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Thomas R. Brown, the engineer who co-founded Burr-Brown Research Corporation with Page Burr, died of lung cancer at his Tucson home on June 6, 2002. He was 75. Brown helped build the company into a major supplier of high-performance analog and mixed-signal electronics, then returned to lead it through financial trouble before Texas Instruments acquired it in 2000.
Who was Thomas R. Brown?
Brown was an engineer and business leader whose work centered on transistor-based analog electronics. He and his friend Page Burr started Burr-Brown in Tucson in 1956, beginning in Brown’s garage with $50,000 in capital, according to the Arizona Daily Star obituary. The University of Arizona describes Brown as leading the company to worldwide prominence in the development, manufacturing, and marketing of data-conversion and mixed-signal integrated circuits.
Brown preferred to be known as an engineer. In 2000, he described the persistence behind his work this way: “Those electrons belonged to me and were going to do what I wanted them to do sooner or later.” He added, “And after 2,000 tries, I made them do what I wanted them to do.”
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Burr-Brown developed and supplied high-performance analog and mixed-signal integrated circuits. Its history is closely associated with transistorized operational amplifiers, as well as later data-conversion products used to connect analog signals with digital systems.
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EDN identifies Burr-Brown’s model 130, introduced in 1958, as the world’s first transistorized operational amplifier. That milestone reflected the company’s early focus on applying transistors to compact, solid-state analog circuits.
How Brown built and led the company
From a garage startup to an analog specialist
Brown first handled a transistor in 1955 and recognized its potential to replace vacuum tubes in electronics. The following year, he and Burr established Burr-Brown in Tucson. The company’s early bet was that transistors could underpin reliable, packaged circuits offering more complex functions. A later company board resolution, reproduced by EDN, credited Burr with recognizing both the reliability potential of transistors and the market for such circuits.
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Returning during a difficult period
Brown stepped away from day-to-day operations in 1976 and entered semiretirement. In April 1993, after the company suffered major losses, he returned as president and CEO at age 66 and helped turn it around.
His daughter Sarah M. Brown Smallhouse recalled that he “toughed it out through some pretty tough times at Burr-Brown” and did what was needed to improve the company’s position. She also remembered how he taught: “He never said yes or no. He always took us through the thought process so we could come to a conclusion ourselves.” Former Burr-Brown president and CEO Syrus P. Madavi called Brown both a professional and personal mentor.
Texas Instruments acquired Burr-Brown in 2000
Texas Instruments bought Burr-Brown in a stock deal in 2000. The Washington Post reported a value of about $7.6 billion; EDN later stated the purchase price as $7.68 billion. These are differing published figures for the same acquisition, not separate transactions.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.When and how did Thomas Brown die?
Brown died at his Tucson home on June 6, 2002, at age 75, about four months after being diagnosed with lung cancer. The Arizona Daily Star’s obituary reported that he died peacefully surrounded by family.
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