2009 Nobel Prize Medal in Physics Awarded to Willard Boyle, for His Work on Digital Photography Technology

Directly from the Estate of Nobel Prize-Winning Physicist Willard S. Boyle.

CHANGING THE WORLD WITH DIGITAL IMAGING.

Bell Lab scientists Willard S. Boyle and George E. Smith developed the charge-coupled device during a brief meeting while they were working on whether it was possible to make a new form of bubble memory using semiconductors. Bubble memory was receiving a lot of attention – and funding - at Bell Labs at the time and Boyle and Smith thought that if they could develop a competing concept their semiconductor division would be ensured continued funding. Boyle, in a 2009 article in IEEE Spectrum recalled that when he returned home that night, he mentioned to his wife: “George and I did something special today.”

They first described their invention in the Bell Systems Telephone Journal: “Basically it consists of storage charge in potential wells created at the surface of a semiconductor and moving the charge (representing information) over the surface by moving the potential minima … In particular, we consider minority carrier charge storage at the Si-SiO₂ interface of a MOS capacitor. This charge may be transferred to a closely adjacent capacitor on the same substrate by appropriate manipulation of electrode potentials. Examples of possible applications are a shift register, as an imaging device, as a display device, and in performing logic” (p.587). Boyle, in his Nobel Prize acceptance speech, recalled how Jim Early of Fairchild Semiconductor summarized the CCD: “The transistor worked with the sense of sound while the CCD worked with the sense of sight.”

The other applications were largely put aside once its potential as an imaging device was further explored. Boyle and Smith saw how effective the CCDs were in converting light into digital data and they knew that the era of chemical-based photography was coming to a close. CCDs, 10 times more sensitive than film, would become the dominant technology in digital photography through the early 2000s when cheaper CMOS technology took over the consumer market. But it was the CCD that forged the path that led to DLSRs, smartphone photography and instant sharing of images. CCD technology remains dominant where the highest quality images are essential: in medicine and in science, especially in astronomy where the world’s most powerful telescopes rely on CCD technology. NASA’s space probes and space telescopes also use CCD technology. The Hubble, for instance, widened our perception of deep space through numerous discoveries and observations and expanded our imagination with images like the Pillars of Creation.

Boyle and Smith were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for their invention 40 years after its inception. It was just two years after the iPhone was introduced and it was clear that digital imaging was having a profound impact not just in scientific fields, but also on society. Boyle, in his acceptance speech, attributed much of his success to the Bell Labs environment with its fellowship between scientists and engineers of varied fields, the mixture of theory with the practical and access to sophisticated equipment. Also, top management had a science background so were better equipped to lead. He also spoke more about his upbringing than the technology that he had developed. His early life was spent in a far northern Quebec logging settlement where his mother served as his teacher until age 14. His main textbooks were Lancelot Hogben’s Science for the Citizen and Mathematics for the Million. His mother, who was a nurse by training, believed in the Socratic method and asked questions to make sure he was progressing. “It was a good education, with a good introduction to Calculus, Egyptian history and Radio Engineering, forming a strong background for future studies” (Boyle, Nobel Lecture). He recounted an instance, before he began to attend boarding school starting in 9^th grade, where his mother and he made the trip to McGill University in Montreal and attended a physics lecture. “At the end of the lecture, she would nudge me and whisper, ‘Listen to what they are saying, you know that. So why don’t you stand up and tell them who you are.’ If she were alive today she might say, ‘I guess you don’t have to tell them so often, now that you have a Nobel Prize’” (Boyle. Nobel Lecture).

Bell Systems Telephone Journal vol. 49, issue 4 April 1970, pp. 587-593; Boyle, Willard S. “CCD-An Extension of Man’s Vision,” Nobel Lecture, December 8, 2009; Gertner, Jon. The Idea Factory. [New York: 2012].