Oskar Heil
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Oskar Heil (1908-1994) was a twentieth-century electrical engineer and inventor.
Field-effect transistor
Heil is sometimes mentioned as an inventor of an early transistor-like device, based on several patents that were issued to him.
[JFETS: THE NEW FRONTIER] states:
- "Field-effect transistors (FETs) have been around for a long time; in fact, they were invented, at least theoretically, before the bipolar transistors. The basic principle of the FET has been known since J.E. Lilienfeld’s US patent in 1930, and Oscar Heil described the possibility of controlling the resistance in a semiconducting material with an electric field in a British patent in 1935."
Air motion transformer
He also invented the "Heil air motion transformer" audio speaker technology [link] made famous by the AMT-1A speakers of the mid 1970s. A cache of the recently-expired-domain page of ESS labs [link] says:
- The Heil air-motion transformer is the revolutionary midrange-tweeter that, since 1973, has distinguished ESS. loudspeakers from all other speakers in the world. Its principle is simple, yet provides results superior to any other sonic transducer available today.
- The Heil diaphragm, made of soft, quiet mylar to reduce background noise, is bonded with conductive aluminum strips. It is equivalent in surface area to a conventional cone type eight inch midrange driver, but is accordion-folded down to a compact one-inch band for better point source dispersion. The low mass diaphragm is suspended in a massive magnet structure concentrating an intense magnetic field around the diaphragm.
- When a signal passes through the aluminum strips, the bellows-like motion of the folded "pleats" squeezes air out five times faster then the air motion of a conventional cone driver. The virtual "instant acceleration" provides high definition, crisp transients, and overall spaciousness with superb dynamic range. This type of performance distinguishes the heil from all other transducers.
- The Heil air-motion transformer is recognized by the audio industry as the most significant loud-speaker breakthrough of the last half-century and is licensed exclusively to ESS. Once you've heard it, you'll agree that the ESS Heil air-motion transformer indeed delivers "sound as clear as light".
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