Willard S. Boyle
Facts
© The Nobel Foundation. Photo: U. Montan
Willard S. Boyle
The Nobel Prize in Physics 2009
Born: 19 August 1924, Amherst, NS, Canada
Died: 7 May 2011, Truro, NS, Canada
Affiliation at the time of the award: Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill, NJ, USA
Prize motivation: “for the invention of an imaging semiconductor circuit - the CCD sensor”
Prize share: 1/4
Work
The ability to store images in a digital format is an important prerequisite for information technology. In 1969 Willard Boyle and George Smith sketched an electronic memory design, but their concept instead became the basis for a light sensitive charge coupled device, or CCD. In the sensor there is a grid of light sensitive cells that emit electrons when exposed to light, causing the cells to become electrically charged. When a voltage is applied to the cells, electrical signals are generated, which are used to build up a digital image. CCD was a breakthrough for digital camera technology.
Nobel Prizes and laureates
Six prizes were awarded for achievements that have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind. The 12 laureates' work and discoveries range from proteins' structures and machine learning to fighting for a world free of nuclear weapons.
See them all presented here.
