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The Reticon Corporation was incorporated in January 1971 in Sunnyvale CA. It is one of several semiconductor companies formed in the '60s and '70s by former employees of Fairchild Semiconductor. 
Co-founder Gene Weckler started Reticon after several years at Shockley and eight years at Fairchild Semiconductor. He served as VP from 1971 until 1997. He states that Reticon developed and marketed the first solid state imaging devices, the first digital imaging cameras, and the first computer-controlled vision systems marketed in the USA. They also introduced the first commercially available switched-capacitor filters, and a variety of discrete-time analog signal processing. Other founders included Ed Snow and John Rado.
The company is known as a pioneer in certain technologies including the BBD (
Intel
Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California. It is the world's largest semiconductor chip manufacturer by revenue, and is one of the developers of the x86 seri ...
, another one of these companies, was an early investor, holding a 22% share in the company.
Co-founder Gene Weckler started Reticon after several years at Shockley and eight years at Fairchild Semiconductor. He served as VP from 1971 until 1997. He states that Reticon developed and marketed the first solid state imaging devices, the first digital imaging cameras, and the first computer-controlled vision systems marketed in the USA. They also introduced the first commercially available switched-capacitor filters, and a variety of discrete-time analog signal processing. Other founders included Ed Snow and John Rado.
The company is known as a pioneer in certain technologies including the BBD (bucket-brigade device A bucket brigade or bucket-brigade device (BBD) is a discrete-time analogue delay line, developed in 1969 by F. Sangster and K. Teer of the Philips Research Labs in the Netherlands. It consists of a series of capacitance sections C0 to Cn. The stor ...
) and CCD (charge-coupled device
A charge-coupled device (CCD) is an integrated circuit containing an array of linked, or coupled, capacitors. Under the control of an external circuit, each capacitor can transfer its electric charge to a neighboring capacitor. CCD sensors are a ...
). This included creation of such integrated circuits as the SAD512, SAD1024, SAD4096, R5101 and R5601. These were popularly used by companies such as MXR, Boss Corporation, Electro-Harmonix
Electro-Harmonix (also commonly referred to as EHX) is a New York City-based company that makes electronic audio processors and sells rebranded vacuum tubes. The company was founded by Mike Matthews in 1968. It is best known for a series of gu ...
, A/DA and others in various electric guitar effects such as analog delay, chorus and flanging devices through the 1970s and 1980s. . Reticon also made very steep analog filters useful for audio measurement.
In 1977, EG&G
EG&G, formally known as Edgerton, Germeshausen, and Grier, Inc., was a United States national defense contractor and provider of management and technical services. The company was involved in contracting services to the United States government ...
bought Reticon.
In June 1999, EG&G
EG&G, formally known as Edgerton, Germeshausen, and Grier, Inc., was a United States national defense contractor and provider of management and technical services. The company was involved in contracting services to the United States government ...
purchased Perkin-Elmer Analytical Instruments for $425 million. Reticon then became part of the new Optoelectronics division.
Weckler went on to form Rad-icon Imaging Corporation in 1997, where he continued to work in semiretirement until 2009.
The former Reticon group was shuttered by PerkinElmer in the mid 2000s, with some employees and assets transferring into the Amorphous Silicon division. PerkinElmer Optoelectronics was then spun off into Excelitas Technologies.
Notes
{{Reflist Fabless semiconductor companies Companies based in Sunnyvale, California Defunct semiconductor companies of the United States