Computer History Museum

Sze, Simon oral history

Simon Sze was born in China in 1936. He moved to Taiwan at age 12 and attended the National Taiwan University, studying electrical engineering. He then left for the US where he received an MSEE at the University of Washington and a PhD at Stanford University. Upon graduation, Dr. Sze went to Bell Labs in 1963. His assignment at Bell Labs was to “work on silicon.” During a lunchtime conversation with a colleague in 1967, they conceived of the idea of a “floating gate” into a MOSFET gate structure. It could be used to store charge and perhaps be a mechanism for building solid-state memories to replace core memories in computers. He proved it worked in the lab but did not pursue it to a product. In addition to his research, he authored about 20 books at Bell Labs. Sze stayed at Bell Labs until 1989. He then returned to Taiwan and joined the National Chiao Tung University in Taiwan, where he became a professor. His major focus was teaching semiconductor technology to the next generation of students. He also completed another 20 books after his retirement from Bell Labs. In addition, he has been a visiting professor at Kings College in England, Stanford University, and other well-known academic institutions.

Item Details

Date
2014-02-11 (Made)
Type
Document
Catalogue number
102746858
Organization
Computer History Museum (Publisher)
People
Simon Sze (Interviewee)
James Fortier (Videographer)
Jeff Katz (Interviewer)
Category
Transcript
Format
PDF
Credit line
Computer History Museum
Extent
36 p.
Place of publication
North America/USA/CA/Mountain View
Language
English
Acquisition number
X7089.2014
Subject
Semiconductor History, Floating Gates, Bell Labs
Archive collection
CHM Oral History Collection
Archive hierarchy
CHM Oral History Collection