Barrie Gilbert (5 June 1937 – 30 January 2020) was an English-American

electrical engineer Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems that use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...

. He was well known for his invention of numerous analog circuit concepts, holding over 100 patents worldwide, and for the discovery of the Translinear Principle. His name is attributed to a class of related topologies loosely referred to as the

Gilbert cell In electronics, the Gilbert cell is a type of frequency mixer. It produces output signals proportional to the product of two input signals. Such circuits are widely used for frequency conversion in radio systems. The advantage of this circuit is t ...

, one of which is a mixer - a key frequency translation device - used in every modern wireless communication device. A similar topology, for use as a synchronous demodulator, was invented by Howard Jones in 1963. Gilbert was born in

Bournemouth Bournemouth ( ) is a coastal resort town in the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole unitary authority area, in the ceremonial county of Dorset, England. At the 2021 census, the built-up area had a population of 196,455, making it the largest ...

, England. During the 1950s he pursued an interest in solid-state devices while at

Mullard Mullard Limited was a British manufacturer of electronics, electronic components. The Mullard Radio Valve Co. Ltd. of Southfields, London, was founded in 1920 by Captain Stanley R. Mullard, who had previously designed thermionic valves (US ...

, working on the development of early transistors, and later, the first-generation planar ICs. After some pioneering development of sampling oscillography he emigrated to the United States in 1964 to pursue this interest at

Tektronix Tektronix, Inc., historically widely known as Tek, is an American company best known for manufacturing test and measurement devices such as oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, and video and mobile test protocol equipment. Originally an independent c ...

, Beaverton,

Oregon Oregon ( , ) is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is a part of the Western U.S., with the Columbia River delineating much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while t ...

, where he developed the first electronic knob-readout system and other advances in instrumentation. He returned to England in 1970, where he was Group Leader at Plessey Research Laboratories, managing a team developing OCR systems and integrated circuits (ICs) for communications applications. From 1972-1977 he consulted for

Analog Devices Analog Devices, Inc. (ADI), also known simply as Analog, is an American multinational corporation, multinational semiconductor company specializing in data conversion, signal processing, and power management technology, headquartered in Wilming ...

Inc., Wilmington, MA, designing several ICs embodying novel nonlinear concepts. He returned to the USA and Tektronix in 1977 to pursue HF ICs and process development. In 1979, Analog Devices allowed Gilbert to create the first remote design center for the Company, in Oregon, to persuade him to rejoin the company as their first Fellow. This center developed into the Northwest Labs. On February 4, 2020, Analog Devices announced that Gilbert had died.

Awards and honors

In 1984, Gilbert became a Life Fellow of the

Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is an American 501(c)(3) public charity professional organization for electrical engineering, electronics engineering, and other related disciplines. The IEEE has a corporate office ...

(

IEEE The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is an American 501(c)(3) organization, 501(c)(3) public charity professional organization for electrical engineering, electronics engineering, and other related disciplines. The IEEE ...

) for discovery of the translinear principle and invention of the translinear multiplier. For pioneering work on merged logic, he received the IEEE "Outstanding Achievement Award" (1970) and later the IEEE Solid-State Circuits Council "Outstanding Development Award" (1986). He was Oregon Researcher of the Year in 1990 and he received 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 ren ...

(1992) "For contributions to non-linear analog

signal processing Signal processing is an electrical engineering subfield that focuses on analyzing, modifying and synthesizing ''signals'', such as audio signal processing, sound, image processing, images, Scalar potential, potential fields, Seismic tomograph ...

circuits". He has five times received the ISSCC Outstanding Paper Award. He held an Honorary Doctorate from Oregon State University. In 2009, Gilbert was elected to the U.S.

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

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gilbert, Barrie 1937 births 2020 deaths 21st-century American engineers 20th-century American inventors English emigrants to the United States Analog electronics engineers Members of the United States National Academy of Engineering People from Beaverton, Oregon Tektronix people