Conference Event: IEEE Milestone Dedication

This one-hour plenary session at Flash Memory Summit will honor the new IEEE Milestone titled The Floating Gate EEPROM, 1976-1978.

Free admission to the Flash Memory Summit Exhibition Area and other sessions, including this plenary session, is available here through Thu., Aug. 16. IEEE and CNSV members can save $100 when registering for the full conference using the “IEEE” Priority Code.

Technology developed by Eli Harari in the late 1970s laid the groundwork for the subsequent development of NAND Flash. Eli co-founded SanDisk in 1988 with the vision that flash memory could emulate disk storage, and that its portability as a semiconductor medium and its low power could create a revolution in the electronics industry.

Eli’s journey, and this vision, are encompassed by this citation on the IEEE Milestone plaque: From 1976-1978, at Hughes Microelectronics in Newport Beach, California, the practicality, reliability, manufacturability and endurance of the Floating Gate EEPROM — an electrically erasable device using a thin gate oxide and Fowler-Nordheim tunneling for writing and erasing — was proven. As a significant foundation of data storage in flash memory, this fostered new classes of portable computing and communication devices which allow ubiquitous personal access to data.

Eli’s vision for SanDisk did indeed create a revolutionary flash memory technology that has enabled low-cost solid-state storage to replace chemical film and rotating magnetic disk drives. See the IEEE Global History Network (GHN) page for this IEEE Milestone for extensive background details including patents and technical papers.

Speakers in this plenary session will include SanDisk co-founder Eli Harari and IEEE President Gordon Day. In addition, a special video, funded in part by local IEEE sections and chapters, will be shown which describes the IEEE Milestone program as well as this EEPROM/Flash Memory Milestone.

Dr. Eli Harari co-founded SanDisk Corp. in 1988, and served as its CEO from its founding until his retirement at the end of 2010. From 1973 to 1983, he held various management positions with Honeywell, Intel and Hughes Microelectronics. A Senior IEEE member with over 100 patents issued in the field of non-volatile memories and storage systems, his contributions have earned him widespread recognition including the 2006 IEEE Reynold B. Johnson Data Storage Device Technology Award and the 2009 Robert N. Noyce Medal. He has an MA and Ph.D. in Solid State Sciences from Princeton Univ., and a BS (Honors) degree in Physics from Manchester Univ. in the UK.

Dr. Gordon Day currently serves as the 50th President of the IEEE. He spent most of his career in research and management at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, where he founded and led the NIST Optoelectronics Division. His personal research ranged from fundamental optical measurements to the development of standards for optical fiber and new concepts in instrumentation. More recently, he has served as science adviser to Sen. Jay Rockefeller and Director of Government Relations for the Optoelectronics Industry Development Association. He has been a Professor Adjoint at the University of Colorado, a Professor Adjunct at the Colorado School of Mines, a Visiting Fellow at the University of Southampton (UK), and a Visiting Scholar at the University of Sydney (Australia), and has served on many industry, government, and academic advisory groups. He is a past President of the IEEE Photonics Society and of IEEE-USA, and is a Fellow of IEEE, AAAS, the Optical Society of America, and the Institute of Physics (UK). He received BS, MS, and Ph.D. degrees in EE from the Univ. of Illinois.

Location: Santa Clara Convention Center

5001 Great America Pkwy., Santa Clara, CA 95054
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