HP Labs is the exploratory and advanced research group for

HP Inc. HP Inc. is an American multinational information technology company headquartered in Palo Alto, California, that develops personal computers (PCs), printers and related supplies, as well as 3D printing solutions. It was formed on Novembe ...

HP Labs' headquarters is in

Palo Alto, California Palo Alto (; Spanish language, Spanish for "tall stick") is a charter city in the northwestern corner of Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a Sequoia sempervirens, coastal redwood tree kno ...

and the group has research and development facilities in Bristol, UK. The development of programmable desktop calculators, inkjet printing, and 3D graphics are credited to HP Labs researchers. HP Labs was established on March 3, 1966, by founders

Bill Hewlett William Redington Hewlett ( ; May 20, 1913 – January 12, 2001) was an American engineer and the co-founder, with David Packard, of the Hewlett-Packard Company (HP). Early life and education Hewlett was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where his ...

and

David Packard David Packard ( ; September 7, 1912 – March 26, 1996) was an American electrical engineer and co-founder, with Bill Hewlett, of Hewlett-Packard (1939), serving as president (1947–64), CEO (1964–68), and chairman of the board (1964–6 ...

, seeking to create an organization not bound by day-to-day business concerns. The labs have downsized dramatically; in August 2007, HP executives drastically diminished the number of projects, down from 150 to 30. As of 2018, HP Labs has just over 200 researchers, compared to earlier staffing levels of 500 researchers. With the

Hewlett Packard Enterprise The Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company (HPE) is an American multinational information technology company based in Spring, Texas, United States. HPE was founded on November 1, 2015, in Palo Alto, California, as part of the splitting of the H ...

being spun off from

Hewlett-Packard The Hewlett-Packard Company, commonly shortened to Hewlett-Packard ( ) or HP, was an American multinational information technology company headquartered in Palo Alto, California. HP developed and provided a wide variety of hardware components ...

on November 1, 2015, and renamed to and

, the research lab also spun off Hewlett Packard Labs to

and HP Labs was kept for HP Inc.

History

As the Semiconductor Lab's first manager, Mohamed Atalla launched a material science investigation program that provided a base technology for

gallium arsenide Gallium arsenide (GaAs) is a III-V direct band gap semiconductor with a Zincblende (crystal structure), zinc blende crystal structure. Gallium arsenide is used in the manufacture of devices such as microwave frequency integrated circuits, monoli ...

gallium arsenide phosphide Gallium arsenide phosphide () is a semiconductor material, an alloy of gallium arsenide and gallium phosphide. It exists in various composition ratios indicated in its formula by the fraction ''x''. Gallium arsenide phosphide is used for manufactur ...

and

indium arsenide Indium arsenide, InAs, or indium monoarsenide, is a narrow-bandgap semiconductor composed of indium and arsenic. It has the appearance of grey cubic crystals with a melting point of 942 °C. Indium arsenide is similar in properties to galli ...

devices. These devices became the core technology used by HP's Microwave Division to develop sweepers and

network analyzers Network, networking and networked may refer to: Science and technology * Network theory, the study of graphs as a representation of relations between discrete objects * Network science, an academic field that studies complex networks Mathematics ...

that pushed 2040 GHz frequency, giving HP more than 90% of the

military communications Military communications or military signals involve all aspects of communications, or conveyance of information, by armed forces. Military communications span from pre-history to the present. The earliest military communications were delivered b ...

market by the 1970s. HP Labs was involved in HP's

research and development Research and development (R&D or R+D), known in Europe as research and technological development (RTD), is the set of innovative activities undertaken by corporations or governments in developing new services or products, and improving existi ...

(R&D) on practical

light-emitting diode A light-emitting diode (LED) is a semiconductor device that emits light when current flows through it. Electrons in the semiconductor recombine with electron holes, releasing energy in the form of photons. The color of the light (cor ...

s (LEDs) between 1966 and 1969. The first practical

LED display A LED display is a flat panel display that uses an array of light-emitting diodes as pixels for a video display. Their brightness allows them to be used outdoors where they are visible in the sun for store signs and billboards. In recent y ...

s were built at Atalla's Semiconductor Lab. HP introduced the first commercial LED display in 1968. In February 1969, they introduced the HP Model 5082-7000 Numeric Indicator. It was the first intelligent LED display, and was a revolution in

digital display A display device is an output device for presentation of information in visual or tactile form (the latter used for example in tactile electronic displays for blind people). When the input information that is supplied has an electrical signal t ...

technology, replacing the

Nixie tube A Nixie tube ( ), or cold cathode display, is an electronic device used for displaying numerals or other information using glow discharge. The glass tube contains a wire-mesh anode and multiple cathodes, shaped like numerals or other symbols ...

and becoming the basis for later LED displays. In 1977, HP Labs fabricated prototypes of the DMOS (double-diffused MOSFET), a type of

power MOSFET A power MOSFET is a specific type of metal–oxide–semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET) designed to handle significant power levels. Compared to the other power semiconductor devices, such as an insulated-gate bipolar transistor (IG ...

. They demonstrated that it was superior to the

VMOS A VMOS () transistor is a type of MOSFET (metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor). VMOS is also used for describing the V-groove shape vertically cut into the substrate material. ''VMOS'' is an acronym for "vertical metal oxide semi ...

(V-groove MOSFET) with its lower on-resistance and higher breakdown voltage. The DMOS became the most common

power transistor A power semiconductor device is a semiconductor device used as a switch or rectifier in power electronics (for example in a switch-mode power supply). Such a device is also called a power device or, when used in an integrated circuit, a power IC ...

used in

power electronics Power electronics is the application of electronics to the control and conversion of electric power. The first high-power electronic devices were made using mercury-arc valves. In modern systems, the conversion is performed with semiconducto ...

Jena Jena () is a German city and the second largest city in Thuringia. Together with the nearby cities of Erfurt and Weimar, it forms the central metropolitan area of Thuringia with approximately 500,000 inhabitants, while the city itself has a popu ...

, a semantic web framework, was originally developed by researchers in HP Labs, starting in Bristol, UK.

Research areas

Today, HP Labs specializes in products and solutions related to laptops and tablets, desktop computers, printers, ink and toner cartridges, display accessories and business solutions.

3D printing

HP Labs has made a substantial investment in the development of HP MultiJet Fusion technology. Previously, MetalJet technology was jointly developed between the 3D Print business and HP Labs, allowing for advanced metals to be incorporated in 3D printing.

Microfluidics

The lab invents microfluidic and imaging technologies for markets beyond office and home print, such as flexible packaging, life sciences, and sensing. The lab has also worked to develop a new method for isolating rare cancer cells.

Security

Security research began in the 1990s, leading to the co-founding of the TCPA alliance, later known as the

Trusted Computing Group The Trusted Computing Group is a group formed in 2003 as the successor to the Trusted Computing Platform Alliance which was previously formed in 1999 to implement Trusted Computing concepts across personal computers. Members include Intel, AMD, I ...

. In 2001, a Trusted Linux OS offering was created amongst many years of trusted computing development. Various research projects led to product features such as Virus Throttle, HP SureStart, Printer Runtime Intrusion Detection, HP Connection Inspector and HP SureAdmin.

Directors

The following have served as Director of HP Labs since its foundation in 1966. *

Barney Oliver Bernard M. Oliver (May 17, 1916 – November 23, 1995), also known as Barney Oliver, was a scientist who made contributions in many fields, including radar, television, and computers. He was the founder and director of Hewlett Packard ( HP) ...

(1966–81) *John Doyle (1981–84) * Joel Birnbaum (1984–86 and 1991–99) *Don Hammond (1986–87) *Frank Carrubba (1987–91) *Ed Karrer (1999) *Dick Lampman (1999–2007) * Prith Banerjee (2007–2012) *Chandrakant Patel (interim; April 7, 2012 – Nov 2012) *Martin Fink (2012–2016) *Shane Wall (2016–2021) *Tolga Kurtoglu (2021-now)

Lab locations

HP Labs has laboratories in two major sites: *

Palo Alto Palo Alto (; Spanish for "tall stick") is a charter city in the northwestern corner of Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a coastal redwood tree known as El Palo Alto. The city was estab ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

, United States *

Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...

, England, UK (founded in 1983) Former sites: *

Haifa Haifa ( he, חֵיפָה ' ; ar, حَيْفَا ') is the third-largest city in Israel—after Jerusalem and Tel Aviv—with a population of in . The city of Haifa forms part of the Haifa metropolitan area, the third-most populous metropol ...

, Israel (founded in 1984) *

St Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

, Russia (founded in 2007) *

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...

, China (founded in 2005) *Fusionopolis,

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...

(founded in 2010) *Cambridge,

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut assachusett writing systems, məhswatʃəwiːsət'' English: , ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is the most populous U.S. state, state in the New England ...

, United States (also known as CRL, a former DEC research lab) *

Bangalore Bangalore (), officially Bengaluru (), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Karnataka. It has a population of more than and a metropolitan population of around , making it the third most populous city and fifth most ...

, India (founded in 2002) *

Princeton, New Jersey Princeton is a municipality with a borough form of government in Mercer County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It was established on January 1, 2013, through the consolidation of the Borough of Princeton and Princeton Township, both of whi ...

, United States *

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

, Japan (founded in 1990)

References

External links

Official website
{{Authority control * Research organizations in the United States