Michael Tompsett (born 1939) is a British-born physicist, engineer, and inventor, and the founder director of the US software company TheraManager. He is a former researcher at the

English Electric Valve Company English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national i ...

, who later moved to

Bell Labs Nokia Bell Labs, originally named Bell Telephone Laboratories (1925–1984), then AT&T Bell Laboratories (1984–1996) and Bell Labs Innovations (1996–2007), is an American industrial Research and development, research and scientific developm ...

in the United States. Tompsett invented CCD imagers and designed and built the first ever video camera with a solid-state (CCD) sensor. Tompsett received the

Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering The Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering, also known as the QEPrize, is a global prize for engineering and innovation. The prize was launched in 2012 by a cross-party group consisting of David Cameron, Nick Clegg, and Ed Miliband, then Prime M ...

in 2017, with

Eric Fossum Eric R. Fossum (born October 17, 1957) is an American physicist and engineer, which with the help of other JPL scientists, co-developed some features of the CMOS image sensor. He is currently a professor at Thayer School of Engineering in Dartmou ...

, George Smith, and

Nobukazu Teranishi is a Japanese engineer who researches image sensors, and is known for inventing the pinned photodiode, an important component of modern digital cameras. He was one of four recipients of the 2017 Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering. His industr ...

. Tompsett has also received two other lifetime awards; the New Jersey Inventors Hall of Fame 2010 Pioneer Award, and the 2012 IEEE Edison Medal. The thermal-imaging camera tube developed from his invention also earned a Queen's Award in 1987. Tompsett is known particularly for his work on infrared imagers and CCD imagers. He pioneered compact, low power, high performance, and low cost solid-state infrared imagers, CCD imagers, and digital cameras and made contributions in several fields with patents and publications over an extended period of time. He is credited with applying the principle behind the charge-coupled device to invent the CCD imager, used in devices such as digital cameras.

Education and career

He studied

physics Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which r ...

at the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a public collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209 and granted a royal charter by Henry III in 1231, Cambridge is the world's third oldest surviving university and one of its most pr ...

and also completed an engineering PhD there (1962–66). Tompsett built a

reflection high-energy electron diffraction Reflection high-energy electron diffraction (RHEED) is a analytical technique, technique used to characterize the surface of crystalline materials. RHEED systems gather information only from the surface layer of the sample, which distinguishes RHEE ...

(RHEED) system to study surfaces. While at English Electric Valve (EEV), he built the first ultra-high-vacuum RHEED system with in-situ deposition to study the structures of thin-films of lead oxide as they were deposited. This understanding was needed to make

Plumbicon Video camera tubes were devices based on the cathode ray tube that were used in television cameras to capture television images, prior to the introduction of charge-coupled device (CCD) image sensors in the 1980s. Several different types of tubes ...

television camera-tubes. He consulted with VacGen (now VG Scienta) to make a commercial system, the first of which was sold to IBM Labs. In 1968 while still at EEV, Tompsett invented the un-cooled Pyro-electric thermal-imaging camera tube. He also invented a solid-state version, which is now the basis for thermal imagers made today. These imagers are used with great impact by the military for night-vision, by firefighters to see through smoke, and for other search-and-rescue and civilian uses worldwide. In 1969, he moved to

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

with his wife, and joined AT&T Bell Telephone Laboratories, where he made the first charge-coupled device (CCD), and led the development of CCDs. He exploited the device’s potential for digital imaging and, together with his team, developed a series of CCD cameras and produced the first pixel CCD colour image in 1972. It was a picture of his wife and made the cover of ''Electronics Magazine''. In 1979, he pioneered the development of the first, integrated circuit, data modem using Metal Oxide Semiconductor ( MOSFET) silicon switched-capacitor filters, and a patented Automatic Gain Control circuit. This was the first mixed analog-digital integrated circuit/system to go into manufacture. This technology has now grown into a multibillion-dollar industry. In the 1980s Tompsett applied himself to finding a solution to a major challenge to reduce the size, power, and cost of digitizing video signals from imagers and scanners. He invented an integrated, two-step recycling video analog-digital converter. After taking early retirement from Bell Labs in 1989, he joined the

US Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...

as Director of Electron Device Research for six years. In 2010 the US Government awarded him the National Medal of Technology and Innovation, its highest honor for engineers and inventors. In 2016, he was elected a member of the

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

for the design and development of the first charge-coupled device imagers.

Technical accomplishments

Tompsett made technological contributions in several different specialty areas including materials science, night vision,

charge-coupled device A charge-coupled device (CCD) is an integrated circuit containing an array of linked, or coupled, capacitors. Under the control of an external circuit, each capacitor can transfer its electric charge to a neighboring capacitor. CCD sensors are a ...

s, and

integrated circuit design Integrated circuit design, or IC design, is a sub-field of electronics engineering, encompassing the particular logic and circuit design techniques required to design integrated circuits, or ICs. ICs consist of miniaturized electronic compon ...

over a lifetime of work. He is responsible for significant invention, development, and leadership of several socially beneficial enabling technologies in use today. These include the in-situ monitoring of deposited epitaxial films, un-cooled night-vision thermal imaging camera tubes, un-cooled solid-state thermal imagers, CCD imagers and CCD cameras, MOS mixed analog-digital integrated systems, and integrated video analog-digital converters.

Awards and honors

*Tompsett was elected Fellow of the Institution of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (

IEEE The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is a 501(c)(3) professional association for electronic engineering and electrical engineering (and associated disciplines) with its corporate office in New York City and its operat ...

) in 1987. *Tompsett received the 2010 Pioneer Lifetime Award from the New Jersey Inventors Hall of Fame. *Tompsett received the National Medal of Technology and Innovation, the highest honor bestowed by the United States government on US engineers and inventors presented by President Obama in 2011. *Tompsett received the

IEEE Edison Medal The IEEE Edison Medal is presented by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) "for a career of meritorious achievement in electrical science, electrical engineering, or the electrical arts." It is the oldest medal in this fi ...

in 2012. *Tompsett received the

presented by Prince Charles in 2017. *Tompsett received The Progress Medal from the Royal Photographic Society (RPS) in 2017. *Tompsett received a Technology and Engineering Emmy Award from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences in 2020.

Bibliography

Charge transfer imaging devices
, U.S. Patent 4,085,456, priority date March 16, 1971; filing date August 30, 1972; publication date April 18, 1978 (retrieved December 23, 2009).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tompsett, Michael Francis Living people British physicists Digital imaging IEEE Edison Medal recipients 1939 births