Draft:Eric John Swanson
American electrical engineer and inventor (1956-2014)
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Eric John Swanson (August 16, 1956 – October 14, 2014) was an American electrical engineer and inventor known for his contributions to switched-capacitor circuits, mixed-signal integrated circuits and high-resolution data-converter design. He held senior technical leadership roles at Bell Laboratories, Crystal Semiconductor and Cirrus Logic, where his work on delta-sigma data conversion and mixed-signal architecture was incorporated into commercial integrated circuits.
Submission declined on 4 March 2026 by AllWeKnowOfHeaven (talk).
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| Submission declined on 14 December 2025 by Htanaungg (talk). This draft's references do not show that the person meets Wikipedia's criteria for inclusion for people. The draft requires multiple published secondary sources that:
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| Submission declined on 10 December 2025 by MCE89 (talk). This draft's references do not show that the subject meets Wikipedia's criteria for inclusion for academics. The draft requires either:
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or multiple published secondary sources that:
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| Submission declined on 2 December 2025 by Theroadislong (talk). This draft's references do not show that the person meets Wikipedia's criteria for inclusion for people. The draft requires multiple published secondary sources that:
Declined by Theroadislong 3 months ago.
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| Submission declined on 2 December 2025 by Aplucas0703 (talk). This draft's references do not show that the person meets Wikipedia's criteria for inclusion for people. The draft requires multiple published secondary sources that:
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Comment: The topic might or might not be notable, but the content also needs improvement. The long list of patents shouldn't be here, and we should try to limit the number of primary sources. AllWeKnowOfHeaven (talk) 01:57, 4 March 2026 (UTC)
- Comment: Please see the comments on the talk page. LeapTorchGear (talk) 08:37, 18 January 2026 (UTC)
- Comment: patents confer zero notability. Theroadislong (talk) 20:47, 10 December 2025 (UTC)
- Comment: No evidence of notability on this individual. All sources are primary sources or are nothing more than a passing mention. Nothing here can show the significant coverage required to merit a Wikipedia article.Thank you for your interest in editing Wikipedia. aaronneallucas (talk) 02:42, 2 December 2025 (UTC)
Eric John Swanson | |
|---|---|
| Born | August 16, 1956 United States |
| Died | October 14, 2014 (aged 58) |
| Education | BSEE, Michigan State University, 1977 |
| Alma mater | Caltech (MSEE) |
| Occupations | Electrical engineer, inventor |
| Known for | Contributions to switched-capacitor circuits, mixed-signal integrated circuits, and high-resolution data-converter design |
| Notable work | Comparator-recovery architecture (U.S. Patent 5,247,210) |
Swanson was the author of numerous technical papers and patents in analog and mixed-signal design. His work was cited extensively in subsequent engineering literature and patent filings.
Education
Swanson earned a BSEE from Michigan State University in 1977 and an MSEE from the California Institute of Technology in 1980.[1]
One of his professors, John Choma, acknowledged Swanson in the foreword to his textbook, writing:[2]
"...some, by virtue of their unusually strong support, interest, and ultimate friendship, deserve to be acknowledged. These are ...Eric Swanson...
Career
Bell Laboratories
Eric worked at Bell Labs from 1980 to 1985. At Bell, he was granted six solo patents,[3] one of which (US 4518926) has been referenced as prior art in 66 later patents.[4]
Crystal Semiconductor/Cirrus Logic
Swanson joined Crystal Semiconductor in Austin, Texas,[5] where he became principal engineer. A 1994 report in the ''Austin American-Statesman'' identified Swanson as vice president of technology at Crystal Semiconductor and quoted him about the importance of the company’s patent portfolio during a period of rapid growth.[6] In 1990 he was listed as VP Technology for Crystal Semiconductor in the DataQuest/ D&B "decade of semiconductor start ups".[7] In March, 1998, he was named CTO[8] following the company's integration into Cirrus Logic.[9][10] At Crystal Semiconductor/ Cirrus Logic, he received 59 patents.[11] Five of these have been cited more than 100 times.[12]
One of Swanson's inventions was the comparator-recovery architecture described in U.S. Patent 5,247,210, based on a priority chain beginning in 1986, which addressed MOS memory effects.[13] The patent family was filed in 1986, with continuations in 1988, 1989, and 1990, and finally issued in 1993. Swanson later published a detailed analysis of MOS memory effects and comparator behavior in a chapter of The Art and Science of Analog Circuit Design.[14] In that chapter, Swanson wrote that the comparator-recovery and MOS-memory-flush techniques were used in Crystal Semiconductor's CS5016 data converters, noting that the company had "shipped a lot of product with flushed MOSFETs."[15]
Swanson's U.S. Patent 4746899[16] was one of the patents asserted in Crystal Semiconductor Corp. v. TriTech Microelectronics, a lawsuit between Cirrus Logic's Crystal subsidiary and TriTech, in which a jury initially awarded US$34,929,379 in damages.[17] This patent details the management of analog and digital clocking in mixed-signal design. A report in EDN described the award as US$48.5 million.[18]
Swanson also authored several technical papers on oversampled data converters and MOS analog behavior.[19]
A 1994 article in the Austin American-Statesman on Austin’s patent activity identified Eric Swanson, then vice president of technology at Crystal Semiconductor, as a key contributor to the company’s intellectual-property strategy. The article reported that Swanson attributed significant value to Crystal Semiconductor’s patent portfolio, stating that the company’s patents were worth nearly as much as Cirrus Logic’s acquisition price for Crystal Semiconductor, and quoted him on the strategic importance of patents. The coverage placed Swanson’s work in the context of Austin’s emergence as a major center for microelectronics research and IP generation.[20]
Technical contributions
Eric held sixty-five U.S. patents, primarily in analog-to-digital conversion, comparator design, and mixed-signal systems.[21] As of 2026, his IEEE papers had been cited a total of 290 times,[22] and his patents had been cited 2,493 times.[23]
According to Jim Williams, "His development experience includes millions of CMOS transistors, a few dozen bipolar transistors, and nary a vacuum tube."[24]
Teaching and Mentoring
Eric taught mixed-signal system design at the University of Texas at Austin for 13 years[9] as part of the ECE graduate curriculum.[25] In 2003, Swanson was described in the Austin American-Statesman as collaborating with colleagues to develop an IC design course at the University of Texas. The course emphasized full-cycle integrated circuit design, with selected projects presented to companies for potential commercialization.[26]
One of the engineers he managed was Nav Sooch, founder of Silicon Laboratories.[27]
An endowed scholarship in electrical engineering at the University of Texas at Austin was established in memory of Eric J. Swanson, and appears in official UT Austin Restricted Current Funds for Gifts records.[28][19]
Eric was an author of chapter 15 of "The Art and Science of Analog Circuit design"[29] edited by Jim Williams. This chapter is a detailed dive into the physics and lab work of MOS memory effects. The book also contains a biography.
IEEE
Swanson authored ten IEEE publications,[30] including a conference publication on the history of monolithic data conversion.[31]
In the history of monolithic data conversion, Swanson wrote: "Commercial analog integrated circuits crossed the VLSI threshold of 10,000 transistors back in 1984. Today's analog VLSI circuits routinely surpass the million transistor complexity level. This Moore's Law increase in integration, combined with the analog designer's tradition of cleverness, is responsible for most of the decade's performance improvement in state-of-the-art data converters."
Swanson participated in panels at the IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISSCC). In 2013 he appeared on a panel alongside Michael Flynn, Sanroku Tsukamoto, Marcel Pelgrom, Beomsup Kim, Ali Hajimiri and Behzad Razavi.[32]
He also spoke on a panel titled "The Engineer of 2020" during the IEEE 125th Anniversary celebration at the University of Texas at Austin.[33]
His paper on 20-bit data converters[34] was cited by David Robertson as "push[ing] the frontier of precision using a non-precision process technology."[35]
His paper on echo cancellation[36] was cited by Thomas Lee as "Moore's law continued to work its magic throughout the 1980s."[37]
Other IEEE publications:
"A 5 V, 118 dB spl Sigma Delta analog-to digital converter for wideband digital audio", cited 20 times[38]
"Analog VLSI Data Converters - The First 10 Years," cited 2 times[39]
"A 126 dB linear switched-capacitor delta-sigma modulator", cited 28 times[40]
"A single-chip stereo audio codec", cited 7 times[41]
"A monolithic 20-b delta-sigma A/D converter", cited 91 times[42]
"A monolithic 20 b delta-sigma A/D converter", cited 14 times[43]
"A 12-bit, 1-MHz, two-step flash ADC", cited 37 times[44]
"A 50-Mbit/s CMOS monolithic optical receiver", cited 41 times[45]
"A 667 ns, 12-bit two-step flash ADC", cited 4 times[46]
"Measurement and modeling of charge feedthrough in n-channel MOS analog switches", cited 46 times[47]
Patents
As of 2026, Swanson had 59 patents issued to Crystal Semiconductor or Cirrus Logic. Some of these patents are referenced more than 25 times in later patents.[48] Patent citations are commonly used as a measure of importance and value of a patent.[49][50] The average technology patent is cited 9 times.[51]
US 5157395 A Cited 94 times[52] VARIABLE DECIMATION ARCHITECTURE FOR A DELTA-SIGMA ANALOG-TO-DIGITAL CONVERTER
US 5594439 A Cited 52 times[53] Diagnosing problems in an electrical system by monitoring changes in nonlinear characteristics
US 6271780 B1 Cited 55 times[54] Gain ranging analog-to-digital converter with error correction
US 6486806 B1 Cited 42 times[55] Systems and methods for adaptive auto-calibration of Radix<2 A/D SAR converters with internally generated stimuli
US 4746899 A Cited 72 times[56] Method for reducing effects of electrical noise in an analog-to-digital converter
US 5257026 A Cited 66 times[57] Method and apparatus for calibrating a multi-bit delta-sigma modulator
US 7808324 B1 Cited 40 times[58] Operating environment and process position selected charge-pump operating mode in an audio power amplifier integrated circuit
US 8093951 B1 Cited 77 times [59] Pulse-width modulated (PWM) audio power amplifier having output signal magnitude controlled pulse voltage and switching frequency
US 5079550 A Cited 48 times[60] Combining continuous time and discrete time signal processing in a delta-sigma modulator
US 5608676 A Cited 31 times[61] Current limited current reference for non-volatile memory sensing
US 6424276 B1 Cited 31 times[62] Successive approximation algorithm-based architectures and systems
US 5121080 A Cited by 34[63] Amplifier with controlled output impedance
US 6292911 B1 Cited by 30[64] Error detection scheme for a high-speed data channel
Death
Swanson died unexpectedly on October 14, 2014.[65] Following his death, colleagues and former coworkers described him as a central technical figure in Cirrus Logic and a mentor within the analog and mixed-signal design community.[66]
Bob Morley, reflecting on Swanson’s impact, wrote that his death was “a tragic loss,” noting that when teaching delta-sigma data converters he would henceforth say that he *knew* one of the greats of the field, rather than that he *knows* one.[66]
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