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Oral History – Bill Gutzwiller (Continued)
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As the success of the SCR
grew, how did this affect your work and your organization?
The rapidly growing power
semiconductor part of Semiconductor Products Department justified the
establishment of a separate department, Rectifier Components Department,
and I was appointed Manager of Application Engineering for Power Semiconductors,
reporting directly to the Manager of Marketing, Bill Hall. I was given a corner of the office
section of the new plant in which to install my application engineering subsection,
and I started recruiting engineers and technicians from all over the country
and the world to staff my new organization.
I hired Etto VonZastrow, originally from Germany,
Denis Grafham from England,
Neville Mapham from South
Africa, and a few bonafide Americans,
John Hey, Dick Rottier, and Jim Galloway, as well as several technicians
for our laboratory. By this time we
were into the third edition of the SCR Manual, and my new recruits helped
me grow the manual and its contents into something rivaling the New
Testament in size. Every day it
seemed, I and my people were discovering something new in power
semiconductors, what they could do, and the circuits in which they could be
used. During these busy years, I received
over 20 U.S.
patents for my ideas.
Please describe the circumstances
that led to the development of the Triac.
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Oral History – Bill Gutzwiller (Continued)
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The SCR, which I had been instrumental
in bringing to life, was able to control only one half of an alternating
current cycle, rather than both the positive and negative half cycles. To get a full-cycle lamp dimmer and full
control of the A-C power line required two SCR’s and considerable control
circuitry. This setup was now being
used in lamp dimmers and other power control applications throughout the
world. For months I grappled with
the idea of doing the whole job with just one power semiconductor device
and much simplified control circuitry.
I laid out the challenge to our advanced engineering people, who
were at this time led by my colleague and old canoeing friend from Lyons,
Finis Gentry. He kept me supplied
with all of the newly evolving semiconductor concepts and mechanisms being
developed by his people and GE’s Electronics Laboratory in Syracuse
and Research Labs in Schenectady,
suggesting that remote or junction gate structures might help address the
challenge.
One late night, a combination
of several of the new developments occurred to me as a possible answer:
technically speaking, a five-layer NPNPN power semiconductor with shorted
emitters and a remote gate. I
brought my speculative sketch in to Finis the next day and explained
it. He said, “You know, it just
might work!”
Go
To Gutzwiller Oral History, Page 11
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