Peter H. Rose

Peter Rose, age 92, the “father of ion implantation technology” died peacefully in his home on March 23, 2017. Peter was born in Lincoln, England in 1925. His father was a ship builder; his mother was from Alsace- Lorraine. For many years they lived on the Isle of Wight off the South coast of England. This introduction to country life with water as a central part greatly influenced his life and lifestyle. He was for many years an avid sculler on the Charles River in Boston; later he loved sailing his 18-ft Hobie catamaran at high speed and on one hull across Lake Sebago in Maine. He also was an enthusiastic skier; on one occasion, while giving a technical paper to an international audience in the Alps, he wore his ski boots at the lectern so that he would not lose a single moment on the slopes.

His college years during WWII culminated with a PhD in nuclear physics from the University of London. (As an adjunct to this degree and without any instruction, he was given a divinity degree which gave him great amusement throughout his life). His first job after graduation was at Frank Whittle’s innovative turbojet engine research laboratory. Then, as a Fulbright Scholar and Research Associate, he spent two years at MIT, where he met his wife, Margaret. Their two children (Janet and Tom) appeared shortly after, followed by many, many Labrador retrievers. He returned to Birmingham University in England before emigrating permanently to the United States where he had been invited to join a new and innovative company, High Voltage Engineering Corporation. HVEC was dedicated to building very large particle accelerators used in fundamental nuclear structure research. During his 15 year tenure at High Voltage, he rose to be Director of its Research Laboratory working closely with one of the company founders, Robert J Van de Graaff. As well as improving the performance of these machines, he was author and co-author of over 50 peer-reviewed technical papers.

In 1968, while at High Voltage, Peter was asked to build a much small accelerator to be used for semiconductor device development at Fairchild Semiconductor. At that time the desired junction doping of a transistor was achieved by thermal diffusion of dopants into the substrate. This resulted in a distribution of threshold voltages from which devices with the desired operating voltage were sorted, which lead to a low product yield. By using ion implantation, this threshold voltage was precise, resulting in a 100% yield. Unfortunately, the HVEC machine used the existing technology which had the dopant ion selection magnet at ground potential after the ion acceleration stage. This resulted in a machine which was 35-ft long; although useful for research it was quite unsuitable for a production setting.

This was the inspiration for Peter’s invention of a radically different compact accelerator design, with the dopant ion selection magnet placed prior to acceleration. It is difficult now to believe that almost no one in the scientific or technical community believed that this arrangement could work. This design is now the basis for the thousands of ion implanters used in semiconductor factories around the world.

It was also the risky design choice for the product of his first start-up company, Extrion Corporation, which grew to employ 1,500 people (and is still in existence today as a division of Applied Materials/Varian). The repetitive reproduction of these ion implanters required standard manufacturing procedures which were not in line with Peter’s entrepreneurial talents and he chose to leave Varian to form his second start-up, Nova Associates, (now Axcelis Corporation). This company also grew rapidly with the creation of an innovative high current ion implanter. He also contributed to the start-up and operation of a subsidiary, Sumitomo-Eaton-Nova since sales to semiconductor fabrication factories were particularly strong in Japan at the time.

His success as an entrepreneur was based on his ability to lead a team by example, not by edict, and his many colleagues saw him both as a dear friend and as a technical leader. This led to his participation in numerous start-ups with past colleagues in which he was a Founder and/or a Director. These included Ibis Technology, Zymet, Krytek, Orion, Epion and Passport Systems.

Peter was a superb leader and people simply loved to work with him because they trusted and believed in him. He created a wonderful environment which didn’t seem like work because it was so much fun to be part of. Customers also loved him. They always trusted him to make good on his promises. Because of this integrity and reputation, Peter was often able to sell complex ion implanters based on just a simple concept sketch. For the same reason, he was also able to convince investors to support the development of his numerous innovations.

His entrepreneurial activities brought him many accolades. Perhaps of most importance to Peter was the award given to him by the City of Gloucester, MA, honoring him for his success in transforming the city from a one-industry fishing town into a high technology employment center which impacted the lives of thousands of people in Gloucester and the surrounding area. In 1996, President Clinton awarded him the National Medal of Technology and Innovation for his “vision and leadership in the development and commercialization of ion implantation products that make possible the manufacture of modern semiconductors and for his success in establishing and maintaining US global leadership in the ion implantation equipment industry.”

Peter was a gentleman, in both interpretations of the word, who worked hard and played hard. Rather than raise his voice in anger, he would raise a glass in celebration. He was great fun to be with, both in and out of work. We miss him.