Frank Wanlass
{{Infobox scientist
| name = Frank Marion Wanlass
| image =
| image_size =
| birth_date = {{Birth date|df=y|1933|05|17}}
| birth_place = Thatcher, AZ
| death_date = {{nowrap|{{Death date and age|df=y|2010|09|09|1933|05|17}}}}
| death_place = Santa Clara, California
| field = Engineering and Physics
| work_institutions =
| alma_mater = University of Utah
| doctoral_advisor =
| doctoral_students =
| known_for = Complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor
| prizes =
}}
Frank Marion Wanlass (May 17, 1933, in Thatcher, AZ – September 9, 2010, in Santa Clara, California) was an American electrical engineer. He is best known for inventing CMOS (complementary MOS) logic in 1963. CMOS has since become the standard semiconductor device fabrication process for MOSFETs (metal–oxide–semiconductor field-effect transistors).
Biography
He obtained his PhD from the University of Utah. Wanlass invented CMOS (complementary MOS) logic circuits with Chih-Tang Sah in 1963, while working at Fairchild Semiconductor.{{cite web |title=1963: Complementary MOS Circuit Configuration is Invented |url=https://www.computerhistory.org/siliconengine/complementary-mos-circuit-configuration-is-invented/ |website=Computer History Museum |accessdate=6 July 2019}} Wanlass was given U.S. patent #3,356,858 for "Low Stand-By Power Complementary Field Effect Circuitry" in 1967.[http://www.icknowledge.com/history/1960s.html IC Knowledge - History of the Integrated Circuit - 1960s] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070419092527/http://icknowledge.com/history/1960s.html |date=2007-04-19 }}
In 1963, while studying MOSFET (metal–oxide–semiconductor field-effect transistor) structures, he noted the movement of charge through oxide onto a gate. While he did not pursue it, this idea would later become the basis for EPROM (erasable programmable read-only memory) technology.{{cite web |title=People |url=https://www.computerhistory.org/siliconengine/people/ |website=The Silicon Engine |publisher=Computer History Museum |accessdate=17 August 2019}}
In 1964, Wanlass moved to General Microelectronics (GMe), where he made the first commercial MOS integrated circuits, and a year later to General Instrument Microelectronics Division in New York,
{{cite book
| title = We were burning: Japanese entrepreneurs and the forging of the electronic age
| author = Bob Johnstone
| publisher = Basic Books
| year = 1999
| isbn = 978-0-465-09118-8
| pages = 47–48
| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=PE1bQS9VpWoC&pg=PA47
}}
where he developed four-phase logic.
{{cite book
| title = To the Digital Age: Research Labs, Start-up Companies, and the Rise of MOS Technology
| edition =
| author = Ross Knox Bassett
| publisher = JHU Press
| year = 2007
| isbn = 978-0-8018-8639-3
| pages = 51, 129–130
| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=UUbB3d2UnaAC&pg=PA129
}}
He was also remembered for his contribution to solving threshold voltage stability in MOS transistors due to sodium ion drift.
In 1991, Wanlass was awarded the IEEE Solid-State Circuits Award.[http://www.sscs.org/awards/Fieldawards.htm List of Solid-State Circuits Award winners]
In 2009, on the 50th anniversary of both the MOSFET and the integrated circuit, Frank Wanlass was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame for his invention of CMOS logic. He was part of the 2009 class celebrating semiconductor pioneers, along with inventors of semiconductor technologies such as the MOSFET (Mohamed Atalla and Dawon Kahng), planar process (Jean Hoerni), EPROM (Dov Frohman) and molecular beam epitaxy (Alfred Y. Cho).{{Cite web|url=http://www.ipwatchdog.com/2009/02/19/inventors-hall-of-fame-class-of-2009/id=2061/|title=Inventors Hall of Fame Class of 2009 |date=2009-02-19|website=IPWatchdog.com {{!}} Patents & Patent Law|access-date=2017-04-12}}
Wanlass died on 9 September 2010.{{cite web |title=Frank Wanlass |url=https://www.invent.org/inductees/frank-wanlass |website=National Inventors Hall of Fame |accessdate=17 August 2019 |language=en}}
References
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External links
- [http://invent.org/inductee-detail/?IID=404 Invent Now, Inventor Profile – Frank Wanlass] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150910235638/http://invent.org/inductee-detail/?IID=404 |date=2015-09-10 }}
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20101030122739/http://testscience.utah.edu/notebook/?p=657 University of Utah, Alumni Profile – Frank Wanlass]
- [http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=SJ&p_theme=sj&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&s_dispstring=allfields%28Dr.%20Frank%20Marion%20Wanlass%29%20AND%20date%282010%29&p_field_date-0=YMD_date&p_params_date-0=date:B,E&p_text_date-0=2010&p_field_advanced-0=&p_text_advanced-0=%28%22Dr.%20Frank%20Marion%20Wanlass%22%29&xcal_numdocs=20&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&xcal_useweights=no Obituary (requires subscription)]
- [http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/mercurynews/obituary.aspx?n=frank-marion-wanlass&pid=145567276 Obituary (republished)]
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Category:American electronics engineers
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