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Honored for invention of one-transistor DRAM; Contributions to transistor scaling
Specifically, Mr. Dennard is being honored for the invention of the one-transistor Dynamic Random Access Memory cell and contributions to the development of MOS transistor scaling principles.
Robert Dennard's invention of one-transistor DRAM was a core development in the launch of today's computer industry, setting the stage for development of increasingly dense and cost-effective memory that is at the heart of every succeeding generation of computers. Among other achievements, this was a milestone in a distinguished career that has brought him a host of honors and accolades, including receiving a National Medal of Technology, presented to him in 1988 by President Ronald Reagan, being inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 1997, and being named an IBM Fellow.
Dennard, continuing on his path of achievement, subsequently took his work several steps farther. With coworkers he developed and verified scaling theory in 1972 -- an orderly scientific approach to designing and building smaller, faster and lower-power components inside computer chips.
Dennard says the inspiration for his development of the single-transistor DRAM emanated from a presentation by some of his IBM Research colleagues at a 1966 conference. Their simple approach to a thin-film magnetic memory element made him look for ways to simplify his approach which, at that point, was a complex six-transistor arrangement for storage of a single bit. After working for several months, Dennard reached the realization that a single field-effect transistor and a tiny capacitor could provide the same function, and within a year IBM had been granted a patent on one of the key technologies of the computer age.
These days, Dennard is focusing his attention on how far current silicon chips can be taken, and whether the practical limits of scaling are being approached. Noting that devices now measure as little as 1/10 of a micron (a 50:1 reduction in scale from the time his theory was first proposed), he says that "we're getting pretty close to the physical limits, in the sense that as we continue to make them smaller, we may not see the same returns in performance as we have in the past."
"I'm interested in finishing up this thing that I helped get started. And, as we're getting to the limits of this technology, the questions are even more interesting than they've been for a few years, because we're looking for ways around some of the problems. And there are lots of interesting possibilities that need to be evaluated."
About the Edison Medal
On February 11, 1904 a group of Thomas Edison's friends and associates created a medal in his name, to commemorate the achievements of a quarter of a century in the art of electric lighting. In their words: "The Edison Medal should, during the centuries to come, serve as an honorable incentive to scientists, engineers, and artisans to maintain by their works the high standard of accomplishment set by the illustrious man whose name and feats shall live while human intelligence continues to inhabit the world."