From 1988 until 2017, Dr. Stephen Trimberger was employed at Xilinx, rising to the position of Xilinx Fellow where he touched every aspect of programmable logic and Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) technology. He is a named inventor on approximately 250 patents and is a recognized expert in patent strategy. After retiring from Xilinx, Dr. Trimberger was a Program Manager in the Microelectronics Technology Office at DARPA, and researcher at the University of Maryland and University of Florida.
He authored five books, including one of the first textbooks on electronic design automation and one of the first on FPGAs.
Dr. Trimberger is founder of the Trimberger Family Foundation, a non-profit organization with charitable programs supporting science and technology, amateur athletics, education and veterans. Since its founding, he has served as President of the Trimberger Family Foundation where he manages operations and oversees programs.
Dr. Trimberger received his PhD degree from the California Institute of Technology. While at Caltech, he joined the Planet-Crossing Asteroid Survey (PCAS) project, with principal investigator Gene Shoemaker, operated by Eleanor "Glo" Helin. PCAS searched for asteroids that could potentially impact planets, including Earth. In recognition for his contributions to this project, minor planet 2990 was named "Trimberger."
He is a Fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), Fellow of the IEEE, and recipient of the 2018 IEEE Don Pederson Award for outstanding contributions to solid state circuits. He is recognized as a distinguished alumnus of the University of California, Irvine. He is a member of the Board of Governors of the National Space Society. Dr. Trimberger was elected a member of the United States National Academy of Engineering in 2016 for his contributions to solid state electronics.