Bob Widlar

Robert John Widlar (pronounced wide-lar; November 30, 1937 – February 27, 1991) was an American electronics engineer and a designer of linear integrated circuits (ICs).

Widlar was born November 30, 1937, in Cleveland to parents of Czech, Irish and German ethnicity.

His mother, Mary Vithous, was born in Cleveland to Czech immigrants Frank Vithous (František Vitouš) and Marie Zakova (Marie Žáková).

In February 1958 Widlar joined the United States Air Force.

He instructed servicemen in electronic equipment and devices and authored his first book, Introduction to Semiconductor Devices (1960), a textbook that demonstrated his ability to simplify complex problems.

His liberal mind was a poor match for the military environment, and in 1961 Widlar left the service.

He joined the Ball Brothers Research Corporation in Boulder to develop analog and digital equipment for NASA.

He simultaneously continued studies at the University of Colorado and graduated with high grades in the summer of 1963.

Widlar invented the basic building blocks of linear ICs including the Widlar current source, the Widlar bandgap voltage reference and the Widlar output stage.

Widlar decided to move to a semiconductor manufacturing company, and in 1963 Jerry Sanders, a Fairchild Semiconductor salesman, provided him the opportunity.

According to Thomas Lee, Fairchild also wanted to have Widlar on board, and breached professional ethics by recruiting a key employee of their customer.

In September 1963 Widlar was invited for an interview with Fairchild research and development (R&D) manager Heinz Ruegg.

Widlar arrived at the interview intoxicated, and frankly told Ruegg what he thought about Fairchild's analog circuits: "What they are doing is bullshit".

Widlar was sent to another interview with the company's Applications Engineering division, which was based in Mountain View, California.

The division head, John Hulme, hired Widlar despite objections from the first round interviewers.

Widlar's first assignment at Fairchild targeted IC reliability through adjustments in fabrication processes.

This early work, directed by process engineer David Talbert, reduced the cost of the planar process and made possible development of monolithic (fully integrated) linear ICs.

Widlar, who formally reported to John Barrett, proved himself capable of quickly improving Barrett's own designs and very soon squeezed his nominal boss out of the company.

In 1963 Fairchild's analog IC lineup, designed to military specifications, consisted of three amplifier circuits.

Before Widlar, Fairchild's engineers had designed analog ICs in a style not unlike conventional circuits built with discrete devices.

Despite realizing early on that this approach was impractical, owing to the severe limitations of the early planar process, they had not devised working alternatives (active loads and active current sources had yet to be invented).

When the original schematic required resistor values that were too low or too high for the planar process, designers often had to resort to the use of external nichrome thin film resistors.

The resulting hybrid ICs performed poorly and were prohibitively expensive.

In response, Fairchild's R&D chief Gordon Moore directed the company to favor digital integrated circuits, which were simpler and also promised high production volumes.

Widlar opposed this strategy and held digital electronics in low esteem: "every idiot can count to one".

From 1964 to 1970, Widlar, together with David Talbert, created the first mass-produced operational amplifier ICs (μA702, μA709), some of the earliest integrated voltage regulator ICs (LM100 and LM105), the first operational amplifiers employing single capacitor frequency compensation (LM101), an improved LM101 with FET internal current control (LM101A), and super-beta transistors (LM108).

Each of Widlar's circuits had "at least one feature which was far ahead of the crowd" and became a "product champion" in its class.

They made his employers, Fairchild Semiconductor and National Semiconductor, the leaders in linear integrated circuits.

Already a "legendary chip designer" at the age of 33, Widlar voluntarily retired into a hideout in Mexico and became "the Valley's most celebrated dropout."

Four years later he returned to National Semiconductor as a contractor and produced a series of advanced linear ICs, including the first ultra-low-voltage operational amplifier with precision 200mV voltage reference (LM10).

Widlar's eccentric, and outspoken personality, and his bohemian lifestyle made him the enfant terrible of Silicon Valley.

He is remembered in legends, myths and anecdotes that are largely true.

According to Bo Lojek, author of History of Semiconductor Engineering, he was "more artist than an engineer ... in the environment where Human Relations Departments define what engineers can and cannot comment about, it is very unlikely that we will see his kind again."

Work at Bell Research brought Widlar in contact with Jean Hoerni and Sheldon Roberts, the creators of radiation hardened transistors and co-founders of Fairchild Semiconductor.

His father, Walter J. Widlar, came from prominent German and Irish American families whose ancestors settled in Cleveland in the middle of the 19th century.

A self-taught radio engineer, Walter Widlar worked for the WGAR (1220 AM) radio station and designed pioneering ultra high frequency transmitters.

The world of electronics surrounded him since birth: one of his brothers became the first baby monitored by wireless radio.

Guided by his father, Bob developed a strong interest in electronics in early childhood.

Widlar never talked about his early years and personal life.

He graduated from Saint Ignatius High School in Cleveland and enrolled at the University of Colorado at Boulder.