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Tze- Chiang Chen, Driver of Semiconductor Innovations, to Receive 2011 IEEE Ernst Weber Engineering Leadership Recognition

Has Guided Advanced Silicon Chip Technologies from Research to Development to Manufacturing for Global Impact

10 August 2011– Tze-Chiang Chen, who has contributed to technical innovation and led the development of  silicon chip technologies that have advanced the power of computers, is being honored by IEEE with the 2011 IEEE Ernst Weber Engineering Leadership Recognition. IEEE is the world’s largest technical professional association.

The award, sponsored by IEEE, recognizes Chen for engineering and managerial leadership in driving the world’s most advanced silicon chip technologies from research to development to manufacturing. The award will be presented on 20 August 2011 at the IEEE Honors Ceremony in San Francisco, Calif.

Chen currently manages over 600 researchers located at six laboratories around the world at IBM. For over 25 years, he has driven major innovations in silicon microelectronics technology with contributions spanning across research, development and product manufacturing. His technical and managerial leadership in understanding and developing advanced bipolar, complimentary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) and dynamic random access memory (DRAM) technologies has played a critical role to position IBM as one of the leaders of silicon technology. Technology developed under Chen’s guidance has impacted mainframe computing systems used worldwide for scientific, banking, and other business applications and has advanced the global semiconductor industry as a whole.

With a career that began at IBM in 1984 as a research staff member, Chen has advanced to become a Vice President of science and technology research and development, leading efforts at IBM’s Thomas J. Watson Research Center.  During the 1980s, Chen conducted pioneering work on the polysilicon emitter/single-crystal silicon interface that led to the world’s first double-poly bipolar technology in production. The successful commercialization of this technology formed the basis of semiconductor devices that were deployed in the IBM S/390 mainframe computers.

Beginning in 1999, Chen helped lead an IBM team that demonstrated the first commercial microprocessor using silicon-on-insulator technology for high-performance logic. He also personally led IBM’s high-k/metal-gate CMOS development, which was one of the biggest changes to silicon microelectronics technology in decades. He guided its transfer from research to development, and the technology was subsequently deployed at several semiconductor companies worldwide.

Chen is also a strong advocate of international collaboration in technology development, which has profoundly impacted the advancement of semiconductor technology. During the 1990s, Chen led a multinational alliance for advancing trench-capacitor DRAM technology, and his technical contributions led to the announcement of the world’s fastest and smallest 256 megabit (Mb) DRAM in 1995. His team was able to quadruple DRAM density every three years from 64 to 256 Mb to one gigabit through the 1990s. This technology has been deployed globally since 1996. His successful multinational development programs became the models for subsequent IBM joint-development projects.

An IEEE Fellow, Chen is also a Fellow of the American Physical Society and of the University of Tokyo School of Engineering. In 1999 he was named IBM Fellow for sustained technical excellence and leadership. Other honors include being named the 2005 Asian-American of the Year and receiving the 2006 Yale Science and Engineering  Association Award for Distinguished Service to Industry, Commerce or Education. Chen received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in physics from National Cheng-Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan, and master’s and doctorate degrees in engineering and applied science from Yale University, New Haven, Conn. Chen currently is IBM Fellow and Vice President of Science and Technology with IBM Research, Yorktown Heights, N.Y.