October 21, 2002 - National Semiconductor Staff Scientist Robert A. Pease was one of 58 people today inducted into Electronic Design Magazine’s Electronic Engineering Hall of Fame along with innovators such as Guglielmo Marconi, Thomas Edison, William Hewlett and David Packard.
Since joining National Semiconductor in 1976, Pease has designed more than 20 analog integrated circuits including power regulators, voltage references, voltage-to-frequency converters, temperature sensors and amplifiers. Many of the circuits he designed decades ago are still in high-volume production. Pease is highly regarded for his work on bandgaps, a type of semiconductor circuit used in voltage references and power supplies. He holds 21 U.S. patents.
A prolific and widely read author, Pease is also known for the nearly 200 “Pease Porridge” columns he has contributed to Electronic Design magazine since 1990. The column covers a wide range of topics and was awarded a Certificate of Merit from the Jesse H. Neal Awards Committee of American Business Publications in 1992. Many of Pease's recent columns are posted at:
http://www.elecdesign.com/Index.cfm?Action=Pease
In addition to his regular column, Pease has written approximately 65 articles for technical and trade journals. His book, Troubleshooting Analog Circuits, a best-selling text in electrical engineering, is now in its 14th printing. It has been translated into French, German, Dutch and Russian.
“Bob Pease is one of those rare individuals who combines the skills of a brilliant scientist, inventor, and genuinely original writer,” said Suneil Parulekar, senior vice president, Analog Products Group, National Semiconductor. “He is one of many outstanding circuit designers who have helped make National a leading innovator of analog semiconductors.”
“Bob Pease was born to be an electronics engineer,” said Lucinda Mattera, associate chief editor, Electronic Design Magazine. “He combines unquenchable curiosity with dogged determination and innate ability. And even after decades as an expert EE, his passion for the profession remains as fresh as ever. We’re proud to recognize the many outstanding contributions he’s made during forty years of analog integrated circuit design.”
A profile of Bob Pease may be viewed at: http://www.elecdesign.com/Articles/Index.cfm?ArticleID=17269&Extension=pdf
As part of its fiftieth anniversary celebration, Electronic Design magazine founded the Engineering Hall of Fame. The publication conducted online voting among its 145,000 readers, asking them to select the individuals who have most profoundly influenced modern electrical engineering. The complete 2002 honor roll for the Hall of Fame may be viewed at: http://www.elecdesign.com/Articles/Index.cfm?ArticleID=17267&Extension=pdf.
Among the semiconductor products Pease designed are temperature-voltage frequency converters used in groundbreaking medical research expeditions to Mt. Everest in the 1980’s. He also designed a seismic pre-amplifier chip used to measure lunar ground tremors in the U.S. Apollo moon landing missions. Pease’s champion high-volume product, the LM337 negative voltage regulator, designed in 1977, is still in production. National has made more than 135 million of these chips.
Robert A. Pease was born in 1940 in Rockville, Connecticut. He attended Mount Hermon School and graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1961 with a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering. From 1961 to 1975 he was employed at George A. Philbrick Researches in Boston, Massachusetts, where he designed many operational amplifiers, analog computing modules, and voltage-frequency converters.
Pease, 62, lives in San Francisco. In his spare time he enjoys hiking, backpacking, and trekking in Nepal.
About National Semiconductor
National Semiconductor is the premier analog company driving the information age. Combining real-world analog and state-of-the-art digital technology, the company is focused on the fast growing markets for wireless handsets; information appliances; information infrastructure; and display, imaging and human interface technologies. With headquarters in Santa Clara, California, National reported sales of $1.5 billion for fiscal year 2002 and employs about 10,000 people worldwide. Additional company and product information is available on the World Wide Web at www.national.com.
