Boyle, Willard Sterling (1924-2011), a Canadian and American physicist, shared the 2009 Nobel Prize in physics for his work in the invention of the charge-coupled device (CCD). A CCD captures light and converts it into an electric signal, which can then be used to produce an image. CCD’s serve as the primary element in most digital cameras. Boyle and the American physicist George E. Smith invented the CCD in 1969. Boyle and Smith shared the Nobel Prize with the British and American physicist Charles Kao, who was honored for his work with a technology called fiber optics (see Kao, Charles Kuen ).
The CCD works according to a photoelectric effect. In this effect, light striking a photosensitive material causes the material to release electrons, forming an electric current. The more light that strikes the material, the more electrons the material releases. The amount of light striking the photosensitive material can thus be determined by measuring the electric current.
In designing the CCD, Boyle and Smith separated the photosensitive material into a grid of individual cells, or pixels. Measuring the current from each pixel enables the CCD to capture an image. The more light that strikes a pixel, the more electric current is produced and thus the brighter the pixel will appear in the image. A CCD provides image information in the form of an electric signal, eliminating the need for photographic film. The signal can readily be converted to digital (numeric) code, enabling images to be easily stored, copied, shared, and transmitted. Devices that make use of CCD’s include cell phones, digital cameras, digital video recorders, and telescopes.
Boyle was born on Aug. 19, 1924, in Amherst, Nova Scotia. He attended McGill University in Montreal, receiving his Ph.D. degree in physics in 1950. After continuing on as a postdoctoral researcher at McGill for one year, Boyle spent two years teaching physics at the Royal Military College of Canada in Kingston, Ontario. He joined Bell Labs in Murray Hill, New Jersey, in 1953. From 1974 until his retirement in 1979, Boyle served as the executive director of the Communication Sciences Division at Bell Labs. He died on May 7, 2011.
See also Charge-coupled device ; Smith, George Elwood .
