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Historic Note
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Herb Meisel worked at
semiconductor engineering for RCA for 36 years from 1953 to 1989. During
those last two years, RCA was acquired by GE and then the Semiconductor
Operation was sold to Harris. Herb's early transistor work was on:
developing processes for germanium transistors; developing single , double,
and triple diffused silicon power devices; and designing and developing
power hybrid modules. He worked as an engineer, senior engineer and
engineering group leader. In 1955, Frank Tobin and he each received one of
the Tube Division's Golden Achievement awards for developing the miniature
2N105 hearing aid transistor. In 1957, he won the David Sarnoff Fellowship
for a year of graduate study in Physics at Stevens Institute. He received
the MS in Physics in 1959, completing the requirements on a part time
basis. In 1965, his team received RCA Electronics Components awards for
developing and bringing into production the 2N3054 and 2N3055 family of
rugged, low cost silicon power transistors. Other team members were Jerry
Wright, Bill Planey, and Hans Menzel.. Herb is co-inventor on 5 U.S.
Patents.
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Oral History – Herb Meisel
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This
History was provided by Mr. Meisel
in
February, 2001.
I graduated from Rensselaer
in 1950 with a B.M.E. After a brief stint as a test engineer at Aberdeen
Proving Grounds, with the Korean Conflict flaring up, in 1951 I enlisted in
the USAF. I worked as a mechanic on jet aircraft, attended and then taught
a course on Rocket Propulsion, received a direct commission as a 2nd
Lt and attended Electronics Officers Course at Keesler AFB. With the Korean
truce imminent, Sec. of Defense Wilson cut the budget and I was honorably
discharged in 1953. My former college roommate, Joel Ollendorf, was working
at RCA on transistors and recommended that I apply. I had a good image of
RCA - we had used the RCA Tube Manual as one of our textbooks in the Air
Force Electronics course. I applied and was hired in Aug. 1953 as a
development engineer in the Semiconductor Development Shop. Art Chettle was
the manager; he was one of the best! We were almost all young engineers and
we called him "Pops" but not to his face. In these early days,
the Design engineers and the Development Shop engineers worked together in
a hands-on mode on the various development projects. Many
"brainstorming sessions" were held to generate approaches to
these exciting new problems.
My first major assignment was on solder sealing
germanium transistors. The surface oxide of germanium was very moisture
sensitive and in the "standard" araldite epoxy packaging, the
device junctions would develop unacceptably high leakage current levels and
unstable gain, especially during the summer.
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