IEEE Solid-States Circuits Magazine - Spring 2023 - 78

diverse assets, grow the endowed
funds to keep pace with inflation,
plus enough money left to invest
in programs-year after year, "
explains Dr. Rodgers. " My gift to
this fund is literally the gift that
will keep on giving opportunities
to future generations of students
who would otherwise end up
in debt. "
Dr. Rodgers' career in the
solid-state circuits field can
be traced back to his last
term as an undergraduate
chemistry and physics
student at Dartmouth
College. On a lark, he
took an electronics 101
introductory course his
last term before graduation.
During the term,
he used 1970-vintage
chips and amplifiers to make a " light
organ, " a display that attached to a
stereo to produce colors according
to frequency and amplitude.
" I decided there and then I
wanted to switch from physics
to electrical engineering. The
problem was that I was already
accepted in physics with a fellowship
at Stanford University, "
shares Dr. Rodgers.
Dr. Rodgers, though, is persistent
and persuasive. He called a Stanford
physics department secretary on a
dormitory pay phone to inform her
of his program switch and that he
needed his fellowship to follow him
to the electrical engineering (EE) department.
She promptly informed
him that was not how things worked.
Undeterred, Dr. Rodgers drove from
New Hampshire to California and
began looking around the Stanford
EE department for a fellowship to
support Ph.D. work in EE.
He eventually found the Integrated
Circuits (IC) Lab and asked the
secretary to pass his information
on to Prof. Meindl. The very next
morning, the professor's secretary
called him and asked if he could
come in that day to interview with
Dr. Meindl. Dr. Meindl was making
ICs on silicon wafers, which used
high-temperature chemistry for
78
SPRING 2023
fabrication and physics to describe
their behavior.
" I didn't know anything about
ICs when I walked in to meet
him, beyond that one course.
But I had other redeeming factors
that
interested him-like
" My gift to this
fund is literally
the gift that will
keep on giving
opportunities to
future generations
of students who
would otherwise
end up in debt. "
the ability to understand the
chemical processes used for
the new epitaxial reactor in
the IC lab. So, Dr.
Meindl-'The Chief'
we called him back
then, you see, he was
a former military man
with a flat-top-broke
his rule on hiring rookies
and invited me to
work in his IC lab and
become a graduate student
at Stanford, " remembers
Dr. Rodgers.
Dr. Rodgers worked in the IC Lab
for five years, receiving his master's
degree (1973) and Ph.D. (1975)
in EE from Stanford. He went on to
work at Silicon Valley chip companies
American Microsystems, Inc.,
and Advanced Micro Devices before
launching Cypress Semiconductor
Corporation. He would helm Cypress
Semiconductor
Corporation
for 34 years, 31 years as a public
company, a record for a chip company
CEO.
" In retrospect, it was obvious I
would follow the career path I
did, but at the time it felt like
a string of coin-flip decisions. I
was made to do this, and I am
most happy when I am working
on chips because of their
chemistry, physics, EE interdisciplinary
nature. I was in the
right place at the right time, "
contemplates Dr. Rodgers.
Dr. Rodgers remembers his time
at Stanford with Dr. Meindl fondly.
He took just one course from him
but points out his influence was
much larger. Dr. Meindl gave him
the ability to work in a multimilliondollar
lab and provided connections
to industry. Above all, Dr. Rodgers
remembers Dr. Meindl's kindness.
" He was patient and generous
when working with students.
IEEE SOLID-STATE CIRCUITS MAGAZINE
My first year
remembers
Dr.
in California, "
Rodgers,
" I
couldn't afford to fly home
for Thanksgiving, which is
my favorite holiday. So, I got
an invitation to his house for
Thanksgiving. His wife, Freddy,
served up a memorable
family-style turkey dinner
that reminded me of home. "
Dr. Rodgers first became involved
with IEEE while he was a student at
Stanford. Upon learning that IC Lab
students and professors as a group
had written the most IEEE papers
on ICs in the prior year, he started
working on a paper. He presented
his first paper in 1973 at the International
Electron Device Meeting
in Washington, DC. He would go on
to win the IEEE Solid State Circuits
Conference Best Paper award twice,
once in 1975 and again in 1976.
To this day, Dr. Rodgers is still
involved with ICs, but his main interest
has shifted to lithium-ion
batteries because the combination
of their rudimentary state and high
importance reminds him of ICs in
the 1970s and 1980s. He is an avid
runner and has sustained his drive
and inquisitiveness into his seventh
decade of life and still gravitates
toward making things work for the
first time.
He is also a tad self-deprecating:
" I am becoming a dinosaur in electrical
engineering, because it has moved
so far, so fast. The new students are
very smart and very energetic. They
know what they want-software, AI,
cloud computing, " Dr. Rodgers explains,
shedding some light on why
he was interested in supporting an
endowed fund that will benefit students
far into the future.
Dr. Rodgers is no dinosaur, despite
what he might say. After
stepping down from Cypress Semiconductor
Corporat ion in 2016,
he has since invested in high-efficiency
solar cells produced by the
Complete Solaria Corporation, as
well as the renewable energy firm
Enphase, the U.S. leader in solar
panel microinverters and other
tech startups in home fuel cells,
IEEE Solid-States Circuits Magazine - Spring 2023

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