In human history, societies evolved through the Stone Age (6500 BC - 3000 BC), the Bronze Age (3000 BC - 1200 BC), and the Iron Age (1200 BC - 1000 AC). It is striking that each era spanned well over a thousand years. If one similarly defines our current era, it would probably be appropriate to claim that we are in the “Silicon Age”. As such, it would not be far-fetched to deduce that the Silicon Age should last for more than a millennium from now! Since the invention of the transistor more than 60 years ago, the tremendous growth of the electronics industry has been riding on the exponential progress of the integrated circuit (IC) technology, as characterized by the “Moore’s Law”, which basically says that the information storage capacity of a silicon chip, as well as its information processing power, grows exponentially with time. Such amazing rate of advancement has led to our world that depends on all sorts of electronic gauges, as well as the ubiquitous internet that overflows with information. Recently, however, there is a growing concern that the “Moore’s Law” will end in the foreseeable future, and so will the conventional Complementary Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor (CMOS) technology. In this lecture, the speaker will give an overview of the silicon chip technology and how we have got here, with a preview of what is to come in the future. The various challenges in continuing the progress of CMOS technology will be highlighted, and emerging research opportunities will be discussed.
About the speaker
Prof Tso-Ping Ma received his PhD from Yale University in 1974. He then worked in the IBM and returned to Yale as an Assistant Professor in 1977. He is currently the Raymond John Wean Professor of Electrical Engineering and Applied Physics at Yale.
Prof Ma's research focuses on the scientific and technological issues related to semiconductor devices, especially those involving science and engineering of CMOS technology for logic and memory applications. It overlaps with a number of areas in materials synthesis, device physics, device engineering, and integrated circuits.
Prof Ma received numerous awards including the YSEA (Yale Science and Engineering Association) Award for Advancement of Basic and Applied Science (2015), the National Taiwan University Outstanding Alumnus Award (2014), the Pan Wen-Yuan Award (2005), the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Andrew S Grove Award (2005) and the Paul Rappaport Award by the IEEE Electron Devices Society (1998). He was also elected a fellow of the IEEE, a member of US National Academy of Engineering (NAE), a foreign member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and an academician of the Academia Sinica of Taiwan.
For attendees’ attention
The lecture is free and open to all. Seating is on a first come, first served basis.
Light refreshments will be served from 4:30 to 5:00 pm.
