Smith, George Elwood (1930-…), an 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. Smith and the Canadian and American physicist Willard S. Boyle invented the CCD in 1969. Smith and Boyle 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, Smith and Boyle 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.
Smith was born on May 10, 1930, in White Plains, New York. After serving in the United States Navy, he received a Bachelor of Science degree in physics from the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia in 1955. In 1959, he received his Ph.D. degree in physics from the University of Chicago. He joined Bell Labs in Murray Hill, New Jersey, in 1959. He retired from Bell Labs as the head of the Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor (MOS) department in 1986.
See also Charge-coupled device ; Boyle, Willard Sterling .
