Hermann K. Gummel and His Unique Legacy in the Field of CAD Technology for Integrated Electronics: Six Former Coworkers Remember and Reminisce

Hermann K. Gummel made numerous fundamental and high-impact contributions to the IC industry, in particular to IC design technologies. One of the most notable was in the domain of bipolar transistors: Today nobody designs bipolar transistors, or circuits based on bipolar transistors, without using the eponymous “Gummel plot.” An early pioneer of the IC industry, Hermann passed away in 2022, the year of the 75th anniversary of the invention of the transistor. Here, six of his former coworkers review some of Hermann’s most significant and wide-reaching contributions, to bipolar transistor modeling in particular and to computer-aided IC design technology in general, and reminisce about his warm and exceptional personality.