Herbert F. Mataré

(Courtesy of Eduard-Rhein-Stiftung)

Physicist Herbert Franz Mataré has been doing groundbreaking work in the field of semiconductor research for more than 70 years. With Heinrich Welker in 1948, Mataré developed the first functional European transistor. (Their work occurred concurrently, but independently of the more recognized Bell Labs engineers.) After that, Mataré's company Intermetall was the first to demonstrate a battery-operated transistor radio. Since then, he has continued his cutting-edge research in semiconductor, electronics, and solar-power technology. With more than 80 patents and numerous publications,¹ Mataré's contributions to the field are only now being fully appreciated.

Early education

When Mataré was born in 1912 in Aachen, Germany, his grandfather was managing director of a large chemical company, and his father Josef was a well-known portrait painter. His mother taught mathematics before she married. Since his early youth, he enjoyed listening to classical music. At 11 years old, he built a radio receiver with lead-sulfide crystals and cat's whiskers, tiny metal wires that are moved by hand around a crystal to pick up radio signals. He became intrigued and fascinated by the fact that he could put together a detector receiver and thus capture several radio stations.

He received his secondary education at the local real-gymnasium where he was mainly interested in sciences. After finishing high school, he was invited by his uncle to Switzerland and enrolled at the University of Geneva, where he studied physics, mathematics, and chemistry and earned a BS. He returned to Germany and pursued a master's degree at the Aachen University of Technology. In 1936, he was appointed assistant professor teaching physics and electronics. Three years later, he received his MS.

Professional career

In August 1939, with his diplomas in hand, Mataré applied for a job at Telefunken in Berlin. Among solid-state scientists, the basic chemical and physical properties of semiconductors were known. Research had been an academic pursuit for several decades, but scientists involved in radar technology began to realize that semiconductors might have a military and industrial potential as repeaters capable of replacing the vacuum tube. In 1933, Telefunken had set up a microwave department to produce radar systems. The miniaturization of vacuum tubes had reached technical limits and a solid-state equivalent was urgently needed. Research concentrated on ultra-high-frequency rectifiers, aiming at the development of an effective crystal mixer, based on recent advances in crystal rectifiers.²

The laboratory director assigned Mataré to concentrate on receiver technology, the construction of mixer stages, and the elimination of oscillator noise. Because the available magnetrons for 10-cm wave-length were inefficient, Mataré constructed a setup for noise measurement. His activity focused on improving the centimeter-wave receiver sensitivity, which above all, involved noise measurements. Mixer-diode noise was not well understood. He started with tests on vacuum diodes and crystal diodes. In 1942, the Technical University in Berlin awarded him a doctorate in physics. The following year, he applied for a patent on

Background of Herbert F. Mataré

Born: 12 September 1912, Aachen, Germany.

Education: Abiturium at Realgymnasium, Aachen 1932; University of Geneva, Switzerland (mathematics, physics, chemistry) 1933; Technical University Aachen (mathematics, theoretical physics, chemistry, electrochemistry, high-voltage engineering) 1939; Technical University Berlin (Dr Ing) 1942; Ecole Normale Supérieure, Paris (solid-state physics) 1950.

Professional Experience: Telefunken microwave laboratory, Germany, 1939-1945; F&S Westinghouse, France, 1946-1951; Intermetall, Germany, 1952-1953; Signal Corps Laboratory, 1954; Tung-Sol Electric, 1955; head of laboratory, Sylvania Corporation, 1956-1960; Lear Siegler, 1962; the quantum-electronics dept., Bendix Corp., Michigan, 1963-1964; assistant chief engineer, Missile and Space Systems Division, Douglas Aircraft, 1965; science advisor, Rockwell International, 1966-1969; visiting professor, California State University, Fullerton, 1970-1971; founder and president, ISSEC, 1970-2000.

Honors and Awards: Golden Ring, E. Rhein Foundation, Munich, 2008; Life Fellow, IEEE; Member Emeritus, New York Academy of Science; Honorary Member, Institute for the Advancement of Man; Member, American Physical Society; Member, Electrochemical Society.

crystal diodes with electrolytic contacts. He also filed an application for crystal duodiodes for centimeter-wavelength mixers...