Michael Francis Tompsett

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Michael Francis Tompsett is a British born physicist and former researcher at English Electric Valve Company,^[1] who later moved to Bell Labs in America. Tompsett designed and built the first ever video camera with a solid-state (CCD) sensor.^[2][3]

Tompsett is known particularly for his work on infrared imagers and CCD imagers. He pioneered compact, low power, high performance and low cost solid-state infrared imagers, CCD imagers and digital cameras and made contributions in several fields with patents and publications over an extended period of time. He claims to be the inventor of the CCD imager, used in devices such as digital cameras.^[4]

Technical accomplishments

Tompsett made technological contributions in several different specialty areas including materials science, night vision, charge-coupled devices and integrated circuit design over a lifetime of work. He is responsible for significant invention, development and leadership of several socially beneficial enabling technologies in use today. These include the in-situ monitoring of deposited epitaxial films, un-cooled night-vision thermal imaging camera tubes, un-cooled solid-state thermal imagers, CCD imagers and CCD cameras, MOS mixed analog-digital integrated systems, and integrated video analog-digital converters.

Early career

This article may contain wording that merely promotes the subject without imparting verifiable information. Please remove or replace such wording, unless you can cite independent sources that support the characterization. (February 2012)

As a Ph.D student at Cambridge University in England, Tompsett built a Reflection High Energy Electron Diffraction (RHEED) system with energy filtering and demonstrated its utility in studying the surfaces of materials and sub-atomic thickness thin films. While at EEV Ltd in England, he then built the first in-situ ultra-high-vacuum RHEED system to study in-situ the structures of deposited thin-films of lead oxide that were needed to make Plumbicon television camera-tubes. He initiated consulting with VG Systems Ltd to make a commercial system, the first of which was sold to IBM Labs and used by Leo Esaki to make the first hetero-junction high-frequency transistors. Systems of this type continue to be used routinely to monitor the growth of III-V and II-VI epitaxial layers by Molecular Beam Epitaxy for solid-state Light Emitting Diodes and lasers.

Also while working with the EEV Company, Tompsett became aware of a mechanically scanned liquid nitrogen cooled single-pixel scanner for infra-red imaging that was a massive piece of apparatus, very slow and lacked resolution. He decided that electronic scanning and room-temperature operation should be his goal for thermal and night-vision applications and invented the un-cooled Pyroelectric Vidicon Camera Tube, that is patented solely in his name. This concept used electron beam scanning of a thin wafer of a pyroelectric material placed inside a vacuum tube. Small changes in temperature produced tiny changes in voltage across the wafer that the electron beam could detect. He published predictions of the performance that were subsequently obtained after a successful development. The tube won a British Queen’s Award in 1987. Night-vision thermal imaging cameras using these tubes have been deployed by the military and in civilian applications for firefighting, and search-and-rescue operations world-wide. Even 25 years later he was invited to write 2 book chapters in this area.

Tompsett then made a second invention in which he described an electronically scanned all-solid-state Infrared imager, where a pyro-electric layer forms the gate electrode for an integrated array of MOS transistors. This patent predated the invention of the CCD and the development of a viable MOS technology. Today, integrated solid-state un-cooled night-vision imagers using pyro-electric materials have higher performance when seeing in the dark and smoke, and are much smaller in size and use less power than the tube cameras.

With these two inventions Dr Tompsett cracked the size/speed/power bottleneck in thermal imaging. They created two enabling technologies that have led to products with continuing major military and commercial impact. Interestingly enough, DARPA in January 2011, more than 40 years later, revived his vision and put out an RFP for a mobile-phone sized night-vision solid-state imager with a life-cycle cost less than $500.

Bell Laboratories

Tompsett moved to Bell Laboratories in 1969 with the explicit goal of developing solid-state visible imaging devices. His first contribution was to solve a major reliability issue on silicon vidicon camera tubes that he quickly diagnosed as being caused by 200V X-rays that caused a shift in the oxide “flatband-voltage”. This effect later became a major challenge in developing rad-hard MOS devices for use in space.

Charge-coupled device

When the charge coupled concept was co-invented by Boyle and Smith, Tompsett immediately designed the first charge coupled device (CCD). Smith wanted to keep the structure a pure MOS structure, but Tompsett insisted that a practical device needed an input and an output diode, so that is what he designed, and the device worked. Boyle and Smith received a patent for the very basic concept and cited memory as an application, without any mention in the claims about imaging. They had no insight into its application to imaging, and took no part in the invention, or subsequent development of CCDs or CCD imagers. It was Dr Tompsett who first invented the imaging application for CCDs and received the first patent for CCD imagers issued in his name alone. The citation for the award of the Nobel prize in physics in 2009 incorrectly attributed the imaging invention and work to Boyle and Smith and was a travesty.

Tompsett was the driving force for the development of CCD imagers, as well as making significant contributions to the physics of CCDs, and exploring their application to memory and filters. As supervisor, he led the development of CCDs at Bell Laboratories and became a world leader. His group was the first to demonstrate CCD linear imagers, television imagers and cameras. Other contributors were W.J. Bertram, D.A.Sealer, who worked on linear imagers, and C.H.Sequin on area imagers. It was Tompsett with his assistant E.J.Zimany who created a series of CCD cameras. The first one yielded the first discrete-pixel CCD color image, which was of his wife and was featured on the cover of Electronics Magazine in January 1973, 3 years before the first digital camera. Dr Tompsett’s CCD work culminated in 1976 with the first full television-resolution CCD camera. One of the structures in his original patent is still the basis for the design of astronomical and nuclear event imagers. He wrote the book on CCDs (“Charge Transfer Devices”) with C.H.Sequin that was translated into Japanese and Russian.

Mixed analog–digital integrated circuitry

When AT&T no longer had a need for imagers, after the demise of Picturephone, on his own initiative, Tompsett transferred his attention to another area closer to the needs of AT&T. He set out to reduce the size, power and cost of a then new piece of equipment, a data modem. He was aware of the work at UC Berkely on the design of an MOS amplifier (under Prof. Gray) and an MOS capacitor digital-to-analog converter structure (invented by Prof. Hodges et al). He had tried without success to make viable recursive filters using CCD structures, but had been intrigued for many years by a paper proposing switched capacitor filters. This concept was also being explored at Berkeley (under Prof. Brodersen). No one had taken the initiative to integrate all these aspects into a viable mixed analog digital integrated circuit. Tompsett saw the need and the potential, and initiated and led the development of an integrated circuit data-modem using MOS technology. System expertise and filter design was provided by Dr. Lawrence and Dr. Friend and their groups in the systems area, whose help he enlisted. The project almost foundered on the fact that the dynamic range required for analog data transmission was much higher than that of the circuits that could be designed with MOS. This led to his invention with E.J. Zimany of an Automatic Gain Control circuit in MOS for which they were granted a patent. This fortunately enabled the successful development of the chip, which was already being designed into systems for the compelling reasons of power, size and cost. The resulting solid-state data modem using MOS silicon switched capacitor filters was the first MOS mixed analog-digital integrated chip to go into manufacture anywhere. Solutions to the issues of noise, crosstalk and automated testing were all pioneered in this development and the chip continues to be used in low-speed secure modems. Many people contributed to the mixed analog-digital technology, which is now ubiquitous, but Dr Tompsett had a significant impact.

With a background in imaging, Dr Tompsett knew that the real hurdle in digital imaging was to convert video signals with at least 8-bit precision, with low power, at video sampling rates (5Ms/s) and at low cost. He had always wanted to integrate this function onto the CCD imager itself. He introduced the concept of pipelining in a patent that he filed in 1977 for a CCD analog-to-digital converter (ADC). This concept was later demonstrated in an MOS circuit by B-S Song, M. Tompsett and K.Lakshmikumar, although others were also working on MOS pipeline structures at that time. However the real break-through was his invention of a 2 step recycling ADC, that folded the pipeline into one element. This concept was implemented by Dr Bang-Sup Song working with Dr Tompsett, and included error correction. This led to the very first viable silicon integrated video ADC that sold $25M in the first year of manufacture. This structure can now be found in all digital scanners, CCD cameras, mobile phones etc.

Other inventions

Tompsett continued to work in the mixed analog-digital technology, which has now grown into a multi-billion dollar industry. For example he led the development of the first MOS single-chip telephone chip, reduced the cost of coder-decoder chips by more than an order of magnitude, and led the development of the low-frequency/high-frequency analog interface chip for the first Nokia GSM mobile phone.

Nobel 2009 controversy

The 2009 Nobel Prize for Physics was awarded with the citation: "for the invention of an imaging semiconductor circuit – the CCD sensor" to Boyle and Smith. The Nobel citation reads explicitly on Tompsett’s invention of CCD Imagers disclosed in patent number 4,085,456. The Nobel Committee and others have overlooked the fact that this patent exists. This patent is in Tompsett's name and records the first invention of both linear and television types of CCD Imagers. Although Boyle and Smith have the patent for the CCD concept as applied to serial memory, there is no mention of imaging in that patent or any other patent of theirs. At Bell Laboratories, Tompsett not only invented CCD imagers, but made the first CCD, and developed the first CCD imagers and cameras.

Subsequent work

After leaving Bell laboratories Tompsett directed a 140 person Electron Device Research Division for the Army Research Laboratory for 6 years, and which also involved him in other government scientific activities.

TheraManager, practice management and electronic medical records software

He then developed an all-in-one Practice Management and Electronic Medical Records software called TheraManager, and started a medical software company, that has customers nationwide, and which he continues to run.

Awards and honors

• Tompsett was elected Fellow of the Institution of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, IEEE, in 1987.
• Tompsett received the 2010 Pioneer Lifetime Award from the New Jersey Inventors Hall of Fame.
• Tompsett received the National Medal of Technology and Innovation, the highest honor bestowed by the United States government on US engineers and inventors in 2011.
• Tompsett received the IEEE Edison Medal in 2012.

Bibliography

M. F. Tompsett and C. W. B. Grigson, "Scanning Electron Diffraction from Solids" Nature, 206, 923 4, (1965)
C. W. B. Grigson and M. F. Tompsett, "Determination of Radial Distribution Functions by Elastic Diffraction", Nature, 210, 86 7, (1966)
M. F. Tompsett and C. W. B. Grigson, "Reflection Scanning Electron Diffraction with Energy Filtering", Jour. Sci. Inst., 43, 430 5. (1966)
M. F. Tompsett, M. B. Heritage and C. W. B. Grigson, "Small Angle Filtered Electron Diffraction from Growing Films", Nature, 215, 498 9, (1967)
C. W. B. Grigson, M. B. Heritage and M. F. Tompsett, "Intensities in Filtered and Unfiltered Electron Diffraction from Thin Films", Nature, 212, 390 1, (1966)
M. F. Tompsett, D. E. Sedgewick and J. St Noble, "A Versatile High Energy Scanning Electron Diffraction System for Observing Thin Film Growth in Ultra High Vacuum and in a Low Gas Pressure" Jour. Sci. Inst. (Jour. Phys. E) Series 2, 2, 587 90, (1969)
M. B. Heritage and M. F. Tompsett, "Small Angle Electron Diffraction of Very Thin Growing Films", Jour. Appl. Phys., 41, 407 14, (1970)
M. F. Tompsett and J. St Noble, "In Situ Scanning High Energy Electron Diffraction Studies of Evaporated Lead Monoxide Films", Thin Solid Films, 5, 81 96, (1970)
M. F. Tompsett, "Scanning High Energy Electron Diffraction (SHEED) in Materials Science", Jour. of Matls. Sci., 7, 1069 1079, (1972)
M. F. Tompsett, "A Pyroelectric Thermal Imaging Camera Tube", IEEE Trans. Electron Devices, ED¬18, 1070 74, (1971)
G. F. Amelio, M. F. Tompsett and G. E. Smith, "Experimental Verification of the Charge Coupled Dcvice Concept", Bell Syst. Tech. Jour., 49, 593 600, (1970)
M. F. Tompsett, G. F. Amelio and G. E. Smith, "A Charge Coupled 8 Bit Shift Register", Appl. Phys. Letters., 17, 111 5, (1970)
G. F. Amelio, W. J. Bertram and M. F. Tompsett, "Charge Coupled Imaging Devices: Design Considerations", IEEE Trans. Electron Devices, ED 18, 986 992, (1971)
M. F. Tompsett, G. F. Amelio, W. J. Bertram, R. R. Buckley, W. J. McNamara, J. C. Mikkelsen and D. A. Sealer, "Charge Coupled Imaging Devices: Experimental Results", IEEE Trans. Electron Devices, ED 18, 992 996, (1971)
M. F. Tompsett, "A Simple Charge Regenerator for Use with Charge Transfer Devices and the Design of Functional Logic Arrays", IEEE Jour. Solid State Circuits, SC 7, 237 242, (1972)
M. F. Tompsett, "Charge Transfer Devices, "Jour. Vac. Sci. Technol., 9, 1166 1181, (1972)
M. F. Tompsett, W. J. Bertram, D. A. Sealer and C. H. Sequin, "Charge Coupling Improves its Image Challenging Video Camera Tubes", Electronics, January 18 (1973)
M. F. Tompsett, "The Quantitative Effects of Interface States on the Performance of Charge Coupled Devices", IEEE Trans. Electron Devices, ED 20, 445 55, (1973)
K. K. Thornber and M. F. Tompsett, "Spectral Density of Noise Generated in Charge Transfer Devices, IEEE Trans. Electron Devices, ED 20, 456, (1973)
M. F. Tompsett and E. J. Zimany, "Use of Charge Coupled Devices for Delaying Analog Signals", IEEE Jour. Solid State Circuits, SC 8, 151 157, (1973)
C. H. Sequin, D. A. Sealer, W. J. Bertram, M. F. Tompsett, R. R. Buckley, T. A. Shankoff and W. J. McNamara, "A Charge Coupled Area Image Sensor and Frame Store", IEEE Trans. Electron Devices, ED 20, 244 252, (1973)
M. F. Tompsett, B. B. Kosicki and D. Kahng, "Measurements of Transfer Inefficiency of 250 Element Undercut Isolated Charge Coupled Devices", Bell Syst. Tech. Jour., 52, 1 7, (1973)
C. H. Sequin, D. A. Sealer, W. J. Bertram, R. R. Buckley, F. J. Morris, T. A. Shankoff and M. F. Tompsett, "Charge Coupled Area Image Sensor Using Three Levels of Polysilicon", IEEE Trans. on Elec. Devices, ED 21, 712,720, (1974)
A. M. Mohsen and M. F. Tompsett, "The Effects of Bulk Traps on the Performance of Bulk Channel CCDS", IEEE Trans. on Electron Devices, ED 21, 701 712, (1974)
W. J. Bertram, A. M. Mohsen, F. J. Morris, D. A. Sealer, C. H. Sequin and M. F. Tompsett, "A Three¬Level Metallization Three Phase CCD",IEEE Trans. on Electron Devices, ED 21, 758 767, (1974)
A. M. Mohsen, M. F. Tompsett and C. H. Sequin, "Noise Measurements in Charge Coupled Devices", IEEE Trans. Electron Devices, ED 22, 209 218, (1975)
M. F. Tompsett, "Surface Potential Method of Setting Charge in Charge Coupled Devices", IEEE Trans. Elcctron Devices, ED 22, 305 309, (1975)
A. M. Mohsen, M. F. Tompsett, E. N. Fuls and E. J. Zimany, "A 16kbit Block Addressed Charge¬Coupled Memory Device", IEEE Jour. Solid State Circuits", SC 11, 4048, (1976)
D. A. Sealer and M. F. Tompsett, "A Dual Differential Charge Coupled Analog Delay Device", IEEE Jour. of Solid State Circuits, SC 11, 105 108, (1976)
C. H. Sequin, E. J. Zimany, M. F. Tompsett and E. N. Fuls, "All Solid State Camera for the 55 Line Television Format", IEEE Jour. of Solid State Circuits, SC 11, 115 121, (1976)
C. H. Sequin, M. F. Tompsett, D. A. Sealer and R. E. Crochiere, "A Symmetrically Balanced Linear Differential Charge Splitting Input for Charge Coupled Devices", IEEE Trans. Electron Devices, ED 24, 74446 750, (1977)
C. H. Sequin, M. F. Tompsett, P. I. Suciu, D. A. Sealer, P. M. Ryan and E. J. Zimany, "Self Contained Charge Coupled Split Electrode Filters Using a Novel Sensing Technique", IEEE Jour. of Solid State Circuits, SC 12, 626 632, (1977)
D. A. Sealer, E. N. Fuls, P. M. Ryan, C. H. Sequin, J. L. Statile and M. F. Tompsett, "A Dual¬Differential Analog Shift Register with a Charge Splitting Input and on Chip Peripheral Circuits", IEEE Jour. of Solid State Circuits, SC 12, 633 637, (1977)
P. I. Suciu, M. F. Tompsett, J. R. Barner and P. M. Ryan, "Multiple Tone Detector with CCD Filters", IEEE Jour. of Solid State Circuits, SC 14, 91 96, (1979)
B S. Song, M. F. Tompsett and K. R. Lakshmikumar, "A 12 bit 1 Msample/s Capacitor Error Averaging Pipelined A/D Converter", IEEE Jour. Solid State Circuits, SC 23, 1324 1333, (1988)
S. J. Daubert, D. W. Green, J. M. Khoury, J. M. Trosino, E. J. Zimany, J. R. Barner, J. Plany and M. F. Tompsett, "A CMOS Modem Analog Processor for V.22bis Modems", IEEE Jour. Solid Slate Circuits, SC 24, 281 291, (1989)
B-S. Song, S. H. Lee and M. F. Tompsett, "A 10b 15MHz CMOS Recycling Two-step A/D Converter", IEEE J. Solid State Circuits, SC-25, 1328–1338, (1990)

OTHER PUBLICATIONS
Thesis "Reflection Scanning Electron Diffraction With Energy Analysis." Cambridge University, (1966)
Book "Charge Transfer Devices." C. H. Sequin and M. F. Tompsett, Academic Press, (1975) ISBN 978-0-12-014568-3 . Russian and Japanese translations, (1978)
Editor Special Joint Issue on "Charge Transfer Devices" of the IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices and the Journal of Solid State Circuits, (1976)
Book Chapter "Video Signal Generation" in Electronic Imaging edited by McLean and Schagen, Academic Press, (1979)
Book Chapter- “Historical Overview”, in Uncooled Infrared Imaging Arrays edited by Skatrud and Kruse, Academic Press (1997)
Book Chapter- “Pyroelectric Vidicon”, in Uncooled Infrared Imaging Arrays edited by Skatrud and Kruse, Academic Press (1997)

PATENTS
Light Image Electrical Signal Translating Devices 1,239,243*
Electron Discharge Camera Type Apparatus 1,266,034*
Camera Tubes 1,266,529*
Electron Discharge Tubes 1,263,325*
Electron Discharge Camera Type Apparatus 3,646,267
Charge Transfer Imaging Devices (CCD Imagers) 4,085,456
Multiple Level Metallization for Integrated Circuits 3,837,907
Charge Transfer Logic Apparatus 4,217,600
Input Circuit for Semiconductor Charge Transfer Devices 3,881,117 Compensating Reference Voltage Circuit for Semiconductor Apparatus 3,899,694
Linear Differential Charge Splitting Input for Charge Coupled Devices 4,210,825
Charge Coupled A/D Converter 4,136,335
Charge Coupled Device with Split Electrode Configuration 4,126,794
Optical Image Sensor Semiconductor Apparatus 4,192,015
High Ratio Accuracy Capacitor Geometrics for Integrated Circuits 4,210,950
Amplifier Circuit for Eliminating Input Signal Offset in the Output 4,580,103
Automatic Gain Control Amplifier Circuit 4,634,997
Light emitting diode structure 8,039,652

• British patent numbers. All others are U. S.
• The 1972 patent ^[5]

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References