Paul K. Weimer
Dr. Paul K. Weimer (November 5, 1914 – January 6, 2005) was a noted contributor to the development of television and the thin-film transistor (TFT). Weimer was born in Wabash, Indiana. He received a B.A. in math and physics from Manchester University (Indiana) in 1936, an M.A. in physics from the University of Kansas in 1938, and a Ph.D. in physics from Ohio State University in 1942. He then joined the RCA laboratory in Princeton, New Jersey, where he worked until retirement in 1981. His first assignment was to develop an electron multiplier to go with the  Image Orthicon. This tube, which proved to be 100 times more sensitive than its predecessors, was used for the first 20 years of television broadcasting in the United States. In 1961, Weimer began making thin-film transistors in a coplanar process on glass substrates. In a typical process, he would deposit a gold source and drain, then deposit polycrystalline semiconductor material, and place a gate on top. After he placed an insulator between the gate and semiconductor, he got excellent results, as published in his 1962 paper, "The TFT: A New Thin-Film Transistor", in the "Proceedings of the IRE