Bill DeVey

William J DeVey (b. June 18, 1940 in Chicago, IL – d. June 2, 2020) was an electrical engineer who was with Tektronix from 1963/1964 to 1987.

He was married to Helen Eike in Stavenger, La Salle County, Illinois. He obtained a bachelor’s in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois and later an MBA from the University of Portland.

Bill married Nancy Walter on September 6, 1975, in Clatsop, Oregon.

Bill was a circuit designer. In his early days, he worked in Building 81. In September 1969, Bill worked for Phil Crosby in “Conventional Instruments” on the third floor of Building 50. In December 1973, Bill worked in IDD Engineering in Building 86, which was the location of IDD (Information Display Division) engineering before the Wilsonville campus was finished.

In May of 1978, Bill was in IDO (Information Display Operations?) in Building 60. In November 1979, Bill was working in IDD (Information Display Division) in Building 63.

Bill is not listed in the March 1986 Communications Directory.

He worked for other electronics companies in the area after leaving Tek, including Credence Corporation and Sequent Computer Systems (later bought by IBM).

Tektronix products

• His first instrument was the 3A7 which he did under the tutelage of John Horn in April 1966.
• Shortly afterward he designed the 1A5, a Differential Comparator for the 540 series Tektronix mainframes, introduced in January 1967.
• Then he designed the 81A, an adaptor for 540 series plugins to work in 580 series mainframes.
• He is most famous for another Differential Comparator, the popular 7A13 plugin introduced in August 1969 along with other 7000 series plugins and mainframes.
• This was followed by his design of the 7B52 dual time base in August 1971 and the 7B92 with Les Larson introduced in 1972.
• He designed the 155-0049-00 sweep control chip
• He worked on the 7904 according to http://www.rdmag.com/award-winners/1971/01/model-7904-oscilloscope
• Bill was the Project Engineer for 7623 and 7613 according to Three kinds of Storage, in Tekscope, July 1972 or @ radiomuseum.org

Products by Bill DeVey

Manufacturer	Model	Description	Designers	Introduced
Tektronix	81	plug-in adapter	Bill DeVey • John Gates	1960
Tektronix	3A7	Differential amplifier plug-in	Bill DeVey	1965
Tektronix	1A5	50 MHz Differential Amplifier	Bill DeVey	1967
Tektronix	7A13	100 MHz Differential Comparator	Bill DeVey	1969
Tektronix	7B52	100 MHz Dual Timebase	Bill DeVey	1970
Tektronix	7B92	500 MHz dual timebase	Bill DeVey • Val Garuts	1971
Tektronix	7904	500 MHz non-storage mainframe	Val Garuts • Thor Hallen • John McCormick • Les Larson • Bill DeVey • Bill Peek • Hans Springer • Joe Burger • Joel Swanno • Ken Hawken	1971
Tektronix	7623	100 MHz multi-mode storage scope	Bill DeVey • John Durecka • Doug Giesbers • Ed Wolf • Chuck Davis • Dave McCullough • Dick Anderson	1972
Tektronix	7613	100 MHz variable-persistence storage mainframe	Bill DeVey • John Durecka • Doug Giesbers • Ed Wolf • Chuck Davis • Dave McCullough • Dick Anderson	1972
Tektronix	7623A	100 MHz multi-mode storage scope	Bill DeVey • John Durecka • Doug Giesbers • Ed Wolf • Chuck Davis • Dave McCullough • Dick Anderson	1974
Tektronix	R7903	500 MHz non-storage mainframe	Val Garuts • Thor Hallen • John McCormick • Les Larson • Bill DeVey • Bill Peek • Hans Springer • Joe Burger • Joel Swanno • Ken Hawken	1974
Tektronix	7623B	100 MHz multi-mode storage scope	Bill DeVey • John Durecka • Doug Giesbers • Ed Wolf • Chuck Davis • Dave McCullough • Dick Anderson	1990

Patents by Bill DeVey

Page	Office	Number	Title	Inventors	Company	Filing date	Grant date
Patent US 3599202A	US	3599202A	Analog-to-digital converter	Bill DeVey	Tektronix Inc	1969-01-21	1971-08-10
Patent US 3663832A	US	3663832A	Delay pickoff circuit	Bill DeVey • Les Larson	Tektronix Inc	1971-03-17	1972-05-16

Links

• https://www.linkedin.com/pub/bill-devey/11/4a7/201