Background
Lehovec, Kurt was born on June 12, 1918 in Ladowitz, Czechoslovakia. Came to the United States, 1947, naturalized, 1952.
Electrical engineering educator
Lehovec, Kurt was born on June 12, 1918 in Ladowitz, Czechoslovakia. Came to the United States, 1947, naturalized, 1952.
Bachelor of Science, Charles University, Prague, Czechoslovakia, 1938. Master of Science, Charles University, Prague, Czechoslovakia, 1940. Doctor of Philosophy in Physics, University Prague, 1951.
He innovated the concept of p-n junction isolation used in every circuit element with a guard ring: a reverse-biased p-n junction surrounding the planar periphery of that element. This patent was assigned to Sprague Electric. Because Lehovec was under salary with Sprague, he was paid only one dollar for this invention.
Lehovec was born June 12, 1918 in Ledvice, in northern Bohemia, of the Czech Republic. With Carl Accardo and Edward Jamgochian, he explained the first light-emitting diodes. The important case of fast ionic conduction in solid states is one in a surface space-charge layer of ionic crystals.
Such conduction was first predicted by K. Lehovec in the paper “Space-charge layer and distribution of lattice defects at the surface of ionic crystals” ( J Chem Phys 1953 V21 P1123 -1128). As a space-charge layer has nanometer thickness, the effect is directly related to nanoionics (nanoionics-I). The Lehovec effect forms a basis for a creation of multitude nanostructured fast ion conductors as used in modern portable lithium batteries and fuel cells.
Lehovec was a Professor Emeritus at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, California, and after retirement from USC Lehovec took to writing poetry. He lived in Southern California until his death in 2012 at the age of 93.
Fellow Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, American Physical Society M C.
Married, 1952.