Willard Boyle (1924–2011) Physicist Who Helped Invent the ‘Eye of the Digital Camera’

OBITUARY COMMENT Willard Boyle (1924–2011) Physicist who helped invent the ‘eye of the digital camera’.

ne afternoon in 1969, Willard Boyle he returned to McGill, eventually earning to observe the Universe by several orders of and I had a brainstorming session a doctorate in physics in 1950. Three years magnitude. Boyle and I shared half of the in his office at AT&T Bell Laborato- later he joined Bell Laboratories, initially as 2009 Nobel Prize in Physics for our inven- Ories in Murray Hill, New Jersey. Our aim was a member of the company’s technical staff. tion. (Charles Kao received the other half for to work out how to move electrical charge Soon after our brainstorming session in his his work on optical fibres.) through a semiconductor to make a memory office, a rapidly assembled team of researchers Boyle’s other major contributions include device for computer applications. produced the first crude CCD. We then dem- the first continuously operating ruby laser, At the time, researchers were pursuing onstrated that the CCD could in principle be which he invented with Don Nelson in 1962. a type of computer memory called ‘bubble used as a type of digital circuit — a shift regis- He was also awarded the first patent (with memory’. This involved using a magnetic ter — and as an imaging device. For the latter, David Thomas) proposing a semiconductor field to create small magnetized bubbles, charge could be injected into the system by laser. Although the technology needed to each of which stored one bit of data, within shining light on the array of capacitors. produce the laser wasn’t available when a thin film of magnetic material, and then Fortuitously, my ‘Device Concepts’ Boyle proposed it, semiconductor lasers making these shift from one site within the department was developing a silicon diode- are now used in a vast range of applications, film to the next. With an input device to array camera tube — a device used to convert including in compact-disc players. inject the bubbles and a detec- In 1962, Boyle became director tion device at the other end, the of space science and exploratory system offered a way to preserve studies at Bellcomm, an AT&T and retrieve information. subsidiary that provided tech- Boyle and I knew that we nological support for NASA’s couldn’t create magnetic bub- Apollo space programme. While ALCATEL-LUCENT USA ALCATEL-LUCENT bles in a semiconductor. But at Bellcomm, he helped NASA we wondered about storing the researchers select the best spot charge that exists in a semicon- for man’s first landing on the ductor in a device called a metal- Moon. In 1964 he returned to oxide-semiconductor capacitor. Bell Labs and switched from Eventually we worked out that by pure research in solid-state placing two such capacitors very physics to developing electronic close together, we could make devices, particularly silicon charge pass from one capacitor integrated circuits — the now to the next. essential building blocks of tele Our theory for how to produce communications, computers and a charge-coupled device (CCD) electronics in general. — versions of which are now Both as a research scientist found in technologies from and as an administrator, Bill was digital cameras and bar-code Willard Boyle (left) and George Smith in 1974 with their charge-coupled device. continually looking for new ideas scanners to the Hubble Space and new ways of doing things. He Telescope — was completed in about an an optical image into an electrical signal always gave the impression that he was hav- hour. After we published papers demonstrat- — for use in a ‘Picturephone’. (The Picture ing fun and not just doing a job. Once he ing proof of principle, more than one person phone never took off but the idea was to demonstrated the feasibility of his concept commented, “I could have invented that if I’d allow people to see as well as hear each for a new type of snow-making machine in thought of it.” other over the telephone.) The possibility of his garage. Boyle, who in 1969 was in charge of an imaging device that didn’t rely on bulky, He had an insatiable curiosity and love of research and development for semiconductor inefficient tube-based cameras prompted a life. He loved experimenting with his digital devices (and my boss), had arrived at Bell research programme at Bell Labs to develop camera, showing his work in local galleries Labs via an unusual route. He was raised in a CCD video device. The first CCD imaging — and with four children (one deceased), a remote logging community in Sanmaur, device was produced in 1970. Other com- eight grandchildren and one great grand- Quebec, and schooled by his mother. He panies, including the Radio Corporation child, his family life was a full one. An went to Lower Canada College at the age of of America, Texas Instruments, Fairchild intrepid traveller, he and his wife Betty were 14 and then to McGill University, both in Camera and Sony soon developed the CCD driving around the Canadian Maritimes in Montreal, for 7 years of formal education. concept for an array of applications. their Mini Cooper — with its ‘CCD’ licence For a few years, the Second World War Today, the CCD has replaced electron- plate — even in the last week of his life. ■ pulled him away from his studies. Soon after beam TV cameras and photographic film, joining the Royal Canadian Navy in 1943, and is used in scanning devices, medical George Smith is based in Barnegat, New he served as a Spitfire pilot. Indeed, he later imaging and in space applications including Jersey. He worked with Willard Boyle for took pride in wearing his ‘Fleet Air Arm’ in military surveillance satellites. Indeed, about ten years at Bell Labs. wings on his lapel. Once the war was over, the CCD has improved astronomers’ ability e-mail: [email protected]