George E. Smith

George E. Smith is an American physicist who co-invented the charge-coupled device with Willard Boyle at Bell Labs and shared the 2009 Nobel Prize in Physics.

Charge-coupled device: A semiconductor device that moves and converts packets of electrical charge, widely used to capture images. Smith and Willard Boyle invented this device at Bell Labs in 1969.
Charge transfer: The movement of electric charge between locations or components in an electronic system. A CCD transports stored charge through successive electrodes to read out a signal.
Charge-coupled device invention: The 1969 development of a semiconductor device that stores and transfers charge in sequence. Smith and Boyle devised the CCD while exploring a potential new kind of computer memory.
2009 Nobel Prize in Physics: The Nobel award shared by Charles K. Kao, Willard Boyle, and George E. Smith for advances in communications and imaging. Smith received half of the imaging-related award with Boyle for the CCD.
Semiconductor: A material whose electrical conductivity can be controlled, forming the basis of many electronic devices. Semiconductor behavior made charge storage and transfer in the CCD possible.
MOSFET: A field-effect transistor in which an electric field controls current through a semiconductor channel. The CCD grew from ideas about charge storage in metal–oxide–semiconductor structures.
AT&T: An American telecommunications company that developed from the Bell Telephone Company and once owned Bell Labs. AT&T’s Bell Labs employed Smith during the CCD’s development.
Digital imaging: The capture, processing, and display of images represented as digital data. CCD development helped make electronic image capture practical across science and everyday life.
Bell Labs: A research and development organization founded by AT&T and Western Electric, known for major advances in communications and electronics. Smith worked there when he and Boyle devised the CCD.
Image sensor: A device that converts light into an electrical signal to produce a digital or electronic image. The CCD became a major image-sensor technology, extending Smith’s invention into photography.

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Charles K. KaoRelated: Smith shared the 2009 physics prize with Kao, though their honored work concerned electronic imaging.