Robert Widlar
Robert J. Widlar (* ??? 1938; † 27. Februar 1991 in Puerta Vallarta) war ein Pionier der Entwicklung analoger integrierter Schaltkreise (IC).
Widlar entwickelte den µA702, den ersten monolithischen Operationsverstärker, für die Firma Fairchild in 1962. Er hatte einen Abschluß als Bachelor von der University of Colorado. Er startete die Entwicklung des Operationsverstärkers ohne Wissen des Fairchild-Managements, und erarbeitete mit einem Prozeßingenieur (Dave Talbert) einen passenden Fertigungsprozeß dafür. Der Chip wurde ein Erfolg, weil er die Chance zur starken Miniaturisierung von analogen Rechenschaltungen bot.
Nach einer Serie von erfolgreichen Produkten für Fairchild verließ Widlar Fairchild, um mit Dave Talbert zusammen die Firma National Semiconductor zu gründen. Er arbeitete schließlich für National Semiconductor als freier Entwickler bis zu seinem Tod durch Herzinfarkt, der ihn beim Joggen in der Nähe seines Wohnortes ereilte.
Bob Widlar war als außerordentlich exzentrisch und schwierig bekannt. Er war starker Trinker, und war berüchtigt dafür, daß er auch in betrunkenem Zustand noch hervorragende technische Präsentationen zu geben imstande war.
Von Bob Widlar stammen eine große Anzahl von Innovationen in der IC-Schaltungstechnik, so z.B. die Bandgap-Referenz, der Widlar-Stromspiegel oder der lineare Spannungsregler. Viele seiner Entwicklungen werden auch heute noch in Milliardenstückzahlen eingesetzt.
Zitate über Robert J. Widlar
I mean, he was such a great public spokesman and such a great engineer that he was like literally a religious symbol to analog users. And people would come across the country just to listen to him talk and he would lecture on circuit design and these things and he would do it half smashed most of the time. [...] There haven't been many personalities like him. He had courage. He was aggressive. He was, he was insane. He was all of those things. Ego. Widlar was natural. He just was, he was the meanest, toughest son of a bitch you've ever seen. Jack Gifford
He brought National to the top of the largest market share in linear, just a very prolific guy. A very, very strange guy, but talent out the eyeballs and he would design a product, he'd not only design it, it would be thoroughly designed. I mean no flaws in this design. He'd write the data sheet perfect in all respects. The English was perfect. Application notes, extensive and thorough. And it would drive you nuts because he wouldn't allow you to introduce the product until everything was perfect. But this man could work, you know, on a device for, you know, three or four months, sort of night and day until it was finished and then he would go on a drunk. He drank excessively, which I tolerated. I had no choice. I mean this guy was the company for a while. Charles Sporck
Charlie Sporck, (who recently retired as the president of National) told me about the first time he met Bob. He was in the Fairchild hospitality suite during the IEEE show in New York City back in 1966. He was reading in Electronic News that Raytheon had just brought out an RM709 as a second source to the Fairchild UA709. Bob, who was not pleased at being second-sourced, came over and, uttering a generalized profanity, set fire to Charlie's newspaper. Charlie was astonished, and threw it into a metal wastebasket. Unfortunately the fire did not go out. As they tried to extinguish the fire, the smoke alarms went off and the fire department arrived. So much for first impressions.... Robert A. Pease
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| Personendaten | |
|---|---|
| NAME | Widlar, Robert J. |
| ALTERNATIVNAMEN | |
| KURZBESCHREIBUNG | Pionier der Entwicklung analoger integrierter Schaltkreise (IC) |
| GEBURTSDATUM | 1938 |
| GEBURTSORT | |
| STERBEDATUM | 27. Februar 1991 |
| STERBEORT | Puerta Vallarta |