The inventors of the CCD, the first practical solid-state imaging device, which revolutionized imaging technologies, have been jointly awarded the 2006 Charles Stark Draper Prize, one of engineering’s top honors, by the National Academy of Engineering. Willard S. Boyle and George E. Smith were presented with the award at a February ceremony in Washington, DC, “for the invention of the charge-coupled device (CCD), a light-sensitive component at the heart of digital cameras and other widely used imaging technologies.” The two men are sharing the $500 000 cash prize. Boyle is retired executive director of the communication science division at Lucent Technologie’s Bell Laboratories and Smith is retired head of the VLSI device department at Bell Labs.
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1 April 2006