Kevin J. CHEN (陳敬)
Professor
Fellow, IEEE
Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering
The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
Clear Water Bay, Kowloon, Hong Kong
Tel.: +852-2358-8969 Fax: +852-2358-1485
E-mail "eekjchen at ust dot hk"Research Interests
Wide-Bandgap semiconductor (GaN and SiC) power/RF device technology, GaN power ICs, GaN-based power conversion modules with high-efficiency and high power-density power, RF/microwave circuit design
Biography
Prof. Chen received a B.S. degree in Department of Electronics, Peking University in 1988. Through the CUSPEA (China-U.S. Physics Examination and Application) program (established by Nobel Laureate in Physics, Prof. T. D. Lee of Columbia University), he went to University of Maryland in 1988, and obtained the PhD degree from University of Maryland, College Park, USA in 1993. From Jan. 1994 to Dec. 1995, he was a research fellow engineer in NTT LSI laboratories, Atsugi, Japan, engaging in the research and development of functional quantum effect devices and heterojunction FET's (HFET's). In particular, he developed the device technology for monolithic integration of resonant tunneling diodes and HFET's (MISFET and HEMT) on both GaAs and InP substrates, for applications in ultra-high speed signal processing and communication systems. He also developed the buried-Pt gate technology, which is widely used for GaAs-based or InP-based enhancement-mode HEMT and PHEMT implementations. From 1996 to 1998, he was an assistant professor in the Department of Electronic Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, carrying out research on high-speed device and circuit simulations. Dr. Chen then joined the wireless semiconductor division of Agilent Technologies, Inc. (formerly Hewlett-Packard Co.), Santa Clara, California, USA, in 1999 working on RF power amplifiers used in dual-band GSM/DCS wireless handsets. His work at Agilent covered RF characterization and modeling of RF/microwave transistors, RF IC and package design.
Dr. Chen joined HKUST in Nov. 2000, where he is currently a professor in the
Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering. At HKUST, he established the
WIde-bandgap Semiconductor Electronics Laboratory (WISE Lab), focusing on
technology development of GaN and SiC power and high-frequency devices and ICs.
He has led the invention of novel device concepts including composite-channel
III-nitride HEMTs, double-heterojunction and double-channel III-nitride HEMTs,
self-aligned enhancement-mode III-nitride HEMTs, enhancement-mode MISHFETs and
planar integration of E/D-mode AlGaN/GaN HEMT, GaN-based MEMS using
GaN-on-Patterned-Silicon (GPS), low-density-drain HEMT (LDD-HEMT), lateral
field-effect rectifier, enhanced back barrier HEMT (EBB-HEMT), metal-2DEG tunnel
junction FET (TJ-FET), GaN-based HEMTs on modified SOI substrate,
photonic-ohmic drain FET (PODFET), GaN/SiC hybrid FET, SiC trench/planar MOSFET
(TP-MOS). For these inventions, 11 US patents on GaN device technology have
been granted.
His group has also developed many advanced processing including fluorine plasma treatment and implantation, PEALD-AlN passivation, nitridation interlayer and LPCVD-SiN with interfacial protection layer, etc. His group proposed and demonstrated the GaN smart power IC technology for intelligent high-efficiency power and energy management. He is a pioneer in developing and understanding the fluorine plasma ion implantation technique for enhancement-mode and normally-off AlGaN/GaN HEMTs and MIS-HEMTs. His group has also developed atomistic process modeling and simulation tools for the fluorine plasma ion implantation technology.
Prof. Chen is an IEEE fellow. He has served as a Distinguished Lecturer for IEEE Electron Devices Society in area of advanced III-nitride technologies. He is a member of IEEE EDS Power Semiconductor Devices and ICs technical committee. Prof. Chen is currently an editor of IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices. He has also served as an editor for IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Technique (T-MTT) and Japanese Journal of Applied Physics from 2010 to 2013.
Active Research Projects
- GaN power electronics: device physics, processing technologies,
device-circuit interactions, gate driver circuits, device modeling, etc.
- Device technologies and design of GaN mixed-signal
integrated circuits
- Novel semiconductor devices for logic and high-frequency
applications
Teaching
ELEC2400: Electronic Circuits
ELEC 4630: Microwave Engineering
ELEC 5180: RF/Microwave Circuit Design and Measurement