The power electronics industry has lost one of its old-time semiconductor experts, David Freeman. He was a Texas Instruments Fellow and CTO for TI’s high-voltage power business. In this position, he was a key technologist focused on the development and design of innovative semiconductor technology, which will dramatically increase energy efficiency and simplify power design.
David’s 40-year career was always focused on energy sources and energy management. He started his career in petroleum exploration, where he worked in both field laboratories and research labs developing techniques for drilling optimization as well as measurement methods and equipment for fluid, electrical, and mineralogical properties. After 15 years, he moved to semiconducting technology where he helped start Benchmarq Microelectronics and served as director of systems and applications. Benchmarq was noted for its battery management semiconductor products. In 1998, Unitrode Corp., a leader in power management, acquired Benchmarq, and David became the systems and application director for the combined company. In 1999, Texas Instruments acquired Unitrode and David became the applications manager for TI power products.
David was a popular expert in his field who has presented at many conferences around the world, including in the U.S., Europe, China, and Japan. He has written multiple technical papers and a monthly column in a publication targeted to electrical engineers. Many patents in battery technology and power management have been credited to David’s efforts.
Freeman was instrumental in starting TI’s digital power development where products were developed for digital control of power technology that intelligently monitors and controls power supplies used in end-equipment, such as computing, servers, and telecommunications systems. In this role, he defined and developed specialized microcontroller peripherals that are optimized for power applications to digitally control and manage power systems.
In order to focus more on advanced power technology development, David helped establish TI’s Power and Energy Systems Lab inside of TI’s Kilby Research Laboratories. He then transitioned to help start TI’s High Voltage Power Solutions business as CTO.
He had a BS degree in physics from Midwestern University.
David Freeman was truly an engineer’s engineer. I had a chance to interview him several times at APEC conferences and he was always easy to talk to. About a month ago I talked to him on the phone and he told me about TI’s undergraduate and graduate interns inside their businesses and product lines as well as in TI research labs at various locations around the world. He will be missed.
