T Peter Brody
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T. P. "Peter" Brody (18 April 1920
Budapest Budapest is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns of Hungary, most populous city of Hungary. It is the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, tenth-largest city in the European Union by popul ...
, Hungary – 18 September 2011
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, second-most populous city in Pennsylvania (after Philadelphia) and the List of Un ...
, United States) was a British-naturalised
physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate cau ...
and the
co-inventor In patent law, an inventor is the person, or persons in United States patent law, who contribute to the claim (patent), claims of a patentability, patentable invention. In some patent law frameworks, however, such as in the European Patent Convent ...
of
Active Matrix Active matrix is a type of addressing scheme used in flat panel displays. It is a method of switching individual elements of a flat panel display, known as pixels. Each pixel is attached to a transistor and capacitor that ''actively'' maintain th ...
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 ...
display technology together with Fang-Chen Luo,2011 IEEE Nishizawa Medal
/ref> having produced the world's first Active Matrix Liquid Crystal Display (AM-LCD) in 1972 and the first functional AM-EL (
electroluminescent display Electroluminescent displays (ELDs) are a type of flat panel display created by sandwiching a layer of electroluminescent material such as gallium arsenide between two layers of conductors. When current flows, the layer of material emits radiatio ...
) in 1973 while employed by
Westinghouse Electric Corporation The Westinghouse Electric Corporation was an American manufacturing company founded in 1886 by George Westinghouse and headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It was originally named "Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company" and was ...
in
Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, second-most populous city in Pennsylvania (after Philadelphia) and the List of Un ...
. Brody coined the term "active matrix" and first used it in a published journal article in 1975.


Early life and career

From early childhood Brody was interested in sports, particularly swimming and rowing, and had a passion for
classical music Classical music generally refers to the art music of the Western world, considered to be #Relationship to other music traditions, distinct from Western folk music or popular music traditions. It is sometimes distinguished as Western classical mu ...
. In 1938 he left his parents and two younger brothers behind in Hungary to learn the family trade at the
London College of Printing The London College of Communication is a constituent college of the University of the Arts London. Its origins are in education for the printing and retail industries; it now specialises in media-related subjects including advertising, animation ...
. He was naturalised as a British subject in January 1948. He served as a designer/draftsman and worked for the
Special Operations Executive Special Operations Executive (SOE) was a British organisation formed in 1940 to conduct espionage, sabotage and reconnaissance in German-occupied Europe and to aid local Resistance during World War II, resistance movements during World War II. ...
in the
British Army The British Army is the principal Army, land warfare force of the United Kingdom. the British Army comprises 73,847 regular full-time personnel, 4,127 Brigade of Gurkhas, Gurkhas, 25,742 Army Reserve (United Kingdom), volunteer reserve perso ...
during and after the
Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, rising to the rank of staff captain. Brody studied
piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...
at the
Guildhall School of Music and Drama The Guildhall School of Music and Drama is a music school, music and drama school located in the City of London, England. Established in 1880, the school offers undergraduate and postgraduate training in all aspects of classical music and jazz al ...
in
London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
winning the Lady Mayoress' Prize for piano performance in 1952. Brody met his future wife Maude M. Frost at a
Fabian Society The Fabian Society () is a History of the socialist movement in the United Kingdom, British socialist organisation whose purpose is to advance the principles of social democracy and democratic socialism via gradualist and reformist effort in ...
dance in London and they married in 1952. Brody obtained a Ph.D. in
Theoretical Physics Theoretical physics is a branch of physics that employs mathematical models and abstractions of physical objects and systems to rationalize, explain, and predict List of natural phenomena, natural phenomena. This is in contrast to experimental p ...
from the
University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a collegiate university, federal Public university, public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The ...
in 1953 and worked as a senior lecturer at the university until 1959. He moved to
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, second-most populous city in Pennsylvania (after Philadelphia) and the List of Un ...
, on being offered the opportunity to work as a researcher for
Westinghouse Electric Corporation The Westinghouse Electric Corporation was an American manufacturing company founded in 1886 by George Westinghouse and headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It was originally named "Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company" and was ...
. From 1959 to 1979 he did theoretical work on
tunnel diode A tunnel diode or Esaki diode is a type of semiconductor diode that has effectively " negative resistance" due to the quantum mechanical effect called tunneling. It was invented in August 1957 by Leo Esaki and Yuriko Kurose when working ...
s,
semiconductor A semiconductor is a material with electrical conductivity between that of a conductor and an insulator. Its conductivity can be modified by adding impurities (" doping") to its crystal structure. When two regions with different doping level ...
device theory and experiment, injection luminescence,
field emission Field electron emission, also known as field-induced electron emission, field emission (FE) and electron field emission, is the emission of electrons from a material placed in an electrostatic field. The most common context is field emission from ...
,
pattern recognition Pattern recognition is the task of assigning a class to an observation based on patterns extracted from data. While similar, pattern recognition (PR) is not to be confused with pattern machines (PM) which may possess PR capabilities but their p ...
, later turning his interest to
thin film A thin film is a layer of materials ranging from fractions of a nanometer ( monolayer) to several micrometers in thickness. The controlled synthesis of materials as thin films (a process referred to as deposition) is a fundamental step in many ...
technology.


Thin-Film Transistors

Over the years 1968–79, Brody developed many electronic uses for
thin film transistors 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 conventiona ...
, including flexible circuits, aircraft power controls, industrial timers and others. His work at Westinghouse culminated in the invention of active matrix technology, using a
CdSe Cadmium selenide is an inorganic compound with the formula Cd Se. It is a black to red-black solid that is classified as a II-VI semiconductor of the n-type. It is a pigment, but applications are declining because of environmental concerns. ...
TFT to drive each individual
pixel In digital imaging, a pixel (abbreviated px), pel, or picture element is the smallest addressable element in a Raster graphics, raster image, or the smallest addressable element in a dot matrix display device. In most digital display devices, p ...
of a
flat panel display A flat-panel display (FPD) is an electronic display used to display visual content such as text or images. It is present in consumer, medical, transportation, and industrial equipment. Flat-panel displays are thin, lightweight, provide better ...
. This form of
liquid crystal display A liquid-crystal display (LCD) is a flat-panel display or other Electro-optic modulator, electronically modulated optical device that uses the light-modulating properties of liquid crystals combined with polarizers to display information. Liq ...
is the dominant technology in flat panel displays. When Westinghouse cancelled the research program in 1979, Brody resigned, and two years later founded Panelvision Corporation, the world's first AM-LCD company. In 1983 the company introduced the first AM-LCD products into the US market. Panelvision was acquired by Litton Systems in 1985, and after a period of consulting, Dr. Brody founded Magnascreen Corporation, oriented towards very large area displays, in 1988. This venture was funded in part by
Jerome Wiesner Jerome Bert Wiesner (May 30, 1915 – October 21, 1994) was a professor of electrical engineering, chosen by President John F. Kennedy as chairman of his Science Advisory Committee (PSAC). Educated at the University of Michigan, Wiesner was asso ...
, Richard Leghorn of
Itek Itek Corporation was a United States defense contractor that initially specialized in camera systems for spy satellites and various other reconnaissance systems. In the early 1960s they built a conglomerate in a fashion similar to LTV or Litt ...
, and
Apple An apple is a round, edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus'' spp.). Fruit trees of the orchard or domestic apple (''Malus domestica''), the most widely grown in the genus, are agriculture, cultivated worldwide. The tree originated ...
's
John Sculley John Sculley III (born April 6, 1939) is an American businessman, entrepreneur and investor in high-tech startups. Sculley was vice-president (1970–1977) and president of PepsiCo (1977–1983), until he became chief executive officer (CEO) ...
, and won contracts worth $7.8 million from the
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is a research and development agency of the United States Department of Defense responsible for the development of emerging technologies for use by the military. Originally known as the Adva ...
(DARPA). Brody left Magnascreen in 1990 to form Active Matrix Associates, a consulting group, and over the period 1991–97 worked on a number of classified projects for
DARPA The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is a research and development agency of the United States Department of Defense responsible for the development of emerging technologies for use by the military. Originally known as the Adva ...
. In 1998, in collaboration with two former Westinghouse colleagues, Bob Stapleton and Paul Malmberg, he invented a process for fabricating low-cost thin film electronic circuits by purely additive processes. In 2002 he founded Amedeo Corporation (now Advantech US), funded in part by
Compaq Compaq Computer Corporation was an American information technology, information technology company founded in 1982 that developed, sold, and supported computers and related products and services. Compaq produced some of the first IBM PC compati ...
, dedicated to the exploitation of additive technology. The company is concentrating on the development and commercial production of low cost active matrix backplanes for emerging display technologies, including
AM-OLED AMOLED (active-matrix organic light-emitting diode; ) is a type of OLED display device technology. OLED describes a specific type of thin-film-display technology in which organic compounds form the electroluminescent material, and active matrix ...
. He was active as chief scientist of Advantech US until his death at the age of 91. Brody was a Fellow of the
Society for Information Display The Society for Information Display (SID) is an industry organization for displays, generally electronic displays such as televisions and computer monitors. SID was founded in September 1962. Its main activities are publishing technical journals ...
(SID), and a recipient of many awards in recognition of his pioneering work, which became the foundation of a major new industry. He published over 70 scientific papers and received more than 60 patents. A SID award, th
Peter Brody Prize
was created in 2017 to honor outstanding contributions of young researchers to active matrix information display technology.


Awards and honors

*1976 –
Society for Information Display The Society for Information Display (SID) is an industry organization for displays, generally electronic displays such as televisions and computer monitors. SID was founded in September 1962. Its main activities are publishing technical journals ...
(SID) Special Recognition Award *1983 – SID Fellowship *1987 – SID Karl Ferdinand Braun Prize *1988 –
Rank Prize in Optoelectronics The Rank Prizes comprise the Rank Prize for Optoelectronics and the Rank Prize for Nutrition. The prizes recognise, reward and encourage researchers working in the respective fields of optoelectronics and nutrition. The prizes are funded by the c ...
(UK) *1988 – Eduard Rhein Prize (Germany) *2011 –
IEEE Jun-ichi Nishizawa Medal In 2002, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) added a new award to its already existing program of awards. Each year, one or more nominees are honored with a medal in the name of Jun-ichi Nishizawa, considered to be the ' ...
*2012 –
Charles Stark Draper Prize The U.S. National Academy of Engineering annually awards the Draper Prize, which is given for the advancement of engineering and the education of the public about engineering. It is one of three prizes that constitute the "Nobel Prizes of Enginee ...
Brody was the first person in history to receive all three major SID awards.


References


External links


The birth and early childhood of active matrix — A personal memoir

The conceptual and historical roots of active matrix technology

T Peter Brody Timeline
(graphic)

{{DEFAULTSORT:Brody, T Peter 1920 births 2011 deaths British electrical engineers 20th-century British physicists 20th-century Hungarian physicists Draper Prize winners Alumni of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama Alumni of the London College of Printing Alumni of the University of London Hungarian emigrants to the United Kingdom British expatriates in the United States