The 2009 Charles Stark Draper Prize recipient is awarded to Robert H. Dennard "for his invention and contributions to the development of Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM), used universally in computers and other data processing and communication systems."

DRAM is a form of computer memory that puts bits of data into capacitors -- energy-storage devices within a miniaturized electronic circuit -- and periodically recharges the capacitors so that the information in them is not lost. Dennard's ability to use only a single metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) transistor -- a device that conducts electricity, amplifying the charge as the electricity is passed along -- allowed his memory cell to be much smaller and simpler in design that its predecessor. The availability of cheap, high-density memory that has come about due to the invention of the DRAM cell has enabled tremendous growth in computing over the past 35 years.

Robert H. Dennard

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