Andrew Benedict Wittkower (November 7, 1934 â March 14, 2026) was a British-born Canadian-American physicist and technology executive known for his contributions to ion implantation technology and the semiconductor industry.
Wittkower was born in London on November 7, 1934, the son of Eric David Wittkower and Claire Francesca Weil. In 1951, he and his family emigrated to Canada, settling in Montreal, Quebec. He attended McGill University, earning his BS degree in 1955. He also attended the University of Cambridge, earning his MS degree in 1959. In the same year, he emigrated to the United States, but returned and attended the University College London, earning his PhD degree in atomic collision physics in 1961. While attending at London, in 1960, he was elected as a fellow of the American Physical Society.
Wittkower began his career as a research scientist at High Voltage Engineering Corporation until 1970. It was here he conducted research on ion sources and charge-changing collisions in Particle accelerators and published more than 100 scientific papers. After working at High Voltage, he served as co-founder of Extrion Corporation, which developed one of the first production ion implanters for Semiconductor manufacturing. Wittkower then co-founded Nova Associates starting in 1978 to develop advanced Ion implantation systems.
During the 1970s and 1980s, Wittkower co-authored peer-reviewed studies on ion implantation systems and semiconductor processing equipment.
He then served as co-founder Ibis Technology from 1986 to 1991. He was then president of Soitec from 1992 to 2005. During this period, he contributed to research on SOI technology, including co-authoring a 2000 SPIE paper on non-destructive optical measurement of semiconductor layer thicknesses.
Wittkower also co-authored a 1970 article in Scientific American on tandem Van de Graaff accelerators, describing their design and applications in nuclear physics research.
Wittkower received the SEMI Award for North America in 1986, together with Roger Bastide and Peter Rose, for contributions to ion implantation systems in semiconductor process equipment.
He was elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society and, in 2001, was named a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, "for contributions and leadership in the development and advancement of ion implantation techniques, equipment and companies". He was later recognized as a Life Fellow of the IEEE.
In 1957, Wittkower married Mary Shotter, a World War II codebreaker. Their marriage lasted until her death in 2020.
Wittkower died at his home in Rockport, Massachusetts on March 14, 2026, at the age of 91.