James R. Biard

James Robert Biard was an American electrical engineer and inventor who lived from 1931 to 2022 and who held 73 United States patents. His more significant patents include the first infrared light-emitting diode, the optical isolator, Schottky clamped logic circuits, silicon metal-oxide-semiconductor read-only memory, a low bulk leakage current avalanche photodetector and fiber-optic data links. In 1980 he became a member of the staff of Texas A&M University as an adjunct professor of electrical engineering, and in 1991 he was elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering.