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A N T H O N Y D . K U RT Z
1929–2010
Elected in 2008
“For the conception, development, and commercialization of the
silicon semiconductor pressure transducer.”
BY ALAN EPSTEIN
A NTHONY DAVID KURTZ, founder and chief executive
officer of Kulite Semiconductor Products, and a prolific
inventor, innovator, and entrepreneur, died on February 9,
2010. He was 80 years old.
Kurtz started Kulite Semiconductor Products, Inc., in 1959
to manufacture silicon strain gauges. He was among the first
to demonstrate the piezo-resistive silicon pressure transducer
(1961) and to bring the silicon transducer to market (1964).
Kurtz and Kulite have continued as the technology leader
in this business such that over the past 50 years “Kulite” has
become synonymous with miniature high frequency response
transducers. Kurtz grew Kulite to about 700 people and $100
million per year in sales. His product innovations include the
first silicon accelerometer, the first silicon-on-oxide transducer,
the first acceleration-compensated transducer, and the first
high-temperature (>500°C) silicon transducer. His last work
was on silicon carbide, porous silicon, and diamond-based
transducers. His record of inventions is apparent in his
more than 200 patents and 60 papers. His patent combining
a micromechanical sensor with electronic computation was
among the most frequently cited of the 1980s. His pioneering
contributions were recognized by Industrial Research magazine
with an IR 100 award in 1968 and by awards from the
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146 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES
Instrument Society of America in 1978 and 2005. Tony was
elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2008.
Anthony David Kurtz was born on May 3, 1929, in
Brooklyn, New York. His father was a metallurgist, a pioneer
in powder metallurgy, and a founder of Callite Tungsten. His
mother was a member of the 1924 U.S. Olympic swim team.
Together, his parents later started Kulite Tungsten. Tony
attended high school in Teaneck, New Jersey. He enrolled
at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), playing
club rugby and swimming, and received a B.S. and an M.S.
in physics in 1951 and 1952, respectively. He worked at
MIT’s Lincoln Laboratory while pursing an Sc.D. in physical
metallurgy. He graduated in 1955. His thesis topic was the
mechanical properties of a newly promising element—silicon.
Upon graduation from MIT, Kurtz became manager of
diffused device research at Cleavite Transistor Products. In
1957 he set up an applied semiconductor research laboratory
for Honeywell and served as its director until 1960.
Kurtz wanted to own his own company and looked for
a niche in which he would not need to compete with large
established players in the semiconductor business (which
meant transistor and diode manufacturers in those days). He
found his niche in silicon semiconductor strain gauges. In
1959 he set up Kulite Semiconductor Products in an unused
loft of his parents’ company in Ridgefield, New Jersey. Kulite
negotiated a license from Western Electric for its patent on
the piezo-resistive properties of silicon. Kulite teamed with
Bytrex (an established strain gauge manufacturer) to form
Kulite-Bytrex to bring the first semiconductor strain gauge
to market. Semiconductor strain gauges offered 100 times
the sensitivity of conventional metal foil and wire gauges.
Their initial customers were established pressure transducer
manufacturers. The Kulite-Bytrex marketing partnership
came to an end when Schaevitz, an established transducer
manufacturer, acquired Bytrex, leaving Kulite free to develop
and promote its own gauges and transducers.
Kulite soon brought the silicon diaphragm pressure
transducer to market. Silicon is an excellent material for
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A N T H O N Y D . K U RT Z 147
pressure transducer diaphragms because of its high stiffness-
to-mass ratio, which enables very high frequency response
with low acceleration response. These Kulite transducers were
among the first micromachined products to enter the market, a
field now known as MEMS (microelectromechanical systems).
Small enough to fit through the eye of a needle (albeit a large
one), the first Kulite miniature semiconductor diaphragm
transducer was a technical marvel of its time. It quickly became
the backbone of aerospace dynamic testing in the 1960s. It was
extensively used in aircraft and spacecraft development—an
application that continues to be important to this day.
The early Kulite transducers had excellent sensitivity and
acceleration resistance but relatively poor thermal stability,
so they were mainly used in dynamic applications. Over the
next few decades, Tony’s innovative spirit, combined with his
deep understanding of solid state physics, spurred numerous
design and manufacturing innovations. Today’s Kulite
transducers are among the most stable available and operate
over an enormous temperature range. This stability was
gained without sacrificing other desirable qualities, such as
small size and high-frequency response. This greatly expanded
the market for silicon transducers, which now encompasses
medical, oil exploration, and automotive applications. As is
often the case with pioneers, Kulite spawned several spinoffs
and competitors.
Learning from his father’s tungsten business in which
the profit was in collecting the dust from the saw kerfs
when cutting vacuum tube filaments, Tony Kurtz eschewed
commodity businesses with low margins—such as those that
developed for disposable medical transducers and production
automobiles. For 50 years he kept Kulite on the cutting edge of
technology, which allowed him to indulge his love of invention
and innovation as well as get premium prices for premium
products. His focus on the pressure transducer market and its
technology served Kulite well as competitors were acquired
by diversified corporations and often lost the innovation and
drive that are characteristic of many enterprise founders.
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148 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES
Over the decades, Tony maintained close relations with
MIT, Columbia University, the New Jersey Institute of
Technology, and Oxford University in many ways. He was
a generous benefactor, a research collaborator, and a direct
sponsor of graduate students and their research. At Columbia
he was an adjunct professor and served on the dean’s council
of the engineering school for many years.
Athletics was an important part of Tony’s life. As an
undergraduate at MIT, he was a founding member of the
Rugby Club. This club team included an amazing assortment
of young men who went on to become leading engineers,
architects, executives, generals, professors, Central Intelligence
Agency leaders—and two national Academy of Engineering
members. Tony learned his love of swimming from his mother
and swam daily for most of his life.
Tony remained as chief executive officer and chief scientist
of Kulite until his death. As a closely held, privately owned
company, Kulite reflected the values of its leader and is best
described as having a family atmosphere. A significant number
of its employees have been there for essentially their entire
working lives, and more than 50 percent of the employees
have one or more family members in the company. Walking
through the company was like a trip to the United Nations,
with an amazing cross section of the world’s peoples and their
languages represented.
Tony Kurtz always placed great value on education. In
addition to being a generous benefactor to universities, he
strongly encouraged members of the Kulite family to further
their education and funded college for a very large number of
employees and their families. This commitment reflected two
sides of this interesting man: a compassion for people and a
shrewd business sense. As Tony liked to say, “I always felt the
real capital is in the brains of the people.”
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