Mark L. Burgener

Biography

The persistence and contributions of Mark L. Burgener and Ronald E. Reedy overcame barriers to make silicon on sapphire (SOS) technology commercially feasible for wireless communications. Drs. Burgener and Reedy stood by SOS technology that, despite great promise, had initially been abandoned by semiconductor market leaders. First discovered during the 1960s, SOS technology presented manufacturing problems that prevented companies from pursuing commercialization. The efforts of Drs. Burgener and Reedy during the 1980s and 1990s overcame these obstacles, making SOS commercially viable for producing integrated circuits with improved speed, lower power consumption, and more isolation compared to bulk silicon circuits. Even after demonstrating viable SOS circuits, the pair had to erase the stigma associated with the earlier problems. They co-founded Peregrine Semiconductor in 1990 to spur their commercialization efforts. They developed the UltraCMOS process, which solved critical manufacturing issues and made SOS cost-effective. After an initial shipment of 100 chips in 1995, today Peregrine has sold over 500 million UltraCMOS integrated circuits.

An IEEE member, Dr. Burgener is Vice President of Advanced Research at Peregrine Semiconductor Corporation in San Diego, California.