Bob Pease

Robert A. Pease
Full face portrait, showing mature glasses-wearing adult male with white hair and a full white mustache and long beard
Born (1940-08-22)August 22, 1940
Rockville, Connecticut
Died June 18, 2011(2011-06-18) (aged 70)
Saratoga, California
Nationality American
Other names Bob Pease
Alma mater Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Occupation Electronics engineer
Known for Analog integrated circuit design, technical author

Robert Allen Pease (August 22, 1940 – June 18, 2011) was an analog integrated circuit design expert and technical author.[1][2] He designed several very successful "best-seller" integrated circuits, many of them in continuous production for multiple decades. These include the LM331 voltage-to-frequency converter,[3] and the LM337 adjustable negative voltage regulator (complement to the LM317).

Life and career

Pease was born on August 22, 1940 in Rockville, Connecticut.[4][5] He attended Northfield Mount Hermon School in Massachusetts, and subsequently obtained a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering (BSEE) degree from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1961.

He started work in the early 1960s at George A. Philbrick Researches (GAP-R). GAP-R pioneered the first reasonable-cost, mass-produced operational amplifier (op-amp), the K2-W. At GAP-R, Pease developed many high-performance op-amps, built with discrete solid-state components.

In 1976, Pease moved to National Semiconductor Corporation (NSC) as a designer and applications engineer, where he began designing analog monolithic integrated circuits, as well as design reference circuits using these devices. He had advanced to staff scientist by the time of his departure in 2009.[6] During his tenure at NSC, he began writing a popular continuing monthly column called "Pease Porridge" in Electronic Design about his experiences in the world of electronic design and application.[7]

THOR-LVX[8][9][10][11] (photo-nuclear) microtron Advanced Explosives contraband Detection System: "A Dual-Purpose Ion-Accelerator for Nuclear-Reaction-Based Explosives-and SNM-Detection in Massive Cargo" was the last project he was designing for.[12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19]

Pease was the author of eight books, including Troubleshooting Analog Circuits, and held 21 patents.[20]

His other interests included hiking and biking in remote places, and working on his old Volkswagen Beetle, which he often mentioned in his columns.[21] Pease's writing was "strongly opinionated, but he could communicate with a wry sense of humor that endeared him to readers whether they agreed with him or not".[1][22][23]

My favorite programming language is ... solder.[24]

Death

Flag at half-staff at National Semiconductor on June 21, 2011

Pease was killed in the crash of his 1969 Volkswagen Beetle, on June 18, 2011.[25][26][27] He was leaving a gathering in memory of Jim Williams, who was another well-known analog circuit designer, a technical author, and a renowned staff engineer working at Linear Technology. Pease was 70 years old, and was survived by his wife, two sons, and three grandchildren.[27] The sudden death of Pease triggered a small flood of remembrances and tributes from fellow technical writers, practicing engineers, and electronics hardware hacking enthusiasts.[22][25][28][29][30]

Publications (partial)

  • Pease, Robert A. (December 1984). "A new Fahrenheit temperature sensor". IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits. 19 (6): 971–977. doi:10.1109/JSSC.1984.1052253.
  • Troubleshooting Analog Circuits. EDN Series for Design Engineers. Newnes. 1991. ISBN 978-0-7506-9499-5.  – An industry standard bench-top reference book for troubleshooting (and designing) analog circuits
  • Pease, Bob. "How to Drive Into Accidents ... and How Not To" [An idiosyncratic, entertaining, and insightful book on safe driving techniques, written for novices and experienced drivers alike]. transtronix. San Francisco: self-published. ISBN 978-0-9655648-1-6. Archived from the original on June 8, 2001. Retrieved June 8, 2001. What was the first motivation for the book? My cousin Ellen Hubbard lost her 16-year-old daughter Christine to an unfortunate driving accident, a few years back. The official police report said that they did not know how the accident happened. But two young women died when their car was hit by a truck. The idea of a book began to grow, but I got sidetracked until the fall of 1994.
  • Pease, Robert A., ed. (2008). Analog Circuits: World Class Designs. Newnes. ISBN 978-0-7506-8627-3.
  • Ashby, Darren; Baker, Bonnie; Ball, Stuart; Crowe, J.; Hayes-Gill, Barrie; Hickman, Ian; Kester, Walt; Mancini, Ron; Grout, Ian; Pease, Robert; Tooley, Mike; Williams, Tim; Wilson, Peter; Zeidman, Bob (2008). Circuit Design: Know It All. The Newnes Know It All Series. Newnes. ISBN 978-1-85617-527-2.
  • What’s All This Widlar Stuff, Anyhow? – An article about the then-recently-deceased op-amp designer Bob Widlar, written by Bob Pease in Electronic Design; re-published on Jun 29, 2012; first published in July 25, 1991

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Tuite, Don (June 20, 2011). "Remembering Bob Pease The Writer". Electronic Design. Penton Media, Inc. Archived from the original on June 24, 2011. Retrieved 2011-06-21.
  2. ↑ Williams, Jim (1991). Analog Circuit Design: Art, Science and Personalities. Newnes. p. xvi. ISBN 978-0-7506-9640-1. Retrieved 2010-07-15.
  3. ↑ "Engineering Silicon Valley" (PDF). National Semiconductor. p. 1. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2003-08-12. Retrieved 2010-07-15.
  4. ↑ "National Semiconductor Staff Scientist Bob Pease Named To Electrical Engineering Hall Of Fame" (Press release). National Semiconductor. October 21, 2002. Archived from the original on January 15, 2003.
  5. ↑ Robert A. Pease (December 1984). "A new Fahrenheit temperature sensor". IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits. 19 (6): 971–977. doi:10.1109/JSSC.1984.1052253.
  6. ↑ Cassidy, Mike (April 20, 2009). "Departure of chip-design legend Bob Pease prompts outpouring in valley". San Jose Mercury News. Archived from the original on September 24, 2012. Retrieved 2010-07-15.
  7. ↑ Gawel, Richard (June 21, 2011). "An English Major Remembers An Analog Giant". Electronic Design. Penton Media, Inc. Archived from the original on June 25, 2011. Retrieved 2011-06-21.
  8. ↑ Lowdermilk, W. H.; Brothers, L. J. (6 September 2017). "Accelerator-Detector Complex for Photonuclear Detection of Hidden Explosives Final Report Crada No. Tc2065.0" – via www.osti.gov.
  9. ↑ "Counter-Terrorism". 2 August 2008. Archived from the original on 2 August 2008.
  10. ↑ "Valley Forge Composite Technologies Inc.: Private Company Information - Bloomberg". www.bloomberg.com.
  11. ↑ "UC Alum Develops Anti-Terror Detection Technology". www.uc.edu.
  12. ↑ arXiv, Emerging Technology from the. "A New Way to Deal with the Cargo Container Security Problem".
  13. ↑ https://www.edn.com/design/analog/4416534/Bob-Pease--A-tribute-to-his-last-challenge---What-s-all-this-voltage-reference-stability-stuff--Part-one
  14. ↑ https://www.edn.com/design/analog/4416534/4/Bob-Pease--A-tribute-to-his-last-challenge---What-s-all-this-voltage-reference-stability-stuff--Part-one
  15. ↑ https://www.edn.com/design/analog/4418068/Bob-Pease--His-last-challenge--Part-two
  16. ↑ https://www.edn.com/design/analog/4418068/9/Bob-Pease--His-last-challenge--Part-two
  17. ↑ https://www.edn.com/design/analog/4422201/Bob-Pease--His-last-challenge--Part-three-The-precision-resistor
  18. ↑ https://www.edn.com/design/analog/4422201/4/Bob-Pease--His-last-challenge--Part-three-The-precision-resistor
  19. ↑ https://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/anablog/4422296/More-on-Pease--Precision-Resistor-article
  20. ↑ Mattera, Lucinda (September 13, 2004). "Hall-Of-Famers Ponder The Future Of Electronics Engineering". Electronic Design News. Retrieved 2010-07-15.
  21. ↑ Pease, Bob. "Pease Porridge column". Electronic Design. Archived from the original on 2004-05-23. Retrieved 2010-07-15.
  22. 1 2 Desposito, Joseph. "Bob Pease Remembered For Pease Porridge And A Whole Lot More". Electronic Design. Penton Media, Inc. Archived from the original on 2011-06-23. Retrieved 2011-06-21.
  23. ↑ Schneiderman, Ron. "Robert A. Pease: Passionate, Talented Guru And Maverick". Electronic Design. Penton Media, Inc. Archived from the original on 2010-01-02. Retrieved 2011-06-21.
  24. ↑ "Remembering Bob Pease". Texas Instruments. Retrieved 2015-06-09.
  25. 1 2 Schweber, Bill (June 20, 2011). "Analog expert Bob Pease dies in accident". EE Times. Retrieved 2011-06-20.
  26. ↑ Desposito, Joseph (June 19, 2011). "Bob Pease Killed in Car Crash". Electronic Design.
  27. 1 2 Rako, Paul (June 20, 2011). "Analog engineering legend Bob Pease killed in car crash". Electronic Design News. UBM Electronics. Archived from the original on July 11, 2011. Retrieved 2011-06-21.
  28. ↑ Rako, Paul (ed.) (June 20, 2011). "Analog engineering legend Bob Pease remembered". Electronic Design News. UBM Electronics. Archived from the original on 2012-03-08. Retrieved 2011-06-21.
  29. ↑ Szczys, Mike (June 21, 2011). "The passing of Bob Pease". Hack a Day. Hack a Day. Retrieved 2011-06-21.
  30. ↑ http://www.edn.com/design/analog/4416534/Bob-Pease--A-tribute-to-his-last-challenge---What-s-all-this-voltage-reference-stability-stuff--Part-one
  • Pease, Bob. "Columns". Electronic Design. Archived from the original on 2016-03-03. Retrieved 2017-11-18.
  • Bob Pease articles at elecdesign.com
  • Bob Pease articles at electronicdesign.com
  • The philbrick archive
  • Remembering Bob Pease memorials, Bob's National Semiconductor archive, Lab Notes 2005, and more
  • Bob Pease Interview at EEWeb


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