Frank Marion Wanlass (May 17, 1933 in
Thatcher, AZ – September 9, 2010 in
Santa Clara,
California
California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...
) was an American electrical engineer. He is best known for inventing
CMOS (complementary
MOS
MOS or Mos may refer to:
Technology
* MOSFET (metal–oxide–semiconductor field-effect transistor), also known as the MOS transistor
* Mathematical Optimization Society
* Model output statistics, a weather-forecasting technique
* MOS (filmm ...
) logic with
Chih-Tang Sah in 1963. CMOS has since become the standard
semiconductor device fabrication
Semiconductor device fabrication is the process used to manufacture semiconductor devices, typically integrated circuit (IC) chips such as modern computer processors, microcontrollers, and memory chips such as NAND flash and DRAM that are p ...
process for
MOSFETs (metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors).
Biography
He obtained his PhD from the
University of Utah
The University of Utah (U of U, UofU, or simply The U) is a public research university in Salt Lake City, Utah. It is the flagship institution of the Utah System of Higher Education. The university was established in 1850 as the University of De ...
. Wanlass invented
CMOS (complementary
MOS
MOS or Mos may refer to:
Technology
* MOSFET (metal–oxide–semiconductor field-effect transistor), also known as the MOS transistor
* Mathematical Optimization Society
* Model output statistics, a weather-forecasting technique
* MOS (filmm ...
)
logic
Logic is the study of correct reasoning. It includes both formal and informal logic. Formal logic is the science of deductively valid inferences or of logical truths. It is a formal science investigating how conclusions follow from premise ...
circuits with
Chih-Tang Sah in 1963, while working at
Fairchild Semiconductor.
Wanlass was given
U.S. patent #3,356,858 for "Low Stand-By Power Complementary Field Effect Circuitry" in 1967.
[IC Knowledge - History of the Integrated Circuit - 1960s](_blank)
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
An EPROM (rarely EROM), or erasable programmable read-only memory, is a type of programmable read-only memory (PROM) chip that retains its data when its power supply is switched off. Computer memory that can retrieve stored data after a power s ...
(erasable
programmable read-only memory) technology.
In 1964, Wanlass moved to
General Microelectronics
General Micro-electronics (GMe) was an American semiconductor company in the 1960s. It was formed by three former members of Fairchild Semiconductor, and is thus one of the "Fairchildren". It was acquired in 1966 by Philco-Ford and became their Mic ...
(GMe), where he made the first commercial MOS
integrated circuits, and a year later to
General Instrument
General Instrument (GI) was an American electronics manufacturer based in Horsham, Pennsylvania, specializing in semiconductors and cable television equipment. They formed in New York City in 1923 as an electronics manufacturer. During the 1950s, ...
Microelectronics Division in New York,
where he developed
four-phase logic
Four-phase logic is a type of, and design methodology for dynamic logic. It enabled non-specialist engineers to design quite complex ICs, using either PMOS or NMOS processes.
It uses a kind of 4-phase clock signal.
History
R. K. "Bob" Boo ...
.
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
The IEEE Donald O. Pederson Award in Solid-State Circuits is a Technical Field Award of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). It was previously called the IEEE Solid-State Circuits Award. In November 2005 the award was re ...
.
[List of Solid-State Circuits Award winners](_blank)
/ref>
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
The National Inventors Hall of Fame (NIHF) is an American not-for-profit organization, founded in 1973, which recognizes individual engineers and inventors who hold a U.S. patent of significant technology. Besides the Hall of Fame, it also oper ...
for his invention of CMOS logic. He was part of the 2009 class celebrating semiconductor
A semiconductor is a material which has an electrical conductivity value falling between that of a conductor, such as copper, and an insulator, such as glass. Its resistivity falls as its temperature rises; metals behave in the opposite way. ...
pioneers, along with inventors of semiconductor technologies such as the MOSFET ( Mohamed Atalla and Dawon Kahng
Dawon Kahng ( ko, 강대원; May 4, 1931 – May 13, 1992) was a Korean-American electrical engineer and inventor, known for his work in solid-state electronics. He is best known for inventing the MOSFET (metal–oxide–semiconductor field-effe ...
), planar process (Jean Hoerni
Jean Amédée Hoerni (September 26, 1924 – January 12, 1997) was a Swiss-American engineer. He was a silicon transistor pioneer, and a member of the " traitorous eight". He developed the planar process, an important technology for reliably fab ...
), EPROM
An EPROM (rarely EROM), or erasable programmable read-only memory, is a type of programmable read-only memory (PROM) chip that retains its data when its power supply is switched off. Computer memory that can retrieve stored data after a power s ...
(Dov Frohman
Dov Frohman (Hebrew: דב פרוהמן, also Dov Frohman-Bentchkowsky; born March 28, 1939) is an Israeli electrical engineer and business executive. A former vice president of Intel Corporation, he is the inventor of the erasable programmable ...
) and molecular beam epitaxy
Molecular-beam epitaxy (MBE) is an epitaxy method for thin-film deposition of single crystals. MBE is widely used in the manufacture of semiconductor devices, including transistors, and it is considered one of the fundamental tools for the devel ...
(Alfred Y. Cho
Alfred Yi Cho (; born July 10, 1937) is a Chinese-American electrical engineer, inventor, and optical engineer. He is the Adjunct Vice President of Semiconductor Research at Alcatel-Lucent's Bell Labs. He is known as the "father of molecular be ...
).
References
External links
Invent Now, Inventor Profile – Frank Wanlass
University of Utah, Alumni Profile – Frank Wanlass
Obituary (requires subscription)
Obituary (republished)
1933 births
2010 deaths
American electronics engineers
MOSFETs
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