Dr. Gobi R. Padmanabhan
Award Year: 2003 | Degree Year: 1971
Dr. Gobi R. Padmanabhan was born inTiruppur, Tamilnadu in October, 1945. He received B.Sc. degree from Madras University and M.Sc. degree from NT Madras in 1966. Subsequently, he studied at Indian Institute of Technology (NT) Delhi, where he completed M.Tech. in 1968 and Ph.D. degree in Physics in 1971.
Soon after graduating from IIT Delhi, he joined Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL), as a Senior Executive responsible for bringing up India’s first Mask-making Fab. At BEL, he also managed the design, fabrication and testing of India’s first set of CMOS devices.
Since 1978, Dr. Padmanabhan has contributed to the American semiconductor industry in various capacities and in various companies. At Fairchild Semiconductors, he designed and built its Sub-2-Micron Fab facility. He later designed and built CMOS 2-Micron and 1-Micron Fabs for Performance Semiconductors. This experience at Fairchild, Performance and BEL helped him to take National Semiconductors, that was two generations behind in 1996 at 0.6-Micron CMOS, to be at par at 0.25- Micron CMOS in less than 2 years and subsequently to be ahead of the industry at 0.18-Micron in 1999. He similarly used his talent and experience to help LSI Logic become a technology leader in ASIC Technology at 0.25- Micron in 1996. While engaged in building CMOS Fabs for various companies, Dr. Padmanabhan also helped Fairchild and Alliance Semiconductors develop DRAM and SRAM technologies.
Today, Dr. Padmanabhan is a Senior Vice-President at National Semiconductors responsible for Technology Strategy and Business Development. In this role, he is responsible for defining the company’s technology road map and policies regarding investments. He also oversees National’s relationship with banking and venture capital community and with universities. Earlier, in his capacity as Senior Director, Research and Development, at LSI Logic, he led their programme on memory yield enhancement. He also helped them transfer process technology that he developed to manufacturing plants in Japan.
He holds more than 10 US patents. Many more patent applications have been filed. He has been honoured with top awards from Fairchild Semiconductors, LSI Logic and National Semiconductors for his contributions to a wide spectrum of products, processes, and methodologies. Across the semiconductor industry, he is well known for his pioneering spirit and innovative out-of-the-box thinking.
In honouring Dr. Padmanabhan, we recognize the outstanding contributions made by him as a technologist. Through his achievements, Dr. Padmanabhan has brought glory to the Institute.
