Sidney Darlington

{{short description|Electrical engineer and inventor of a transistor configuration}}

{{More citations needed|date=August 2020}}

{{Infobox scientist

| name = Sidney Darlington

| image = Sidney Darlington.jpg

| birth_date = {{Birth date|1906|7|18}}

| birth_place = Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S.

| death_date = {{death date and age|1997|10|31|1906|7|18}}

| death_place = Exeter, New Hampshire, U.S.

| nationality = American

| field = Electrical engineering Communication Theory

| work_institution =

| alma_mater = Harvard, MIT, Columbia

| doctoral_advisor =

| known_for = Chirp modulation
Darlington pair
Darlington synthesis

| awards = IEEE Edison Medal {{small|(1975)}}
IEEE Medal of Honor {{small|(1981)}}
Presidential Medal of Freedom

}}

Sidney Darlington (July 18, 1906 – October 31, 1997) was an American electrical engineer and inventor of a transistor configuration in 1953, the Darlington pair. He advanced the state of network theory, developing the insertion-loss synthesis approach, invented chirp radar, and contributed to the designs of bombsights and gun and rocket guidance.

Darlington was awarded a B.S. in physics, magna cum laude, from Harvard in 1928, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. He also received a B.S. in E.E. from MIT in 1929, and a Ph.D. in physics from Columbia in 1940.{{Cite web|url=http://www.ieeeghn.org/wiki/index.php/Sidney_Darlington|title = Sidney Darlington - Engineering and Technology History Wiki|date = 14 August 2017}}

In 1945, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United States' highest civilian honor, for his contributions during World War II. He was an elected member of the National Academy of Engineering, which cited his contributions to electrical network theory, radar, and guidance systems. In 1975, he received IEEE's Edison Medal "For basic contributions to network theory and for important inventions in radar systems and electronic circuits" and the IEEE Medal of Honor in 1981 "For fundamental contributions to filtering and signal processing leading to chirp radar".

He died at his home in Exeter, New Hampshire, USA, at the age of 91.