BENGALURU: Indian-American Scientist Arogyaswami Paulraj joined the exclusive club of wireless pioneers that includes Jagdish Chandra Bose and Guglielmo Marconi on Monday. The Stanford University emeritus Professor has been inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame (NIHoF) of the United States Patent Office.NIHoF honours “people responsible for the greatest technological advances that make human, social and economic progress possible” and cites Paulraj for his 1992 US patent on MIMO — Multiple In-Multiple Out — wireless technology.
This uses multiple antennas both at the transmitter and receiver in a wireless link to boost wireless data rates. The ubiquitous broadband wireless internet access we enjoy today — and 5G in the near future — would not be possible without MIMO technology. It has become the basis of all current and future wireless networks, making it the most influential wireless technology in recent decades.The US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) goes back to 1791 and has so far issued more than 8.8 million patents.
Other inventors who were inducted
However, as of today, just 561 inventors have been inducted into its Hall of Fame including Thomas Edison, the Wright Brothers, Alexander Graham Bell and Apple co-founder Steve Jobs. Paulraj joins eight other famed inventors in wireless technology, inducted to the Hall of Fame: Guglielmo Marconi, Oliver Lodge (Wireless Telegraph), Reginald Fessenden (AM radio), Edwin Armstrong (FM Radio), Amos Joel (Cellular tech.), Andrew Viterbi and Irwin Jacobs (CDMA – 3G), Jan Haartsen (Bluetooth).
US patent holding wireless pioneers include another Indian -- Dr Jagdish Chandra Bose for his breakthrough work in radio and microwave optics in 1904.
He joined Navy at 15
The formal induction takes place in Washington DC on May 3. Born in Pollachi, Tamil Nadu, India, in 1944, Paulraj joined the Indian Navy at age 15. Impressed with his academic record, the Navy sent him to the Indian Institute of Technology (Delhi), where he earned a Ph.D. for advances to signal filtering theory. He consults with Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, scientists regularly in setting up a national 5G test bed.