1980s: The Centers Arise

5/2/2017 [author]

It was the decade of diminishing dimensions. Hundreds of thousands of components could now be packed on a microchip the size of a thumbnail. But while components grew smaller, competition in the world of electronics grew fiercer.

Semiconductor research int he 1980's. Graduate students W. Kopp and T.J. Drummand prepare a semiconductor thin film by molecular beam epitaxy.
Semiconductor research int he 1980's. Graduate students W. Kopp and T.J. Drummand prepare a semiconductor thin film by molecular beam epitaxy.

With U.S. supremacy in semiconductors being challenged, the nation invested more in basic research. Large, multidisciplinary research centers sprang up in university laboratories across the country, CSL included.

In this Decade:

  • Beckman and CSRD
  • Entering the Nano World
  • Frequency Hopping
  • New Frontiers in Control
  • Robotics Revisited
  • Routing and Reliability
  • Sizing Up the Competition
  • The Wave of the Future
  • Very High Speed Integrated Circuits
  • Where Dreams Meet