Hans Camenzind

Hans R. Camenzind (1934 to 2012) was a Swiss born electronics engineer known for designing the 555 timer integrated circuit in 1971 under contract to Signetics, and the inventor on 20 United States patents. Raised in Zurich, he moved to the United States in 1960, earned a master's degree in electrical engineering from Northeastern University and an MBA from the University of Santa Clara, and from 1962 worked at the P.R. Mallory laboratory in Massachusetts before joining Signetics in California in 1968. He then became an independent consultant, founded the semiconductor design company Interdesign, which he headed for seven years before selling it to Ferranti, and went on to design about 140 standard and custom chips. His work includes the first integrated class D amplifier, an early phase locked loop integrated circuit and the semicustom integrated circuit. He also wrote three books, among them Designing Analog Chips.