Last month one of the unsung heroes of electronics has passed away. Hans Camenzind, father of one of the most famous integrated circuit of all times, the Signetics timer NE555, timed out at the age of 78. Being a gifted analog designer, Swiss-born Monsieur Camenzind is also credited to be the father of class-D amplifiers and he has introduced the concept of the Phase-Locked Loop (PLL) in ICs. During his rather productive career he designed over 140 ICs, wrote several books and many articles and his name is attached to some twenty patents.

 

When a famous artists dies you will hear his or her greatest hits on every radio or see his or her best films on every TV channel. Therefore, as a tribute to one of the great electronics inventors of our century we will play here Hans Camenzind's most successful composition: NE555 in bipolar.