Varian Associates

Varian Associates is an electronics company, founded shortly after WWII, that became one of the first major Silicon Valley companies - although its founding, in 1948, pre-dates the emergence of silicon's semiconductor technology.

It was started by the brothers Russell and Sigurd Varian (the former was the idea man of the pair; the latter the fabricator), along with colleagues from Stanford; several faculty members there were also involved, although as advisors, not as employees or members of the board of directors.

The articles of incorporation stated that the business goals were very broad, but for the first several years it primarily produced custom vacuum tubes for use in the microwave area (including klystrons, which the brothers had helped invent at Stanford), mostly for use in the fields of radio, radar, and television - the company's three major initial markets.

It was the first tenant in Stanford Industrial Park, where they chose to move after their founding in order to "bring the company closer to old friends, ease o;ngoing collaborations, and improve access to graduate students".

Further reading

• Christophe Lécuyer, Making Silicon Valley: Innovation and the Growth of High Tech, 1930-1970, MIT Press, Cambridge, 2006 - gives the background of the brothers' work at Stanford before WWII, as wll as dtails of th growth of Varian Associates

External links

• An Early History (archived here) - covers from the formal founding in 1948 onward