PIE

Przemysłowy Instytut Elektroniki, abbreviated PIE, began in Warsaw on 1 July 1956 through the transformation of the Central Electronics Laboratory, on the initiative of Wiesław Barwicz, director of ZWLE, the electron-tube enterprise named after Róża Luksemburg. Barwicz became the institute's first director. Its headquarters were at Długa 44/50, with an experimental plant at Bielańska 10. It combined research, design, prototypes and experimental manufacture for Poland's electronics industry.

Semiconductors were present from the outset. Kazimiera Morkowska's group included Andrzej Czachor, Jerzy Piekoszewski, Marian Kozielski and Eugeniusz Szyszko. Work covered materials and diodes, four-probe resistivity and carrier-lifetime measurements; early in 1958 the group worked on Czochralski single-crystal growth. Some activities subsequently moved to TEWA. The programme included DOG11–22, DOG51–58 and DZG1–7 germanium diodes, FZG1–9 and FZG21–23 photodiodes, and TZG1–6 PNP transistors: the latter were semiconductor devices.

Electron tubes predominated between 1956 and 1971. Work included high-purity silicon, nickel cathode alloys, heater coatings, carbonates for emissive pastes, vacuum-grade copper and automatic valve testing and sorting. In 1960 there were laboratories for vidicons, photomultipliers, microwave tubes and tube physics. Later work covered subminiature electrometer tubes in Wrocław, photocathodes in Toruń, pure metals, ceramics, long-life and gas-filled tubes, glass, getters and ceramic seals. Toruń also developed Hall devices and FOK photoresistors.

Results included the ELW1 counting tube, equivalent to E1T, experimentally manufactured around 1959 at Elekcyjna 106 in Warsaw, and the early-1960s PWM2 vidicon, followed by PWM21, PWM3, PWM4 and PWM6. Around 1963 Barwicz's team made the LC1 glow-discharge numerical indicator, followed by related types manufactured by DOLAM. Henryk Poniewierski's team developed thyratrons, gasotrons, trigger tubes, the PZ2E electrometer device for fire detectors and reed switches. Institute design, experimental batches and subsequent manufacture elsewhere were distinct stages.

Research into residual gases and their effect on oxide cathodes accompanied omegatron mass spectrometry and vacuum technology. Wenancjusz Czarycki's team worked on ionisation probes and ion pumps, alongside metal valves, sorption and sublimation pumps and measuring instruments. The later OBREP developed the HWN1 helium leak detector, QSM quadrupole mass spectrometers and ion guns.

Reorganisation led to the OBREP vacuum-electronics research and development centre in 1972, television technology in 1977 and image converters in 1980; the OBREP name returned in 1984. This line became Instytut Technologii Próżniowej in 1993 and merged with PIE in 2003 under the Przemysłowy Instytut Elektroniki name. Barwicz directed this succession of activities until 1980; Czesław Kiliszek followed in 1980–2003.