Biography:Keith Lofstrom
Keith Lofstrom is an American electrical engineer. He has a BSEE and MSEE from University of California, Berkeley.[1] He is more widely known in the space advocacy community for a ground-based space launcher design, the Launch Loop,[2][3][4] for which he has been credited by name in several works of science fiction.[5][6][7][8] Frederik Pohl, who used the idea in several of his stories, once wrote that, of all the non-rocket spacelaunch concepts, he liked the Lofstrom Loop "best of all."[9]
As an electrical engineer, Lofstrom specializes in mixed-signal integrated circuit design. A paper he wrote on boundary scan methods was one of two to receive an Honorable Mention at the 1997 IEEE International Test Conference.[10] One of his 9 patents is for a way to read an individual digital ID for integrated circuits that arises from random atomic variations inherent in the semiconductor device fabrication process.[11][12][13]
One of his more recent efforts in speculative space systems is Server Sky, a very large satellite constellation in Earth orbit using thin-film solar cells to power data center computers integrated into the same wafers as the PV cells.[14]
See also
- Lofstrom loop
References
- ↑ Lofstrom, Keith (1975). Sinusoidal supply Josephson logic (Master's thesis). U.C. Berkeley.
- ↑ Lofstrom, Keith H. (8–10 July 1985). The launch loop -- a low cost Earth-to-high orbit launch system - Paper 85-1368. Monterey, CA: 21st AIAA, SAE, ASME, and ASEE, Joint Propulsion Conference. http://launchloop.com/LaunchLoop?action=AttachFile&do=get&target=launchloop.pdf.
- ↑ Radley, Charles (September 14, 2009). "Local inventor says launch loop would greatly reduce cost of space travel". Gadgets and Tech: Portland Science Examiner (San Francisco: Examiner.com).
- ↑ Alexander Bolonkin (2006). "Space Towers". in Badescu, Viorel; Cathcart, Richard Brook; Schuiling, Roelof D.. Macro-engineering: a challenge for the future. Springer. pp. 146–7. ISBN 1-4020-3739-2.
- ↑ "Gateway III — Beyond the Gate (Part 1 of 3)". Amazing Science-Fiction (Ultimate Pub. Co) 57: 80. 1983.
- ↑ Heechee Rendezvous. 3. Ballantine Books. 1983. p. 91. ISBN 0-345-30062-9.
- ↑ The Last Theorem. London: HarperVoyager. February 2009. p. 55. ISBN 978-0-00-729002-4.
- ↑ Forward, Robert L. (1985). Starquake. London: Ballantine. p. v. ISBN 978-0-345-28349-8.
- ↑ "Interview with Frederik Pohl". Amazing Science-Fiction (Ultimate Pub. Co) 69 (590): 98. 1995. https://books.google.com/books?id=UG0sAQAAIAAJ&q=best.of.all.
- ↑ IEEE International Test Conference Proceedings. 1997. p. 8. ISBN 0-7803-4210-0. [1]
- ↑ Lofstrom, Keith, "System for providing an integrated circuit with a unique identification", US patent 6161213, published Dec 12, 2000, issued Dec 12, 2000
- ↑ "A unique, repeatable, individual digital ID". Nov 30, 2007. http://www.siidtech.com/index.html.
- ↑ Lofstrom, K.; Daasch, W.; Taylor, D.. "IC Identification Circuit using Device Mismatch". 2000 IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference Digest of Technical Papers 43. IEEE Cat. No. OOCH37056. http://www.siidtech.com/isscc2K.pdf. Retrieved 2011-07-24.
- ↑ "Server Sky - Data Centers in Orbit". Online Journal of Space Communication (16). Winter 2010. http://spacejournal.ohio.edu/issue16/lofstrom.html.
External links
- Personal website
- KLIC - IC design consultancy
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