EARLY TRANSISTOR HISTORY AT RCA

Gerald B. Herzog

 

Biographic Note

Gerald B. (Jerry) Herzog has been active in semiconductor development since the early 1950s, when he began working with samples of the first transistors developed at RCA.  After completing his BSEE (1950)  and MSEE (1951) degrees at the University of Minnesota, he joined the RCA Research Laboratories in Princeton, NJ.  He held a number of research and leadership positions with RCA, rising to the level of Vice President of the Solid State Technology Centers in 1974. During his career at RCA Jerry presented and published many technical papers on advanced semiconductor device applications and was granted 23 U.S. patents.  He is a member of Sigma Xi, Eta Kappa Nu, Fellow of the IEEE and a past Chairman of the ISSCC.  He received two RCA Achievement Awards, two David Sarnoff Outstanding Team Awards and the University of Minnesota Outstanding Achievement Award in 1972.  Since retiring from RCA in 1979, Jerry migrated to California, where he currently resides, working at Texas Instruments and Performance Semiconductor along the way. 

 

Jerry has made significant contributions across a broad range of semiconductor areas, including early transistor application development, ultra-high speed logic including tunnel diodes, and Large Scale Integration, including complementary MOS and silicon-on-sapphire devices.   This Oral History details his work on early transistor applications and CMOS LSI. 

 

Herzog Historic Audio Recordings

 

 

 

Oral History – Jerry Herzog

 

Curator’s Introduction: This Oral History was developed over a two year period, 2002 through 2004.  Details relating to Jerry’s many early contributions are provided, along with his personal comments and recollections.  One of Jerry’s most  important contributions to transistor development was his pioneering work on the first completely transistorized television receiver - this unique device was developed at the RCA Labs in 1952 and represents a major milestone in transistor history - this TV set is currently on display at the Smithsonian.  A separate section has been included at the end of this Oral History to document this important early TV work.

Go To First Transistor Television

 

Early Interest in Electronics.

As background information for work at RCA on transistors, I should mention that I started to work with electronics at an early age by building crystal sets and spark coil transmitters.  By the time I was in high school, I was repairing radios to earn a little extra pocket money.  I also had my amateur radio license and a first class radio telephone license.  Before entering the Navy, I worked briefly as a transmitter engineer at the University of Minnesota radio station.  I had a year of radar technician training in the Navy before going to the University of Minnesota for my Bachelor and Masters degrees in electrical engineering.  Consequently, when I joined RCA Research labs, I already had considerable hands-on experience as well as the necessary background in theory.

 

Go To Herzog Oral History, Page 2

 

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