Paul K. Weimer (November 5, 1914 – January 6, 2005) was a noted contributor to the development of
television
Television (TV) is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. Additionally, the term can refer to a physical television set rather than the medium of transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...
and the
thin-film transistor
A thin-film transistor (TFT) is a special type of field-effect transistor (FET) where the transistor is made by thin film deposition. TFTs are grown on a supporting (but non-conducting) substrate, such as glass. This differs from the convention ...
(TFT).
Early life and education
Weimer was born in
Wabash, Indiana
Wabash is a city in Noble Township, Wabash County, Indiana, Noble Township, Wabash County, Indiana, Wabash County, in the U.S. state of Indiana. The population was 10,666 at the 2010 census. The city is situated along the Wabash River in the cou ...
. He received a B.A. in math and physics from
Manchester University (Indiana)
Manchester University (formerly Manchester College) is a private liberal arts university associated with the Church of the Brethren and two locations, a residential campus in North Manchester, Indiana, and a second location in Fort Wayne, Indiana ...
in 1936, an M.A. in physics from the
University of Kansas
The University of Kansas (KU) is a public research university with its main campus in Lawrence, Kansas, United States. Two branch campuses are in the Kansas City metropolitan area on the Kansas side: the university's medical school and hospital ...
in 1938, and a Ph.D. in physics from
Ohio State University
The Ohio State University (Ohio State or OSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio, United States. A member of the University System of Ohio, it was founded in 1870. It is one ...
in 1942. He then joined the
RCA
RCA Corporation was a major American electronics company, which was founded in 1919 as the Radio Corporation of America. It was initially a patent pool, patent trust owned by General Electric (GE), Westinghouse Electric Corporation, Westinghou ...
laboratory in
Princeton, New Jersey
The Municipality of Princeton is a Borough (New Jersey), borough in Mercer County, New Jersey, United States. It was established on January 1, 2013, through the consolidation of the Borough of Princeton, New Jersey, Borough of Princeton and Pri ...
, where he worked until retirement in 1981.
Career
His first assignment was to develop an electron multiplier to go with the
image orthicon. This tube, which proved to be 100 times more sensitive than its predecessors, was used for the first 20 years of television broadcasting in the United States. In 1961, Weimer began making thin-film transistors in a coplanar process on
glass
Glass is an amorphous (non-crystalline solid, non-crystalline) solid. Because it is often transparency and translucency, transparent and chemically inert, glass has found widespread practical, technological, and decorative use in window pane ...
substrates. In a typical process, he would deposit a gold source and drain, then deposit polycrystalline semiconductor material, and place a gate on top. After he placed an
insulator between the gate and semiconductor, he got excellent results, as published in his 1962 paper, "The TFT: A New Thin-Film Transistor", in the ''
Proceedings of the IRE
The ''Proceedings of the IEEE'' is a monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal published by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). The journal focuses on electrical engineering and computer science. According to the ''Journa ...
''.
Weimer held over 90 patents, and was a member of the
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 ...
and fellow of the
Institute for Radio Engineers. He received the IRE Television Prize, the 1966
IEEE Morris N. Liebmann Memorial Award
The initially called Morris Liebmann Memorial Prize provided by the Institute of Radio Engineers (IRE), the IEEE Morris N. Liebmann Memorial Award was created in 1919 in honor of Colonel Morris N. Liebmann. It was initially given to awardees who h ...
, an individual RCA David Sarnoff Outstanding Achievement Award in Science, and the 1986 Kultur Preis of the German Photographic Society. He died in
Princeton, New Jersey
The Municipality of Princeton is a Borough (New Jersey), borough in Mercer County, New Jersey, United States. It was established on January 1, 2013, through the consolidation of the Borough of Princeton, New Jersey, Borough of Princeton and Pri ...
, at age 90.
See also
*
CMOS
Complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor (CMOS, pronounced "sea-moss
", , ) is a type of MOSFET, metal–oxide–semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET) semiconductor device fabrication, fabrication process that uses complementary an ...
References
External links
''New York Times'' obituary, January 12, 2005IEEE oral history
{{DEFAULTSORT:Weimer, Paul K.
1914 births
2005 deaths
American electrical engineers
Manchester University (Indiana) alumni
Ohio State University Graduate School alumni
University of Kansas alumni
20th-century American engineers