James Robert Biard, Ph.D.

Chief Scientist - Retired

Honeywell MICRO SWITCH Division

 

Home Address:                                                              Business Address:

207 Martha Manor                                                          Honeywell MICRO SWITCH 

Richardson, Texas  75081                                              830 East Arapaho Road 

E-mail: Jrbiard@aol.com                                                 Richardson, Texas  75081

                                                                                    E-mail: bob.biard@honeywell.com 

Home Telephone:                                                           Work Telephone: 

(972) 235-6532                                                               (972) 470-4203 

(972) 235-6532 (FAX)                                                      (972) 470-4278 (FAX) 

Birth Date: May 20, 1931, Paris, Texas 

Marital Status: Married, 3 Children, 10 Grandchildren 

EDUCATION: 

Institution                                              Location                                    Date            Degree

Paris Junior College                                Paris, Texas                              1951            A.S. 

Texas A&M University                            College Station, Texas               1954            B.S.E.E. 

Texas A&M University                            College Station, Texas               1956            M.S.E.E. 

Texas A&M University                            College Station, Texas               1957            Ph.D.E.E. 

SOCIETY AFFILIATIONS: 

Tau Beta Pi, Eta Kappa Nu, Phi Kappa Phi, Sigma Xi, American Physical Society, Fellow of IEEE, and member National Academy of Engineering. 

WORK EXPERIENCE: 

Dr. J. R. (Bob) Biard became Chief Scientist of the Honeywell MICRO SWITCH Division in 1987.  He retired 12/31/98 and was hired back by Honeywell as a consultant.  In this job assignment Dr. Biard is part of a team developing Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Lasers (VCSELs).  He also is involved in the interface between the VCSEL team and universities and the Honeywell Corporate Research Laboratory. He started the MICRO SWITCH IC & Sensor Design Center in Richardson, Texas and his product development responsibilities include optoelectronic components (light emitting diodes and photo detectors), fiber optic components and transmitter & receiver modules, and silicon Hall effect and pressure sensors.  He is also on the staff of Texas A&M University as an Adjunct Professor of Electrical Engineering.  He has served in this capacity since 1980.  From 1978 to 1987 Dr. Biard was Chief Scientist of the Honeywell Optoelectronics Division and was a member of the Components Group Sensor Planning Team.  He was also the Components Group representative on the Honeywell Technology Board (HTB).  The HTB was concerned with the development and transfer of technology throughout the Honeywell corporate structure.  Dr. Biard joined Spectronics, Inc. as Vice President of Research in 1969 when the company was founded.  Spectronics, Inc. was acquired by Honeywell in 1978.  Previously he worked for Texas Instruments, Inc., from 1957 to 1969.  While at TI he participated in the development of transistor circuits, microwave and optoelectronic components, avalanche photodiodes, silicon MOS technology, and compound semiconductor materials technology.  In 1991 Dr. Biard was elected to membership in the National Academy of Engineering.  In 1989 he received the Honeywell Lund Award.  In 1986 he was recognized as a Distinguished Alumnus of Texas A&M University.  In 1985, He was a recipient of the Patrick E. Haggerty Innovation Award for his contribution to the design and development of Schottky Logic.  Dr. Biard is a Life Fellow of IEEE; he was elected to Fellow of the IEEE in 1969 with a citation "For outstanding contributions in the field of optoelectronics."

PUBLICATIONS: 

In the course of his technical career, Dr. Biard has published more than two dozen technical papers and made about the same number of unpublished presentations at major technical conferences.  He also developed a one-week seminar on Fiber Optic Data Transmission that he presented on five occasions in various parts of the U.S..  Some of the key papers are listed below:

W. T. Matzen and J. R. Biard, Differential Amplifier Features D-C Stability," Electronics, January 16, 1959.

J. R. Biard, E. L. Bonin, W. N. Carr, and G. E. Pittman, "GaAs Infrared Source," PGED Electron Device Conference, Washington, D.C.; October 1962.

J. R. Biard, "Low frequency Reactance Amplifier," IEEE Proc., Vol. 51, No. 2, pp. 298-303; February, 1963. 

W. N. Carr, and J. R. Biard, "Common Occurrence of Artifacts or 'Ghost' Peaks in Semiconductor Injection Electroluminescence Spectra," Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 35, No. 9, pp. 2776-2777; September, 1964. 

J. R. Biard, "Degradation of Quantum Efficiency in GaAs Light Emitters," GaAs: 1966 Symposium Proceedings,  (Reading England, September 1966), Institute of Physics and Physical Society, pp. 113-117. 

Ralph H. Johnson, Brian W. Johnson, and J. R. Biard, "Unified Physical DC and AC MESFET Model for Circuit Simulation and Device Modeling."  IEEE Electron Devices Transactions, September, 1987. 

Ananth Ramaswamy, Jan P. van der Ziel, J. Robert Biard, Ralph Johnson, and Jim A. Tatum, ˇ°Electrical Characteristics of Proton-Implanted Vertical-Cavity Surface-Emitting Lasers,ˇ± IEEE Journal of Quantum Electronics, Vol. 34, No. 11; November, 1998.

PATENTS: 

Dr. Biard holds 35 U.S. and 17 foreign patents; several other patents are pending.  Five of his more significant patents are listed below.  These patents include one of the first transistor DC differential amplifiers, the GaAs light emitting diode, the optical isolator, Schottky clamped logic circuits, and the MOS read only memory (ROM). 

U.S. Patent No. 3,046,487, "Differential Transistor Amplifier,ˇ± J. R. Biard and W. T. Matzen; July 24, 1962. 

U.S. Patent No. 3,293,513, "Semiconductor Radiant Diode,ˇ± J. R. Biard and G. E. Pittman; December 20, 1966. 

U.S. Patent No. 3,304,431, "Photosensitive Transistor Chopper,ˇ± J. R. Biard, E. L. Bonin, and J. S. Kilby; February 14, 1967. 

U.S. Patent No. 3,463,975, "Unitary Semiconductor High-Speed Switching Device Using a Barrier Diode," J. R. Biard; August 26, 1969. 

U.S. Patent No. 3,541,543, "MOS Binary Decoder,ˇ± R. H. Crawford and J. R. Biard; May 20, 1969.