44 Facts About Bob Widlar

Robert John Widlar was an American electronics engineer and a designer of linear integrated circuits.

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

Bob Widlar's mother, Mary Vithous, was born in Cleveland to Czech immigrants Frank Vithous and Marie Zakova.

Bob Widlar never talked about his early years and personal life.

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

In February 1958 Bob Widlar joined the United States Air Force.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

In September 1963 Bob Widlar was invited for an interview with Fairchild research and development manager Heinz Ruegg.

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

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

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

Bob Widlar was a hard person to work with, but the few men and women who could, like Talbert and Jack Gifford, joined his inner circle for life.

Bob Widlar soon grasped the benefits and drawbacks of the planar process: It provided matched components at all temperatures, but these components possessed parasitic capacitance not present in discrete parts, and the process imposed severe constraints on the practical values of resistors and capacitors.

Bob Widlar summarised these design rules in a maxim: "Do not attempt to replicate discrete designs in integrated circuit form".

Bob Widlar dispensed with hybrid technology, and used only diffused resistors formed within the silicon die.

Bob Widlar introduced three innovations: Interfacing a long-tail with a single-ended stage without losing half of the gain, shifting the DC level using only NPN transistors, and providing optional frequency compensation with an external capacitor.

Bob Widlar locked himself up for 170 hours of continuous experimental work and came out with a robust design that blended two resistive diffusion areas into a usable lateral PNP device.

Bob Widlar's productivity was so great that it has stimulated spurious attributions.

Bob Widlar received an immediate stock option of 20,000 shares, each valued at five dollars then.

Once the technology was in place, Bob Widlar concentrated on voltage regulators and by the end of 1966 produced the industry's first integrated linear regulator.

In 1967 Bob Widlar designed the LM101, an operational amplifier with improved gain, decreased input current, and protection against short circuit.

Bob Widlar's solution minimized die area and current drain, and enabled operation over a wide range of power supply voltages.

Bob Widlar created another industry first by combining a power transistor and a precise voltage reference on the same die.

Bob Widlar cashed in his stock option for $1 million, and retired to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, at the age of 33.

In November 1974 Bob Widlar returned to National Semiconductor as a consultant.

Bob Widlar claimed rights over Linear's LT1 to LT20 chips, and in May 1984 walked away, leaving the case to his lawyers.

In October 1984, Swanson fired Bob Widlar and invoked the mandatory share repurchase provision that was in Bob Widlar's contract.

Bob Widlar returned to National Semiconductor for the remainder of his life.

On February 27,1991, Bob Widlar died of a heart attack at the age of 53, in Puerto Vallarta.

Early reports incorrectly said that Bob Widlar died while jogging on a beach.

Bob Widlar was, in recent years, pretty much into fitness, and he worked hard at his running.

Bob Widlar lived the life of an alcoholic genius, who went on all-night-long bar binges.

Charles Sporck retold another incident: during a European roadshow Bob Widlar got drunk and publicly refused to speak to the audience unless he got more gin.

Widlar's eccentric behavior is remembered in legends and anecdotes which, according to Bob Pease, are largely true.

Bob Widlar installed "hassler" devices that emitted high-pitched sounds whenever someone talked too loud, and even blew up an annoying public address speaker with firecrackers.

Jim Williams recalled an incident when, after tracing external electromagnetic interference to the control tower of the San Jose airport, Bob Widlar telephoned the airport and demanded they shut down the transmitter.

However, the story about Bob Widlar bringing a goat to trim the lawn in front of his office, retold by The New York Times after his death, was incorrect.

In 2009 Bob Widlar was inducted in the National Inventors Hall of Fame.