Philip L. Hower - 1986 Newell Winner

Philip L. Hower was born in Reading, Pennsylvania on April 9, 1934. He received the B.S. and M.S. degrees in electrical engineering from Lehigh University and University of Southern California, and the PhD degree in electrical engineering from Stanford University.

From 1966 to 1971 he worked at Fairchild R&D Laboratories in Palo Alto, California. There in collaboration with V.G.K. Reddi, he identified avalanche injection as a triggering mechanism for second breakdown in bipolar transistors. Other work included the design and development of GaAs FET's and modeling of high-voltage bipolar transistors.

From 1971 to 1981 he worked at Westinghouse R&D Laboratories in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where he designed a new class of large area, high-voltage power transistors. Other work included the development of models for forward and reverse second breakdown and various charge control analyses of the quasi-saturation region. He also developed models for predicting the I-V behavior of ZnO varistors and polysilicon resistors.

Since 1981, Dr. Hower has been with Unitrode Corporation in Watertown, Massachusetts. His work is concerned with the design and development of power MOSFETs, bipolar transistors, and fast-recovery rectifiers. Recent efforts have led to the development of a new bipolar transistor intended for synchronous rectifier applications.

Dr. Hower has published over 35 papers dealing with device behavior and power electronic applications. he has served on numerous professional committees and is presently a member of the IEEE Power Electronics Council.

Source: Flyer from Award Presentation