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IBM researcher Bob Dennard has been awarded the Lemelson-MIT Lifetime Achievement Award for his invention of dynamic random access memory (DRAM). The award honors a “remarkable individual for his or her lifelong commitment to improving society through invention” and cites DRAM as a “breakthrough that transformed the microelectronics industry in the early 1970s and remains the most popular form of computer memory today.”
Education and career
Dennard’s early education took place in a one-room schoolhouse in Texas. As a child, his scientific and cultural interests were initially piqued by his sister, who was 14 years older. “When I was growing up, my sister had already become a registered nurse and joined the U.S. Army Nurse Corps right before World War II. Well, my mother never threw anything away, and my sister had left behind some things – a collection of Ogden Nash’s poetry, an album of Sigmund Romberg’s operettas and a collection of H.G. Wells’ stories, which had some interesting thoughts. So, you could say my scientific career started with reading H.G. Wells.”
Dennard went on to earn his B.S. and M.S. degrees in electrical engineering from Southern Methodist University in Dallas. He later earned his Ph.D. at the Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He then came to work for IBM Research, because, in his words, “computers were kind of new and exciting, and IBM was a respected name.” He has remained ever since because, he says, “I can’t think of anywhere to go that supports the kind of work I’m interested in as well as IBM Research does.”
That work has been most influenced by Dale Critchlow, Dennard’s colleague from Carnegie Tech and later a manager. “He gave me the challenging assignments – like finding out the best way to use these new field-effect transistors to build memory and seeing how we could make transistors with dimensions five times smaller than what we were using.”
On a typical day, Dennard comes in later in the morning and works late into the evening because that’s when he’s most productive. But, he confides, “most of my work gets done when I’m waking up in the morning – that’s when things are really clear. Problems I’d been working on the night before, things that might have seemed a little bit complicated, suddenly, it’s very clear – oh well, you just have to do this. Then, I can refine it a little bit in the shower.”
Over the years, these morning illuminations have contributed to 35 patents, 90 published technical papers and numerous prestigious awards, including the National Medal of Technology in 1988 and induction into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 1997. But Dennard says that it was his designation as IBM Fellow that most affected him day-to-day. ”It really makes me feel I can express points of view, talk to people who can influence things. It gives me the right to be heard. But, at the same time, it’s my duty to have an important message.”
Technology
The question he’s asked most frequently is “Did you foresee how big DRAM would become?” is answered in the negative. When asked when it was that he saw how big it was going to be, he laughs and says, “I’m still wondering!”
His favorite application of the technology changes all the time, and he admits that he hasn’t yet found an appropriate response when he’s asked to name one. But, he is enthusiastic about the fact that DRAM technology now allows colleagues to send graphic presentations to remote associates who are working on the same project. He thinks that being able to view the same document in real-time – better than videoconferencing or waiting for delayed responses from e-mail – is cutting down further on travel, and enabling easier and more effective collaboration.
So, where would we be without DRAM? “We might still be using the six-transistor cell,” Dennard thinks. “It would cost more, there would be higher power dissipation, and memory wouldn’t be as big. The same amount of money and power would be consumed, but the memory wouldn’t be as capable or effective,” he posits, then smiles. “Fortunately for me, this isn’t the case.”
During his early work on the technology, Dennard referred to it as “one transistor memory cell.” Once it was in use in the industry, it was renamed DRAM. “I don’t know if people really understand why it’s called dynamic. It’s because it stores the charge only temporarily and that charge leaks off within a fraction of a second because the transistor it’s connected to is leaking. And the charge has to be read out before it leaks away and written back in – called refreshing – and that’s how the term ‘dynamic’ came to be used.”
He relates an amusing anecdote about the final product name, from the laudatory address given when he won the Aachener and Münchener award for technology and applied natural sciences in 2001. “The speaker quipped that my contribution was having the courage to call something that only retains its information for a fraction of a second ‘memory’.”
Collaboration
Dennard believes in the importance of collaboration, and he points to his extensive list of publications as one example of the rich collaborative nature of his work. “Ghavam Shahidi, Matt Wordeman, Bijan Davari and many others – I’m so lucky to work with so many talented people.”
“Collaboration with other IBMers has been invaluable,” he continues. “You can’t really work in isolation. You have to be in touch with what the real problems are – and they are complex, needing a wide range of disciplines to solve them. Physics, materials engineering, processing, lithography, semiconductor device understanding, circuit design, and, of course, financial considerations. You have to collaborate with various people who have all this knowledge. It’s one of the most exciting things about working here. I don’t plan my day – I just walk around the lab and see who I meet. Because that may be the person I’m looking for to answer a question.”
Role models and other paths
As for the living role model portion of the Lemelson-MIT citation, Dennard thinks that it is about “promoting the contributions that engineering and science make to our society. In contrast to other role models that people might have from elsewhere – like entertainment. In that context, I think I’m a good role model. It took me awhile to get comfortable with that kind of role. I don’t know that I deserve it, but I think the kind of work that we at Research have tried to do for society makes us all pretty good role models.”
In addition to his work, Dennard is passionate about the broader world community. “There are important, urgent questions you don’t get asked; ones that are largely being ignored by society. Education, for one, is absolutely essential for the line of work I’m in. It’s important to attract young people to advanced education – we’re in a terrible situation with that. I am truly a product of the educational system. I had the ability to learn things and learn them thoroughly – and one thing led to another for me. Invention isn’t just asking questions, it’s having the resources to answer them.”
“In addition, we need sustainable, renewable and environmentally safe energy resources. We’re running out of energy and polluting the atmosphere and upper atmosphere.”
Despite these problems, Dennard remains optimistic. “I’m hopeful that the technologies we’re developing will enable instant worldwide communications that could be helpful in solving some of those problems, as well as the problems of inequality, that are driving us into hostile situations.”
Dennard is doing what he can to address these issues. Meanwhile, he will be working to help move the industry and the world forward by making microelectronics devices smaller and smaller.
Dennard received the $100,000 Lemelson-MIT Lifetime Achievement Award on Friday, April 22 during the 11th annual Lemelson-MIT awards ceremony, being held at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry in Portland.
Past recipients include Raymond Damadian, inventor of the first magnetic resonance scanning machine, and Al Gross, a wireless technology pioneer.