
Bob Widlar – The Life of an Engineering Legend - steven741
https://www.autodesk.com/products/eagle/blog/bob-widlar-life-engineering-legend/
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kqr2
You don't see ads like this today:

[https://www.autodesk.com/products/eagle/blog/wp-
content/uplo...](https://www.autodesk.com/products/eagle/blog/wp-
content/uploads/2017/10/national-ad.jpg)

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lewis1028282
I’m guessing this is the guy who invented the Widlar current mirror?

For anyone wondering ICs need accurate current sources to drive transistors
etc and large resistors take up loads of space and vary a lot with temperature
so hence so are very expensive to manufacturer, hence why current mirrors are
used all over the place. In fact the 1st stage of an op-amp is usually a
current mirror.

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MisterTea
The guy was a serious eccentric who's wild antics are the stuff of legend.
Just google for some of his images and you'll get a full sense of how out
there this guy was. Bob Pease even corobberated a lot of these so they are
more true than legend. Though he apparently was a master at his craft. Pease
recounted how Widlar would disappear into mexico following some bohemian crowd
for many months, come back to work and design a revolutionary circuit, get
paid big bucks and disappear again like a wizard. True genius.

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rauchp
I remember how in undergrad, my Circuit Theory professor who studied at
Boulder and also worked at Ball Brothers would corroborate the myths of Bob
Widlar. They were contemporaries, and my professor really emphasized his
insane output and work ethic. He recounted how Widlar would routinely
disappear in bar crawls for 3-4 days, and then return to ace his exams. While
many of Widlar's actions might not have been exemplary, his contributions to
modern IC's is still pretty underrated.

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HillaryBriss
I'd never heard of Bob Widlar before, but it's great to see someone praised
for significant innovation in an esoteric field. It's great to see such
specialized work appreciated. It's also interesting, and kind of weird, to see
a giant of Silicon Valley engineering design whose education was primarily
"home grown," as contrasted with the highly academic engineers of today.

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cushychicken
Widlar, Bob Pease, and Jim Williams are all worth reading about if you're not
familiar. Bigwig semiconductor designers from a bygone age.

There are some great application notes by Jim Williams from his time at Linear
Tech if analog design application notes are your thing.

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pjc50
My favourite Bob Pease article, about being extremely methodical in the
measurement of small currents: [https://www.electronicdesign.com/test-amp-
measurement/whats-...](https://www.electronicdesign.com/test-amp-
measurement/whats-all-femtoampere-stuff-anyhow)

Someone has a "best of" Jim Williams:
[http://readingjimwilliams.blogspot.com/p/best-app-
notes.html](http://readingjimwilliams.blogspot.com/p/best-app-notes.html)

Some while ago I wrote a blog post about how fantastic app note 47 was; very
much "nothing like this will be built again". For its unassuming title it is a
more instructive read than quite a lot of books on opamps.

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cushychicken
AN-47 is a master work.

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CurtHagenlocher
Best use ever of the slogan "I'd rather fight than switch".

