Title and Description Page
Childhood and Early Education 1
Early aptitude and interest in engineering and science. Moving from Boston to San Francisco to Evanston. Enrolling in Stanford University to study metallurgy.
Stanford University and Master's Thesis 3
Decision to stay at Stanford for graduate school. Curriculum and new research direction within the department. Thesis work on zone melting in metals.
Early career at Rheem Semiconductors and Allegheny Electronic Chemical Company 6
Recruitment by Leopoldo Valdes. Translating zone melting work from metals to silicon. Designing and building the crystal puller at Rheem. Pros and cons of flat zone method versus the Czochralski technique for crystal growing. Brief stint at Allegheny Electronic Chemical Company on the East Coast. Returning to Knapic Eletrophysics in California. Knapic's liquidation and purchasing part of its supplies for own startup.
Entrepreneurship with Elmat Corporation 14
Starting Elmat in 1964. Moving from RF to resistance heated growing furnaces. Designing a speed-oriented furnace. First Elmat customers and working relationships with them. SEMI standardization efforts. Basic Elmat operations. Dendritic germanium/ribbon growing technique. Purchase by General Instruments in 1968.
The Siltec Years 21
Developing the zero dislocation silicon technique. Competition and cooperation with bigger companies. Siltec company expansion model. Key technological advances during the Siltec years. Foreign competition and industry downturn. Siltec acquisition by Mitsubishi.
Venture Capital and Interests in Photovoltaics 28
Working with the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) and introduction to Richard Swanson. Raising capital to start SunPower Corporation. Application of semiconductor manufacturing techniques and equipment to photovoltaics. Outlook on the PV industry.
Index 31