Dawon Kahng

Dawon Kahng
Name	Dawon Kahng
Birth date	04 May 1931
Birth place	Seoul, Korea under Japanese rule
Death date	13 May 1992
Death place	New Providence, New Jersey, United States
Nationality	South Korean (later naturalized American)
Fields	Electrical engineering, Solid-state physics
Workplaces	Bell Labs
Alma mater	Seoul National University (B.S.), University of Cincinnati (M.S.), The Ohio State University (Ph.D.)
Known for	Co-inventing the MOSFET (MOS transistor)
Awards	Stuart Ballantine Medal (1975), IEEE Fellow, National Academy of Engineering

Dawon Kahng was a pioneering South Korean-American electrical engineer and physicist whose work fundamentally shaped modern electronics. He is best known for co-inventing the metal–oxide–semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET) with Mohamed Atalla in 1959 at Bell Labs, a device that became the foundational building block of the Digital Revolution. His later research on non-volatile memory technologies, including the floating-gate MOSFET, paved the way for flash memory and EPROMs. Kahng's career was spent almost entirely at Bell Labs, where he made seminal contributions to semiconductor device physics and integrated circuit technology.

Early life and education

Dawon Kahng was born on May 4, 1931, in Seoul, during the period of Korea under Japanese rule. He demonstrated an early aptitude for science and mathematics, which led him to pursue higher education in engineering. He earned his Bachelor of Science degree in physics from Seoul National University in 1955, shortly after the Korean War. Seeking advanced opportunities, Kahng immigrated to the United States for graduate studies, obtaining a Master of Science in electrical engineering from the University of Cincinnati in 1956. He completed his formal education with a Doctor of Philosophy in solid-state physics from The Ohio State University in 1959, where his doctoral research focused on the properties of semiconductor surfaces.

Career at Bell Labs

Immediately after earning his doctorate, Kahng joined the prestigious Bell Telephone Laboratories (Bell Labs) in Murray Hill, New Jersey, in 1959. He became a member of the Solid State Electronics department, a hub for groundbreaking research that included Nobel Prize winners like John Bardeen, Walter Brattain, and William Shockley. At Bell Labs, Kahng collaborated closely with senior engineer and manager Mohamed Atalla on overcoming the critical problem of surface states that had plagued earlier field-effect transistor concepts. His technical expertise in semiconductor surfaces proved invaluable in the laboratory's efforts to develop practical devices using the newly stabilized silicon-silicon dioxide system.

Invention of the MOSFET

In 1959, Kahng and Mohamed Atalla successfully created the first working metal–oxide–semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET). Their device utilized a thermal oxidation process to grow a high-quality silicon dioxide layer on a silicon substrate, upon which a metal gate electrode was deposited. This structure effectively controlled the flow of current in the semiconductor channel below, operating in the enhancement mode. The invention was formally presented in 1960 and patented by Bell Labs. The MOSFET's scalability, low power consumption, and suitability for mass production made it the ideal component for digital integrated circuits, ultimately enabling the development of the microprocessor and driving the growth of companies like Intel and AMD.

Later work and contributions

Following the invention of the MOSFET, Kahng continued pioneering research at Bell Labs throughout the 1960s and 1970s. In 1967, he and his colleague Simon Min Sze invented the floating-gate MOSFET, a device that could store an electrical charge for extended periods without power. This work laid the direct conceptual foundation for erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), EEPROM, and modern NAND flash memory and NOR flash used in USB flash drives and solid-state drives. Kahng also made significant advances in the understanding of hot-carrier injection, CMOS technology, and nanometer-scale semiconductor devices, authoring or co-authoring numerous influential papers in the field.

Awards and honors

For his transformative contributions, Dawon Kahng received significant recognition from the scientific and engineering communities. In 1975, he was awarded the Stuart Ballantine Medal from the Franklin Institute for his role in developing the MOSFET. He was elected a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE Fellow) and was also inducted as a member of the National Academy of Engineering, one of the highest professional distinctions in the field. His foundational patents are cited among the most important in the history of semiconductor device fabrication.

Legacy

Dawon Kahng's legacy is immense, as his inventions are physically embedded in nearly every modern electronic device. The MOSFET is arguably the most manufactured human artifact in history, with quintillions produced, forming the core of all digital electronics, computers, and telecommunications systems. The derivative floating-gate concept he pioneered is the bedrock of the global non-volatile memory industry. Kahng passed away on May 13, 1992, in New Providence, New Jersey, but his work continues to enable technological progress, from supercomputers and data centers to smartphones and the Internet of Things.

Category:American electrical engineers Category:South Korean inventors Category:Bell Labs people Category:1931 births Category:1992 deaths