Hermann K. Gummel (6 July 1923 – 5 September 2022) was a German physicist and pioneer in the

semiconductor industry The semiconductor industry is the aggregate of companies engaged in the design and fabrication of semiconductors and semiconductor devices, such as transistors and integrated circuits. Its roots can be traced to the invention of the transistor ...

.. The son of Hans and Charlotte Gummel, he was the middle of their three children, Bärbel and Achi being respectively his older sister and his younger brother. Grown up in very turbulent times in Nazi Germany, after graduating from high school, he was enlisted as a radio operator for the Germany Army in

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. As a soldier, he was wounded by shrapnel and taken prisoner during the

D Day The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during the Second World War. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as ...

. After being brought to Scotland as a war prisoner, the compassionate care of the doctors and medical staff avoided his leg amputation: he was always grateful for this, thought he suffered pain in his leg for the rest of his life. Gummel received his ''

Diplom A ''Diplom'' (, from ) is an academic degree in the German-speaking countries Germany, Austria, and Switzerland and a similarly named degree in some other European countries including Albania, Bulgaria, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia ...

'' degree in physics from Philipps University (

Marburg, Germany Marburg (; ) is a college town, university town in the States of Germany, German federal state () of Hesse, capital of the Marburg-Biedenkopf Districts of Germany, district (). The town area spreads along the valley of the river Lahn and has ...

) in 1952. He received his M.S. (1952) and Ph.D. (1957) degrees in theoretical semiconductor physics from

Syracuse University Syracuse University (informally 'Cuse or SU) is a Private university, private research university in Syracuse, New York, United States. It was established in 1870 with roots in the Methodist Episcopal Church but has been nonsectarian since 1920 ...

. In Marburg met and fall in love with Erika Reich, who eventually become his wife. Gummel joined

Bell Laboratories Nokia Bell Labs, commonly referred to as ''Bell Labs'', is an American industrial research and development company owned by Finnish technology company Nokia. With headquarters located in Murray Hill, New Jersey, the company operates several lab ...

in 1956; his doctoral advisor, Melvin Lax, had moved from Syracuse University to Bell the previous year. At Bell, Gummel made important contributions to the design and simulation of the semiconductor devices used throughout modern electronics. Among the most important of his contributions are the Gummel–Poon model which made accurate simulation of

bipolar transistors A bipolar junction transistor (BJT) is a type of transistor that uses both electrons and electron holes as charge carriers. In contrast, a unipolar transistor, such as a field-effect transistor (FET), uses only one kind of charge carrier. A ...

possible and which was central to the development of the

SPICE In the culinary arts, a spice is any seed, fruit, root, Bark (botany), bark, or other plant substance in a form primarily used for flavoring or coloring food. Spices are distinguished from herbs, which are the leaves, flowers, or stems of pl ...

program; Gummel's method, used to solve the equations for the detailed behavior of individual bipolar transistors,; and the Gummel plot, used to characterize bipolar transistors. Gummel also created one of the first personal workstations, based on HP minicomputers and Tektronix terminals and used for VLSI design and layout, and MOTIS, the first MOS timing simulator and the basis of "fast SPICE" programs. In 1983, Gummel received the

David Sarnoff Award The IEEE David Sarnoff Award was a Technical Field Award presented in 1959–2016 by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). It was awarded annually for exceptional contributions to electronics. The award was established i ...

"for contributions and leadership in device analysis and development of computer-aided design tools for semiconductor devices and circuits". In 1985, Gummel was elected to the

United States National Academy of Engineering The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) is an American nonprofit, non-governmental organization. It is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM), along with the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) and the ...

for "contributions and leadership in the analysis and computer-aided design of semiconductor devices and circuits.". In 1994, he was the first recipient of

Phil Kaufman Award The Phil Kaufman Award for Distinguished Contributions to EDA honors individuals for their impact on electronic design by their contributions to electronic design automation (EDA). It was established in 1994 by the EDA Consortium (now the Electr ...

. Gummel died on 5 September 2022, at the age of 99.

Selected bibliography

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References

1923 births 2022 deaths Syracuse University alumni Members of the United States National Academy of Engineering Scientists at Bell Labs German electronics engineers Electronic design automation people Engineers from Hanover German expatriates in the United States {{Germany-engineer-stub

See also

Selected bibliography

References