IEEE JOURNAL OF SOLID-STATECIRCUITS,FEBRUARY1971 1

Foreword

{3T ONLY should the authors be thanked for their underdeveloped countries, etc.—the list is long. The

N high standards of professional endeavor, which

made this issue possible, but also for their cour-
teous and prompt attention to all requests. Also, I wish
to express my appreciation to Jim Meindl for asking me
to work on this issue and to Don Pederson for his con-
siderable help and valuable suggestions.
In editing this material, it was indeed interesting to
:note the parallels and differences between linear-inte-
,grated circuits and the much more advanced and “profit-
squeezed” digital field. The ideas and designs discussed
in this issue, although still relatively unique, are possible
and of future value. The manned-machine interface con-
tinues to dominate the electronic scene from computer-
aided circuit design, through transportation (particularly
in the air), medical electronics, local communications in
(any?) solution seems to be to require transducers, dis-
plays, and other devices that do not currently exist. In
any event, the rapid pace that is usually associated with
solid-state electronics is continuing with emphasis now
in the linear area. Viewed in terms of our current high
level, yet seemingly overabundant supply of technical
talent, the potential for growth, which the linear field in-
herently offers, is entirely welcome.
Perhaps it is the linear-integrated circuit that will
bridge the gap between the robot-like computational ma-
chine of the digital realm and human operations that
require and must displace linear judgment and under-
standing.
—RICHARD H. BAKER
Guest Editor

Richard H. Baker (S’ 53-A’ 54-M’ 58) was born in Dowagiac, Mich., on February 14,
1928. He receil,ed the B.S. degree in electrical engineering from Texas A&M University,
College Station, in 1949, and the M.S. degree from the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, Cambridge, in 1953.
He is currently a Lecturer in the Department of Electrical Engineering at, M.I.T.
and Head of the Laboratory for Space 13xperiments in the Center for Space Research,
also at M.I.T. He has extensive experience in the field of instrumentation; from methods
of detection and transducing, through measurement and instrumentation techniques, to
data storage and transmission. Over the past eight years, he has been in charge of instru-
mentation for 13 space-borne scientific experiments. At the Space Experiments Labora-
tory at the Center for Space Research he has had overall responsibility for the space
systems, includlng instrumentation for plasma probes; the, spacecraft engineering, en-
compassing the spacecraft structure and mechanical subsystems, among others; and
the communications systems, including the spacecraft and ground antenna designs.