The 2006 Draper Prize
Charge-coupled devices (CCDs) are imaging sensors or optical elements that convert light to digital data. CCDs are widely used in consumer products, such as camcorders and cell phone cameras, as well as in advanced electronic imaging tools, such as telescopes and imaging satellites.
CCDs are the first practical solid-state imaging devices. They were invented in 1969 by Drs. Willard S. Boyle and George E. Smith while working at Bell Laboratories. Because CCDs are silicon-based devices, they are fairly inexpensive to produce, compact, and fairly rugged, making them suitable for commercial product use. Their high sensitivity, excellent stability, and lack of distortion make CCDs attractive for use in scientific research imaging systems. CCDs are capable of imaging a variety of sources, including optical, x-ray, ultraviolet, and infrared emissions.
CCDs work by converting light into a pattern of electronic charge in a silicon chip. The charge is collected, measured, and eventually converted into an image file to be stored on a computer. These electronic devices generate electrical charge that is proportionate in strength to the intensity of light striking each area of the silicon and can be sensitive enough to measure a single electron. CCDs have found widespread use in science in general and in astronomy in particular. Today, no major observatory lacks a CCD camera, given their exceptional light-sensitive properties.
The Draper Prize Recipients
 |
Willard Boyle joined Bell Laboratories in 1953, where he worked until retirement in 1979. During those years he became executive director of Device Development and then executive director of the Communication Science Division. He was the first to use infrared spectroscopy to measure donor energy levels and cyclotron energy levels. With Gene Kunzler, he discovered large, low-temperature magnetothermal oscillations, a powerful new tool for mapping out Fermi surfaces. He co-authored a major review paper with George E. Smith summarizing the unique properties of bismuth. With Donald Nelson, he developed the first continuously pumped ruby laser. Boyle earned a doctorate in physics from McGill University.
|
 |
George Smith began his career at Bell Laboratories in 1959, studying the electrical properties and band structures of semimetals, mostly bismuth and bismuth-antimony alloys. In 1964, he became head of the Device Concepts Department, a group formed to devise next-generation solid-state devices. He was involved in investigations on junction lasers, semiconducting ferroelectrics, electroluminescence, transition-metal oxides, the silicon-diode-array camera tube, and charge-coupled devices (CCDs). In April 1986, he retired as head of the VLSI Device Department, where he oversaw work on the physics of devices made with submicron lithography and their use in high-performance digital and analog circuits. Smith received a B.A. in physics from the University of Pennsylvania and an M.S. and Ph.D. in physics from the University of Chicago.
|
 |
Edward Miller of General Electric Co. was the lead developer of the satellite recovery vehicle — the first man-made object to return from Earth orbit. The design had to withstand hostile loads during launch, acoustic noise during exit from the atmosphere, vacuum and low temperatures in orbit, and high temperatures and vibrations during re-entry. The re-entry vehicle had to protect the film canister it carried, deploy its parachutes, jettison the heat shield, and transmit its location so that an aircraft could snatch it in midair and bring it safely to Earth. |
|
