The Reticon Corporation was incorporated by Christopher Raanes on Thursday, January 28, 1971 in the Sunnyvale, CA. It is one of several semiconductor companies formed in the 60s and 70s by former employees of Fairchild Semiconductor. Intel, another one of these companies, was an early investor, holding a 22% share in the company.[1]
Co-founder, Gene Weckler, started Reticon after several years at Shockley and eight years at Fairchild Semiconductor. He served as VP from March 1971 until January 1997. He states that Reticon developed and marketed the first solid state imaging devices, the first digital imaging cameras, and the first computer controlled vision systems marketed in the USA. They also introduced the first commercially available switched capacitor filters, and a variety of discrete time analog signal processing.[2] Other founders included Ed Snow and John Rado.
The company is known as a pioneer in certain technologies including the BBD (Bucket-brigade device) and CCD (Charge-coupled device). This included the creation of integrated circuits such as the SAD1024, SAD4096, R5101 and R5601. These were popularly used by companies such as MXR, Boss Corporation, A/DA and others in various electric guitar effects such as analog delay, chorus and flanging devices through the 1970s and 1980s.
In 1977, EG&G made an offer to buy Reticon, and ultimately bought the company.
In June 1999, EG&G purchased Perkin-Elmer Analytical Instruments for $425 million.[3] Reticon then became the new PerkinElmer Optoelectronics division.
Gene went on to form Rad-icon Imaging Corporation in 1997, where he continues to work in semi-retirement.[4]
Reticon Corporation was incorporated on Thursday, January 28, 1971 in the Sunnyvale, CA by John Rado, Edward Snow, and Gene Weckler. It is one of several semiconductor companies formed in the 60s and 70s by former employees of Fairchild Semiconductor. Intel, another one of these companies, was an early investor in Reticon, holding a 22% share in the company.[1] Co-founder, Gene Weckler, started Reticon after several years at Shockley Transistor Corporation and eight years at the R & D Laboratories of Fairchild Semiconductor. He served as VP from March 1971 until January 1997. He states that Reticon developed and marketed the first solid state digital imaging devices, the first digital imaging cameras, and the first computer controlled vision systems marketed in the USA. The Intel 4004 micro processor was the brains of the system. They also introduced the first commercially available switched capacitor filters, a set of third octave filters, and a variety of discrete time analog signal processing.