Robert C. Dobkin (born 1943 in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

) is an American electrical engineer, co-founder of Linear Technology Corporation, and veteran linear (analog)

integrated circuit An integrated circuit or monolithic integrated circuit (also referred to as an IC, a chip, or a microchip) is a set of electronic circuits on one small flat piece (or "chip") of semiconductor material, usually silicon. Large numbers of tiny ...

(IC) designer.

Career

Dobkin studied Electrical Engineering at

MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the mo ...

, but did not complete a degree. After early employments e.g. at GE Reentry Systems, he joined Philbrick Nexus in Massachusetts working on IC development with

Bob Pease Robert Allen Pease (August 22, 1940 – June 18, 2011) was an electronics engineer known for analog integrated circuit (IC) design, and as the author of technical books and articles about electronic design. He designed several very successf ...

. He joined

National Semiconductor National Semiconductor was an American semiconductor manufacturer which specialized in analog devices and subsystems, formerly with headquarters in Santa Clara, California. The company produced power management integrated circuits, display drive ...

(NSC) in January 1969. He resigned the position as Director of Advanced Circuit Development at NSC in July 1981 and co-founded

Linear Technology Linear Technology Corporation was an American semiconductor company that designed, manufactured and marketed high performance analog integrated circuits. Applications for the company's products included telecommunications, cellular telephones, ne ...

with Robert H. Swanson in the same year. Dobkin continued to serve as the company's Chief Technical Officer through its acquisition by

Analog Devices Analog Devices, Inc. (ADI), also known simply as Analog, is an American multinational semiconductor company specializing in data conversion, signal processing and power management technology, headquartered in Wilmington, Massachusetts. The co ...

in 2016. He has been a Director of Spectra7 Microsystems Inc. since March 20, 2013. Dobkin holds more than 100 patents in the field of analog circuits.

Works

* LM118, first high speed operational amplifier. * LM199, heated buried-Zener voltage reference, and its improved successor, the

LTZ1000 The LTZ1000 is a high-precision, ultra-stable Zener diode voltage reference originally developed by Carl Nelson for Linear Technology. It consists of a Zener reference packaged along with an integrated heater and temperature sensor designed to hol ...

. *

LM317 The LM317 is a popular adjustable positive linear voltage regulator. It was designed by Bob Dobkin in 1976 while he worked at National Semiconductor. The LM337 is the negative complement to the LM317, which regulates voltages below a reference. ...

, first variable three-pin voltage regulator. * LT1083, first

low-dropout regulator A low-dropout regulator (LDO regulator) is a DC linear voltage regulator that can regulate the output voltage even when the supply voltage is very close to the output voltage. The advantages of an LDO regulator over other DC-to-DC voltage regul ...

. * LT3080, three terminal adjustable regulator with a current source reference.

References

External links

Interview with Bob Dobkin, October 27, 2012
1943 births Living people American electrical engineers 20th-century American inventors 21st-century American inventors Analog electronics engineers Silicon Valley people Businesspeople from Philadelphia Engineers from Pennsylvania {{US-electrical-engineer-stub