dimensional resistive network to model the first layer of visual processing in the outer plexiform layer of the retina.{{cite book |last1=Mead |first1=Carver A. |chapter=Adaptive Retina |editor-last1=Mead |editor-first1=Carver M. |editor-last2=Ismail |editor-first2=M. |title=Analog VLSI Implementation of Neural Systems |series=The Kluwer International Series in Engineering and Computer Science |volume=80 |pages=239–246 |date=2011 |publisher=Springer Verlag |isbn=9781461289050 |doi=10.1007/978-1-4613-1639-8_10 }}

Around 1999, Mead and others established Foveon, Inc. in Santa Clara, California to develop new digital camera technology based on neurally-inspired CMOS image sensor/processing chips.{{cite news |last1=Gilder |first1=George |title=Carver Mead's fabulous camera |url=https://www.forbes.com/global/1999/0705/0213118a.html |access-date=June 9, 2015 |work=Forbes |date=July 5, 1999}} The image sensors in the Foveon X3 digital camera captured multiple colors for each pixel, detecting red, green and blue at different levels in the silicon sensor. This provided more complete information and better quality photos compared to standard cameras, which detect one color per pixel.{{cite web |title=Foveon X3 technology overview |website=Digital Photography Review |date=February 11, 2002 |url=http://www.dpreview.com/articles/3454566828/foveonx3tech}} It has been hailed as revolutionary. In 2005, Carver Mead, Richard B. Merrill and Richard Lyon of Foveon were awarded the Progress Medal of the Royal Photographic Society, for the development of the Foveon X3 sensor.{{cite web |url=http://www.letsgodigital.org/en/news/articles/story_5015.html |title=Royal Photographic Society Award for Foveon sensor |first=Mark |last=Peters |date=November 6, 2005}}

Mead's work underlies the development of computer processors whose electronic components are connected in ways that resemble biological synapses.

In 1995 and 1996 Mead, Hasler, Diorio, and Minch presented single-transistor silicon synapses capable of analog learning applications{{cite journal |last1=Diorio |first1=C. |last2=Hasler |first2=P. |last3=Minch |first3=A. |last4=Mead |first4=C.A. |title=A single-transistor silicon synapse |journal=IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices |date=1995 |volume=43 |issue=11 |pages=1972–1980 |doi=10.1109/16.543035 |bibcode=1996ITED...43.1972D |citeseerx=10.1.1.45.9633}} and long-term memory storage.{{cite book |last2=Diorio |first2=C. |last1=Hasler |first1=P. |last3=Minch |first3=A. |last4=Mead |first4=C.A. |title=Proceedings of ISCAS'95 - International Symposium on Circuits and Systems |chapter=Single transistor learning synapse with long term storage |date=1999 |volume=3 |pages=1660–1663 |doi=10.1109/ISCAS.1995.523729 |isbn=9780780325708 |citeseerx=10.1.1.27.1274 |s2cid=11802148}} Mead pioneered the use of floating-gate transistors as a means of non-volatile storage for neuromorphic and other analog circuits.{{cite book |editor-last1=Lande |editor-first1=Tor Sverre |chapter=Floating-Gate MOS Synapse Transistors |first1=Chris |last1=Diorio |first2=Paul |last2=Hasler |first3=Bradley A. |last3=Minch |first4=Carver |last4=Mead |title=Neuromorphic Systems Engineering |series=The Springer International Series in Engineering and Computer Science |date=1998 |volume=447 |pages=315–337 |publisher=Kluwer Academic |isbn=9780792381587 |doi=10.1007/978-0-585-28001-1_14 }}{{cite book |editor-last1=Mead |editor-first1=Carver M. |editor-last2=Ismail |editor-first2=M. |title=Analog VLSI Implementation of Neural Systems |date=2011 |publisher=Springer Verlag |isbn=9781461289050 }}{{cite book |last1=Hasler |first1=Paul |last2=Minch |first2=Bradley A. |last3=Diorio |first3=Chris |title=ISCAS'99. Proceedings of the 1999 IEEE International Symposium on Circuits and Systems VLSI (Cat. No.99CH36349) |chapter=Floating-gate devices: They are not just for digital memories any more |date=1999 |volume=2 |pages=388–391 |doi=10.1109/ISCAS.1999.780740 |isbn=9780780354715 |citeseerx=10.1.1.27.5483 |s2cid=11230703}}{{cite book |last1=Cauwenberghs |first1=Gert |last2=Bayoumi |first2=Magdy A. |title=Learning on silicon : adaptive VLSI neural systems |date=1999 |publisher=Kluwer Academic |isbn=9780792385554 }}

Mead and Diorio went on to found the radio-frequency identification (RFID) provider Impinj, based on their work with floating-gate transistors (FGMOS)s. Using low-power methods of storing charges on FGMOSs, Impinj developed applications for flash memory storage and radio frequency identity tags.{{cite news |title=Veterans Affairs to Install RFID in Hospitals across America |url=http://www.impinj.com/blog/veteran-affairs-to-install-rfid-in-hospitals-across-america/ |newspaper=Impinj |date=June 14, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140319083312/http://www.impinj.com/blog/veteran-affairs-to-install-rfid-in-hospitals-across-america/ |archive-date=March 19, 2014 |url-status=dead}}

Carver Mead has developed an approach he calls Collective Electrodynamics, in which electromagnetic effects, including quantized energy transfer, are derived from the interactions of the wavefunctions of electrons behaving collectively.{{cite book |title=Collective Electrodynamics: Quantum Foundations of Electromagnetism |first=Carver |last=Mead |publisher=MIT Press |year=2002 |isbn=9780262632607}} In this formulation, the photon is a non-entity, and Planck's energy–frequency relationship comes from the interactions of electron eigenstates. The approach is related to John Cramer's transactional interpretation of quantum mechanics, to the Wheeler–Feynman absorber theory of electrodynamics, and to Gilbert N. Lewis's early description of electromagnetic energy exchange at zero interval{{what|date=May 2020}} in spacetime.

Although this reconceptualization does not pertain to gravitation, a gravitational extension of it makes predictions that differ from general relativity.{{Cite arXiv |eprint=1503.04866 |last1=Mead |first1=Carver |title=Gravitational Waves in G4v |class=gr-qc |year=2015}} For instance, gravitational waves should have a different polarization under "G4v", the name given to this new theory of gravity. Moreover, this difference in polarization can be detected by advanced LIGO.{{cite journal |last1=Isi |first1=M. |last2=Weinstein |first2=A. J. |last3=Mead |first3=C. |last4=Pitkin |first4=M. |title=Detecting beyond-Einstein polarizations of continuous gravitational waves. |journal=Physical Review D |date=April 20, 2015 |volume=91 |issue=8 |pages=082002 |doi=10.1103/PhysRevD.91.082002 |arxiv=1502.00333 |bibcode=2015PhRvD..91h2002I |s2cid=26952281}}

Mead has been involved in the founding of at least 20 companies. The following list indicates some of the most significant, and their main contributions.

• Lexitron, videotype word processing{{cite web |last1=Computer History Archives |title=Lexitron Videotype Word Processing Computer, Origins and History |url=https://vimeo.com/351638149}}
• Actel, field programmable gate arrays
• Foveon, silicon sensors for photographic imaging{{cite book |last1=Gilder |first1=George |title=The Silicon Eye: How a Silicon Valley Company Aims to Make All Current Computers, Cameras, and Cell Phones Obsolete |date=2005 |publisher=W.W. Norton & Co. |isbn=978-0393057638 |edition=1st }}
• Impinj, self-adaptive microchips for flash memory and RFID{{cite journal |title=Impinj Adds New Piece of the RFID Puzzle |journal=Scan: The Data Capture Report |date=February 28, 2014 |url=http://www.impinj.com/media/2905/impinj-scan-article-2014.pdf |access-date=June 4, 2015 |archive-date=September 24, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924034020/http://www.impinj.com/media/2905/impinj-scan-article-2014.pdf |url-status=dead }}
• Silicon Compilers, integrated circuit design
• Sonic Innovations, computer chips for hearing aids
• Synaptics, touch pads for computers{{cite journal |url=http://www.lloydwatts.com/carver_MIT_2004.pdf |title=Carver Mead's Natural Inspiration |first=Spencer |last=Reiss |journal=Technology Review |date=2004 |access-date=July 23, 2010}}
• Silerity, automated chip design software{{cite journal |url=https://www.thefreelibrary.com/Viewlogic+acquires+Silerity%3b+Synthesis+start-up+added+to+high+level...-a017867066 |title=Viewlogic Acquires Silerity |journal=Business Wire |date=1995 |access-date=May 4, 2017 |archive-date=October 2, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181002210048/https://www.thefreelibrary.com/Viewlogic+acquires+Silerity%3b+Synthesis+start-up+added+to+high+level...-a017867066 |url-status=dead }}

• 2022 Kyoto Prize in Advanced Technology[https://www.kyotoprize.org/en/laureates/carver_mead/ Kyoto Prize in Advanced Technology 2022]
• 2011 BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award of Information and Communication Technologies "... for his influential thinking in silicon technology. His work has enabled the development of the microchips that drive the electronic devices (laptops, tablets, smartphones, DVD players) ubiquitous in our daily lives."{{cite web |title=BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award |url=http://www.fbbva.es/TLFU/tlfu/ing/microsites/premios/fronteras/galardonados/tecnologia.jsp |access-date=June 4, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150921164506/http://www.fbbva.es/TLFU/tlfu/ing/microsites/premios/fronteras/galardonados/tecnologia.jsp |archive-date=September 21, 2015 |url-status=dead}}
• 2005, Progress Medal of the Royal Photographic Society{{cite web |url=http://www.rps.org/about/awards/history-and-recipients/progress-medal |access-date=March 6, 2017 |publisher=RPS |title=Progress Medal |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160310114310/http://www.rps.org/about/awards/history-and-recipients/progress-medal |archive-date=March 10, 2016 |url-status=dead}}
• 2002, National Medal of Technology{{cite web |title=National Medal of Technology awardedby President Bush to Caltech's Carver Mead |url=https://www.caltech.edu/news/national-medal-technology-awardedby-president-bush-caltechs-carver-mead-761 |website=Caltech News and Events |date=October 22, 2003}}{{cite web |title=President Bush Announces the Laureates of the 2002 National Medals of Science and Technology |url=https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2003/10/20031022-6.html |website=The White House |date=October 22, 2003}}
• 2002, Fellow of the Computer History Museum "for his contributions in pioneering the automation, methodology and teaching of integrated circuit design".
• 2001, Dickson Prize in Science, award announced 2001, lecture March 19, 2002{{cite news |last1=Towey |first1=Laine |title=Microelectronics Pioneer Carver Mead Wins $47,000 Dickson Prize |url=http://www.cmu.edu/cmnews/020308/020308_mead.html |access-date=June 4, 2015 |work=Carnegie Mellon News |agency=Carnegie Mellon University |date=March 8, 2002}}
• 1999, Lemelson-MIT Prize{{cite web |author=Center for Oral History |title=Carver A. Mead |url=https://oh.sciencehistory.org/oral-histories/mead-carver-a |website=Science History Institute}}{{cite book |first1=Arnold |last1=Thackray |first2=David C. |last2=Brock |title=Carver A. Mead, Transcript of Interviews Conducted by Arnold Thackray and David C. Brock at Woodside, California on 30 September 2004, 8 December 2004, and 15 August 2005 |date=August 15, 2005 |url=https://oh.sciencehistory.org/sites/default/files/mead_ca_0294_suppl.pdf |place=Philadelphia, PA |publisher=Chemical Heritage Foundation |access-date=February 21, 2018 |archive-date=February 21, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180221222529/https://oh.sciencehistory.org/sites/default/files/mead_ca_0294_suppl.pdf |url-status=dead }}
• 1997, Allen Newell Award, Association for Computing Machinery{{cite news |title=Carver Mead to receive ACM Allen Newell Award |url=http://www.acm.org/announcements/contact1.html |access-date=June 5, 2015 |work=ACM Pressroom |date=September 30, 1997 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040602171400/http://www.acm.org/announcements/contact1.html |archive-date=June 2, 2004 |url-status=dead}}
• 1996, John Von Neumann Medal, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
• 1996, Phil Kaufman Award for his impact on electronic design industry{{cite web |last1=Newton |first1=A. Richard |title=Presentation of the 1996 Phil Kaufman Award to Professor Carver A. Mead |url=http://www.eecs.berkeley.edu/~newton/presentations/Kaufman/CAMPresent.html |website=Berkeley Engineering |date=November 12, 1996}}
• 1992, Award for Outstanding Research, International Neural Network Society
• 1985, John Price Wetherill Medal from The Franklin Institute, with Lynn Conway{{cite journal |title=Franklin Institute Honors Eight Physicists |journal=Physics Today |date=1985 |volume=38 |issue=7 |page=84 |doi=10.1063/1.2814644 |bibcode=1985PhT....38g..84.}}
• 1985, Harry H. Goode Memorial Award, American Federation of Information Processing Societies
• 1984, Elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering for great insight into the problems and potentialities of VLSI, and for helping to advance the art.{{fact|date=July 2021}}
• 1984, Harold Pender Award, with Lynn Conway{{cite web |url=http://www.seas.upenn.edu/about-seas/lectures/pender.php |title=The Harold Pender Award |publisher=School of Engineering and Applied Science, University of Pennsylvania |access-date=February 5, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120222032929/http://www.seas.upenn.edu/about-seas/lectures/pender.php |archive-date=February 22, 2012 |url-status=dead}}
• 1981, Award for Achievement from Electronics Magazine, with Lynn Conway{{cite journal |last1=Marshall |first1=Martin |last2=Waller |first2=Larry |last3=Wolff |first3=Howard |title=The 1981 Achievement Award |journal=Electronics |date=October 20, 1981 |url=http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/Awards/Electronics/ElectAchiev.html |access-date=June 4, 2015}}

{{library resources box|by=yes|viaf=32253855}}

• [http://www.carvermead.caltech.edu/ Official Website]
• {{cite web |author=Center for Oral History |title=Carver A. Mead |url=https://oh.sciencehistory.org/oral-histories/mead-carver-a |website=Science History Institute}}
• {{cite book |first1=Arnold |last1=Thackray |first2=David C. |last2=Brock |title=Carver A. Mead, Transcript of Interviews Conducted by Arnold Thackray and David C. Brock at Woodside, California on 30 September 2004, 8 December 2004, and 15 August 2005 |date=August 15, 2005 |url=https://oh.sciencehistory.org/sites/default/files/mead_ca_0294_suppl.pdf |place=Philadelphia, PA |publisher=Chemical Heritage Foundation |access-date=February 21, 2018 |archive-date=February 21, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180221222529/https://oh.sciencehistory.org/sites/default/files/mead_ca_0294_suppl.pdf |url-status=dead }}
• {{cite web |last1=Mead |first1=Carver A. |last2=Cohen |first2=Shirley K. |title=Interview with Carver A. Mead (1934– ) |date=July 17, 1996 |website=Oral History Project |publisher=California Institute of Technology Archives |location=Pasadena, California |url=http://oralhistories.library.caltech.edu/133/2/OH_Mead.pdf}}
• [https://collections.archives.caltech.edu/repositories/2/resources/12 Carver A. Mead Papers] Caltech Archives, California Institute of Technology.
• 2022 Kyoto Prize [https://www.kyotoprize.org/en/laureates/carver_mead/ Achievement and Profile] page.

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Category:1934 births

Category:Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences

Category:Living people

Category:American computer scientists

Category:American electronics engineers

Category:American computer businesspeople

Category:Electronic design automation people

Category:Lemelson–MIT Prize

Category:National Medal of Technology recipients

Category:California Institute of Technology alumni

Category:California Institute of Technology faculty

Category:Members of the United States National Academy of Engineering

Category:Amateur radio people

Category:Fellows of the American Physical Society