Robert Dennard

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Robert Dennard (Born Terrell, Texas, USA in 1932-) is an American electrical engineer and inventor. He received his B.S. and M.S. degrees in Electrical Engineering from Southern Methodist University, Dallas, in 1954 and 1956, respectively. He earned a Ph.D. from Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1958. In 1968, he invented dynamic random access memory (DRAM). Dennard was also among the first to recognize the tremendous potential of downsizing MOSFETs. The scaling theory he and his colleagues formulated in 1974 essentially observed that MOSFETs would continue to function as voltage-controlled switches while all key figures of merit such as layout density, operating speed, and energy efficiency would improve provided geometric dimensions, voltages, and doping concentrations were consistently scaled such as to maintain the same electric field. The evolution of microelectronics we have witnessed since along with Moore's law that captures it rest on this property. Mr. Dennard is an IBM Fellow, the company's highest honor for technical and scientific achievement.