in 1934) is an electronics engineer best known for inventing the 555 timer IC

555 timer IC

The 555 timer IC is an integrated circuit used in a variety of timer, pulse generation and oscillator applications. The part is still in widespread use, thanks to its ease of use, low price and good stability. , it was estimated that 1 billion units are manufactured every year.- Design :The IC...

 in 1970. He has also acquired 20 US

United States patent law

United States patent law was established "to promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries;" as provided by the United States Constitution. Congress implemented these...

 patent

Patent

A patent is a form of intellectual property. It consists of a set of exclusive rights granted by a sovereign state to an inventor or their assignee for a limited period of time in exchange for the public disclosure of an invention....

s, written numerous books and technical articles, and lectured at the University of Santa Clara.

He received an MSEE from Northeastern University

Northeastern University, Boston

Northeastern University , is a private, secular, coeducational research university in Boston, Massachusetts. Northeastern has eight colleges and offers undergraduate majors in 65 departments...

 and an MBA from the University of Santa Clara. After several years doing research in the Boston area, he moved to the West Coast to join Signetics

Signetics

Signetics, once a major player in semiconductor manufacturing, made a variety of devices which included integrated circuits, bipolar and MOS, the Dolby circuit, logic, memory and analog circuits. They developed microprocessors like the 2650, the bipolar 8X300 and had licensed Motorola 68000...

 (now Philips) and later started his own company, Interdesign. After heading it for seven years he sold Interdesign to Ferranti

Ferranti

Ferranti or Ferranti International plc was a UK electrical engineering and equipment firm that operated for over a century from 1885 until it went bankrupt in 1993. Known primarily for defence electronics, the Company was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index but ceased trading in 1993.The...

. Since then he has been an independent design consultant in analog IC design.

During his career he has written three textbooks, designed the first integrated class D amplifier, introduced the phase-locked loop

Phase-locked loop

A phase-locked loop or phase lock loop is a control system that generates an output signal whose phase is related to the phase of an input "reference" signal. It is an electronic circuit consisting of a variable frequency oscillator and a phase detector...

 concept to ICs, invented the semicustom IC and created the 555 timer. He has designed 140 standard and custom ICs as of 2006.

Camenzind's latest book, Much Ado About Almost Nothing, a general audience book on the history of electronics, was published in February 2007. Other books in publication include Designing Analog Chips.

External links

• Designing Analog Chips official website
• excerpt from Much Ado About *Almost* Nothing by Hans R. Camenzind
• Designing Analog Chips by Hans R. Camenzind
• Wikipedia Page on analog Chips
  Analog chip
  An analog chip is a set of miniature electronic analog circuits formed on a single piece of semiconductor material.-Description:The voltage and current at specified points in the circuits of an analog chips vary continuously in time. In contrast, digital chips only use and create voltages or...
  
  
• interview by Transistor Gijutsu magazine(Japanese subtitled)

}
}