Donald L. Klein
The information listed below is current as of the date the transcript was finalized.
Interview Details
Interview Sessions
Abstract of Interview
Donald L. Klein is the son of a Hungarian father and a Hungarian-American mother, who grew up in Brooklyn, New York. With his childhood friend, Neil Wotherspoon, Klein developed an early passion for chemistry, electronics, and amateur radio, interests that would follow him throughout his life and career. At Brooklyn Technical High School, he discovered an additional passion for metallurgy. He completed his undergraduate degree in chemistry at Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn (now Polytechnic Institute of New York University), then found a job in the semiconductor industry to support his new wife (who also received a degree in chemistry). After working for a couple of years, he pursued a graduate degree at the University of Connecticut to study photochemistry under Dr. Roland Ward. Klein was recruited to work for Bell Laboratories, and began working on the production of semiconductors. His group was involved in involved in developing etching techniques for semiconductors and methods to prevent different types of contamination in semiconductor production. In February 1966, Klein was in charge of a brainstorming session with several other Bell scientists to design a better process for building FET devices. They first identified the problems with current models and processes; out of that meeting came the idea of using a heavily doped polycrystalline silicon layer as the gate of an FET. The gate was to be supported on dual layers of a silicon nitride and silicon dioxide serving as the gate insulator. Using the FET as a model for integrated circuits, they fabricated and characterized hundreds of FET devices at high yield that exhibited close electrical tolerances. Klein and his colleagues published several papers on their new technology, and applied for patents on their process, though Bell's management was slow to appreciate the breakthrough its scientists had made. After a restructuring, Klein left Bell to work for IBM. The rest of the industry, however, was quick to adopt and improve the silicon gate technology. There were legal disputes throughout the 1970s, but by that time Klein was at IBM developing photoresist technologies and more efficient processes for manufacturing electronic packaging.
Education
Year | Institution | Degree | Discipline |
---|---|---|---|
1952 | Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute | BS | Chemistry |
1956 | University of Connecticut | MS | Inorganic Chemistry |
1959 | University of Connecticut | PhD | Inorganic Chemistry |
Professional Experience
Sylvania Electric Products, Inc.
University of Connecticut
Bell Laboratories
IBM Corporation
Dutchess Community College
Honors
Year(s) | Award |
---|---|
1982 | IBM Invention Award |
1994 | Inducted into New Jersey Inventors Hall of Fame |
1994 | Jack A. Morton Award of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers |
1999 | Brooklyn Technical High School Alumni Hall of Fame |
Table of Contents
Father's immigration experience. Born in Brooklyn. Early interest inchemistry. Interest in amateur radio and electronics. Brooklyn Technical High School. Interest in chemistry and metallurgy.
Undergraduate at Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn. Solid-state and radio frequency titrimetry. Scholarship work on polarography. Marriage. Sylvania Electric Products, Inc. Semiconductors and diffused transistors. Graduate studies at the University of Connecticut. Photochemistry.
Recruitment. Early projects on semiconductors. Moisture contamination. Etching. Bell management. Plating. Aluminum oxide contamination. Gallium arsenide doping.
Interdepartmental meeting. Goal to develop a process like a chemist. Problems with field effect transistors. Idea of sandwich structure with silicon. Trial and error construction of silicon gate device. Personal, company, and industry response. Restructuring at Bell. Patents.
Move to International Business Machines. Spread of silicon gatetechnology. Silicon gate legal disputes. Lithography. Research inelectronic packaging technologies.
About the Interviewer
David C. Brock is a senior research fellow with the Center for Contemporary History and Policy at the Chemical Heritage Foundation. As a historian of science and technology, he specializes in the history of semiconductor science, technology, and industry; the history of instrumentation; and oral history. Brock has studied the philosophy, sociology, and history of science at Brown University, the University of Edinburgh, and Princeton University.
In the policy arena Brock recently published Patterning the World: The Rise of Chemically Amplified Photoresists, a white-paper case study for the Center’s Studies in Materials Innovation. With Hyungsub Choi he is preparing an analysis of semiconductor technology roadmapping, having presented preliminary results at the 2009 meeting of the Industry Studies Association.