EARLY SEMICONDUCTOR HISTORY

 AT RCA

Robert Mendelson

 

Oral History – Bob Mendelson

(Continued)

 

Bausch and Lomb – Designed a special long interval timer with a triac for the customer’s Soflens sterilizer. Design received Patent.

 

Designed a safety timer for electric blankets to prevent overheating if the blanket was covered with a bedspread while still on. Design received patent.

 

My last assignment at RCA was in the development of the MX missile for the Navy. Here again I was involved in all phases of the process.  I retired in 1983 after 30 years with RCA.

 

 

Consultant:

 

Two months after retirement, I was requested to come back for a couple of months to update CMOS specification sheets. It lasted for five years. After the specification sheets, I went to packaging where I was involved in specifying and purchasing special sockets for all the new types and shapes of IC’s.  From there I went to work setting specifications and purchasing handlers for fast testing of the many types of IC’s.  In 1989 I was fully retired.

 

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Mendelson Oral History, Page 4

 

 

 

 

Oral History – Bob Mendelson

(Continued)

 

 

 

The top photo is from a Lucite display owned by Bob that was developed by RCA to illustrate the component parts of a Nuvistor tube.  The lower photo shows a type 6CW4 Nuvistor, and the associated packaging.  A prototype RCA 2N217 germanium alloy junction transistor is shown for size comparison – Bob’s article “Transistors and Nuvistors in a Two-Meter Transceiver” used a 6CW4 as an RF amplifier and two 2n217s as AF amplifiers.

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