Goodbye to Willard Boyle, the inventor of CCDs

A la edad de los 86 años ha muerto Willard Boyle, el inventor de los CCD, los “ojos digitales” que revolucionaron la industria de la captación de imágenes. Además de la invención de los CCD Willard Boyle llevó a cabo numerosos desarrollos de luz aplicada a la electrónica y las comunicaciones.

A la edad de los 86 años ha muerto Willard Boyle, el inventor de los CCD, los “ojos digitales” que revolucionaron la industria de la captación de imágenes.

Born in Amherst, Nova Scotia, in 1924 and raised in northern Quebec where he moved when he was barely three years old, Willard Boyle graduated from the University of Montreal and after participating in the Second World War and completing his studies at McGrill University he joined the Bell company.

Together with George Smith, he created the CCD (Charged Coupled Device) image semiconductor circuit in these legendary Americans, the sensor that is the basis of image capture today and can be considered the authentic “electronic eyes”.

In addition to the invention of CCDs, Boyle carried out numerous developments in light applied to electronics and communications, with notable work in relation to the transmission of data over long distances through optical fiber.

CCD technology is based on the photoelectric effect that Albert Einstein predicted, and which earned him the Nobel Prize in 1921. This effect causes light to be transformed into electrical signals. The fact that it allows images to be captured without resorting to film has exploded the possibilities of photography and video, including scientific ones.

La invención de los CCD le valió junto a sus colegas George E. Smith y Charles K. Kao el Premio Nobel de Física en 2009.

Boyle murió la pasada semana a los 86 años de edad.