Page 11 - The Clare Connection_Fall 2019 Flipbook

So, he accepted the assistantship, which only paid $250 products. He was also awarded six patents on alpha particle
a month. Sunil worked in a lab day and night, researching damage to chips in space.
RESIDENT PROFILE thermomagnetics, a new physics-related phenomenon for “A lot of strange phenomenon happen when you shrink a
energy conversion.
While Sunil loved his work, the pay wasn’t sufficient, transistor,” Sunil says. “We had to suppress harmful ones.”
To do so, he had to design innovative transistor structures
especially with a baby on the way. After his wife gave birth within silicon.
to their first-born daughter, Sunil didn’t know how they were
going to cover the charges. Luckily, the doctor noticed that During his time in Silicon Valley, Sunil worked on six
Sunil was working toward his Ph.D. and knew how very little generations of technology and transferred them to
he was earning. The doctor did the unthinkable for them. manufacturing. Over the course of his career, the number of
transistors on a chip went from hundreds to several billion,
“He waived all of my charges,” Sunil says. “I couldn’t believe while computer speed reached unprecedented gigahertz
it. I really got the sense that Americans are generous people.”
(GHz) range. This period saw the advent of internet, as well.
Within two years, Sunil finished his Ph.D. and was offered Today, Sunil feels proud to have participated in the
a job to make microchips for Collins, known for its aviation microchip revolution from the beginning, a revolution which
and space electronics. The job took his family to Cedar has propelled the United States to the forefront of this
Rapids, Iowa for six months, followed by Newport Beach, technology.
California, where he helped set up a microchip factory.
Life at The Clare
“I was also doing research, because they were setting up
MOS technology that was way ahead of its time,” he says. Sunil and his wife continued to live in California after their
retirement in the 2000s. They raised two daughters, who
After working for Collins for over a year, Sunil felt the urge are now in the prime of their careers. True to his academic
to pursue other opportunities. When the University of urges, Sunil developed and taught courses in devices for
Michigan reached out to him to set up labs for students, industrial engineers, and he went on to write a biography
where they could fabricate semiconductor devices and about his father and his extensive research.
small chips, Sunil knew he had to jump in. As an assistant
professor, he successfully established two labs and two Through it all, Sunil says that he wouldn’t have excelled were
courses for students to learn about recent developments in it not for his wife by his side.
microchip technology. “She supported me in all of those moves,” he says. “She said,
“Students were lining up for registration, because who gets ‘I’ll go where your passion takes you.’ And after the kids
a chance at the university level to see the fabrication of grew up, she pursued her own career at Hewlett Packard as
microchips?” he says. a computer software engineer.”
Working in Silicon Valley When his wife passed, Sunil’s daughters found The Clare
and knew it would be perfect for him. Living here allows him
Again, Sunil realized that the real cutting-edge of technology to be closer to his daughters and grants freedom to pursue
was elsewhere, not in universities but in Silicon Valley.
a newfound passion.
He wanted to get involved with the early stage of the “I’m looking at the metaphysics side of philosophy,” he says.
computer revolution. Sunil got a job in Silicon Valley, and he “I want to explore what’s beyond this world.”
and his family made the move in 1973.
As he reflects on his journey to the U.S. and the longevity of
“I was basically chasing where the high technology was,” he his career, Sunil knows it wasn’t easy.
says. “That was my main focus.”
“It was a struggle in the beginning, but it was very satisfying,”
Sunil spent more than 30 years working for several companies he says.
in Silicon Valley, including innovative startups. In that time,
he witnessed many technological advancements.
“Before the microchips came, computers occupied the whole
room,” he says. “Now we have laptops!”

Silicon Valley fostered a community of constant innovation.
This allowed Sunil to research the new phenomena of the
shrinking size of transistors.
He attended international conferences at the Institute of
Electrical and Electronic Engineers and published 10 papers
on the hot electron effect alone. One of those papers, “Hot
Electron-Induced Snapback Effect in MOS Transistors,” aimed
to design protection for the microchips from electrostatic Dr. Sunil Shabde as a child with his family in India.
discharge. Even today, this idea is being used in current