I learned how to set up experimental work and especially that you have to know what to expect when you carry out measurements. an Introduction to Semiconductor Physics but SEEC 3 was on Elementary Circuit Properties of Transistors and SEEC 5 on Multistage Transistor Circuits. Both latter ones had Don Pederson as a co-author. He is going to be a non-linear man, I heard Bob saying to Don, at the coffee corner on the 4th floor in Cory Hall. I am still not sure what was in Don's eyes when he looked at me. I couldn't possibly explain to him that I had kind of a communication problem with him. His English had an accent that I couldn't place. Bob's accent was perfect to me. It was also the strength and the clarity of his voice. It was also his pace during his teaching. He would explain one thing after another in a way things could be understood. I am sure these were the reasons why I ended up with Bob. I am sure these were also the reasons why Bob did so well in teaching (see Figure 1) and in the underlying research. So Bob became my thesis advisor. Steve Miller, I believe was doing a Masters with Bob as well and disappeared towards Otolaryngology in the Medical School of San Francisco. Shortly later Jim Gaskill showed up, starting a PhD as well. This is how I became Bob's first PhD student. There are at least two important things I have learned from him, during that time. The first one had to with the experimental work. He would explain to me how to set up high-frequency measurements on a bipolar transistor to figure out its base resistance. That resistance didn't seem to be all that important to me at that time but now it does. It limits noise, distortion and matching in multipliers and AGC circuits ! I learned to work with a high-frequency bridge with all kinds of tubing. I learned how to set up experimental work and especially that you have to know what to expect when you carry out measurements. Some of the early results on measurements on base resistances is shown in Figure 2, for three transistors. The other one had to do with writing. I though I was an expert in writing as I had had Latin-Greek education in the middle school. Literature and writing were daily business. Of course that kind of writing is to 1.5 k 4.5 k 350 Q3 4.5 k 350 6 2 Q4 Q5 Q1 3.7 k 8k Q6 1 4 3 30 30 7 Q8 4 1.5k 10 5 400 Q7 Q2 Q9 Q10 12 7k 1.4 k 3.5 k 3.5 k 8 Q11 Q13 9 Q12 60 210 2.2 k 2.2 k 11 (a) (b) Figure 3: (a) Circuit schematic of low-distortion low-noise AGC amplifier (Journal of SolidState Circuits, August 1974, 159-166). (b) Microphotograph of the actual chip in 10 micrometer bipolar technology (fT ≈ 500 MHz). IEEE SOLID-STATE CIRCUITS MAGAZINE w i n t e r 2 0 14 35