James R. Biard

James R. Biard
US Inventor of the GaAs Infrared LED
Born	(1931-05-20) May 20, 1931 (age 85) Paris, Texas
Residence	United States
Nationality	American
Fields	Electrical engineering
Alma mater	Texas A&M University; BS 1954, MS 1956, PhD 1957

Dr. James R. "Bob" Biard (born May 20, 1931) is an American electrical engineer and inventor who holds 73 U.S. patents including the first commercial light-emitting diode (LED), the optical isolator, the Schottky transistor, and Metal Oxide Semiconductor Read Only Memory (MOS ROM). He has been on the staff of Texas A&M University as an Adjunct Professor of Electrical Engineering since 1980.

In September 1961, while working at Texas Instruments Inc. in Dallas, TX, Dr. Biard and Gary E. Pittman discovered infrared light emission from a forward biased tunnel diode constructed on gallium arsenide (GaAs) semi-insulating substrate. On August 8, 1962, Biard and Pittman filed a patent based on their findings, which described a zinc diffused p-n junction LED with spaced cathode contacts to allow for efficient emission of infrared light under forward bias. After establishing the priority of their work based on engineering notebooks predating submissions from G.E. Labs, RCA Research Labs, IBM Research Labs, Bell Labs, and Lincoln Labs at MIT, the U.S. patent office issued the two inventors U.S. patent 3,293,513 for the GaAs infrared (IR) light-emitting diode, the first practical LED. After filing the patent, T.I. immediately began a project to manufacture infrared diodes. They announced the first commercial LED product (the SNX-100) in October 1962. T.I. gave Biard and Pittman $1.00 each for their patent.