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When did you leave Shockley
and what did you do?
I left in 1963. I went to a
ground floor opportunity for a few months, and soon found out they were
never going to make it. That was
in II-VI compound photoconductors.
Then, an opening came at Fairchild, and I joined the transducer
section of the R&D lab. I
stayed there for 8+ years and then started Reticon Corporation. I did some of the original work for the
reed structure on avalanche diodes, which was later developed by RCA and
EG&G. I did the first self-scan
linear array commercially available in the US, and wrote the first paper on
the storage modes for photodiodes, back in 1965. Three of us had started Reticon in January, 1971. Intel was
an investor in us, and they held 22%.
In 1977, EG&G made an offer to buy Reticon. Intel had the right of first refusal,
but since Intel owned more than 20%, there were issues with closing the
deal. Also, Noyce at Intel believed
we should be kept whole, since the term Reticon was being used
internationally for imagers. In the
end, EG&G acquired Reticon, and Intel gave us a 10 year extension to
use their technology. We were
probably the only acquisition in the valley where all 3 original members
stayed with the acquisition. Ed
Snow and I retired from EG&G in 1997, and John Rado passed away a few
years before.
Thanks very much for the
interview, Gene. Any concluding remarks about what you are currently
involved with?
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