Richard Stephen Muller (born May 5, 1933) is an American professor in the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department of the

University of California at Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant uni ...

. He made contributions to the founding and growth of the field of MicroElectromechanical Systems (MEMS). Together with student, Roger T. Howe, he made the initial seminal contribution of polysilicon sacrificially-released beams in 1982. This led to a class of micromanufacturing processes called

surface micromachining Surface micromachining builds microstructures by deposition and etching structural layers over a substrate. This is different from Bulk micromachining, in which a silicon substrate wafer is selectively etched to produce structures. Layers Gene ...

. These processes preceded the creation of low cost, mass-produced commercial micro accelerometers, which are used in automotive collision sensors for airbag deployment. Together with Richard M. White, he created BSAC (Berkeley Sensor & Actuator Center), an organization that produced many generations of academic researchers and intellectual properties in the MEMS field. MEMS is an activity that in 2013 accounted for multi-billion dollar revenue worldwide. Muller was elected a member of the US

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 ...

in 1992 for contributions to the technology and design of integrated electronic sensors.

Biography

Muller received the degree of Mechanical Engineer (with highest honors) from the

Stevens Institute of Technology Stevens Institute of Technology is a private research university in Hoboken, New Jersey. Founded in 1870, it is one of the oldest technological universities in the United States and was the first college in America solely dedicated to mechanical ...

Hoboken, New Jersey Hoboken ( ; Unami: ') is a city in Hudson County in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the city's population was 60,417. The Census Bureau's Population Estimates Program calculated that the city's population was 58,690 i ...

, 1955; and his M.S. in Electrical Engineering and Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering and Physics, in 1957 and 1962, respectively, at the

California Institute of Technology The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech or CIT)The university itself only spells its short form as "Caltech"; the institution considers other spellings such a"Cal Tech" and "CalTech" incorrect. The institute is also occasional ...

, in Pasadena, California. From 1955 to 1962 he was a member of the technical staff at the Hughes Aircraft Company in Culver City,

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 ...

. In 1962, he joined the Electrical Engineering faculty at UC Berkeley. From 1995 to 2005, Muller served as a Trustee of the Stevens Institute of Technology.

Scientific work

His initial research and teaching on the physics of integrated-circuit devices led to collaboration with Theodore I. Kamins of Hewlett-Packard Laboratories in writing ''Device Electronics for Integrated Circuits,'' first published by

John Wiley & Sons John Wiley & Sons, Inc., commonly known as Wiley (), is an American multinational publishing company founded in 1807 that focuses on academic publishing and instructional materials. The company produces books, journals, and encyclopedias, ...

in 1977, with a second edition in 1986, and a third edition appearing in 2002. Muller changed his research focus in the late 1970s to the general area now known as microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), and he joined in 1986 with colleague Richard M. White to found the Berkeley Sensor & Actuator Center (BSAC), an NSF/Industry/University Cooperative Research Center. In 1990, he proposed to

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 ...

and ASME the creation of a MEMS technical journal, which began publication in 1991 as the IEEE/ASME Journal of Microelectromechanical Systems (IEEE/ASME JMEMS). In 1997, Muller was chosen Editor-Chief of JMEMS and served in this position until 2013. Muller and his student Roger T. Howe created the process of surface micromachining using polysilicon (poly) as a structural material, and silicon oxide as a sacrificial layer. This surface micromachining process becomes the foundation of high volume airbag accelerometers. The surface micromachining process is the fundamental process for many consumer, industrial, and military devices today, including microphones, pressure sensors, electronic filters, spectrometers, and e-readers. Muller has received the following academic awards and recognition: the UC Berkeley Citation (1994); the Stevens Institute of Technology Renaissance Award (1995); the Transducers Research Conference Career Achievement Award (1997), the IEEE Cledo Brunetti Award (with Roger T. Howe, 1998), an IEEE Millennium Medal (2000), and IEEE/RSE Wolfson James Clerk Maxwell Award (2013). He is a member of the

, and a ''Life Fellow'' of the IEEE.

Lectures

* 1992
Formidable partners: microelectronics and micromechanics
Lecture sponsored by the Dept. of Electrical and Computer engineering, University of California, San Diego. Electrical and Computer Engineering Distinguished Lecture Series. Digital Object Made Available by Special Collections & Archives, UC San Diego.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Muller, Richard S. 1933 births Living people California Institute of Technology alumni University of California, Berkeley faculty Fellow Members of the IEEE