Chen Tze-chiang, or T. C. Chen (; born 1951), is a Taiwanese physicist and electrical engineer. He joined the

IBM International Business Machines Corporation (using the trademark IBM), nicknamed Big Blue, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company headquartered in Armonk, New York, and present in over 175 countries. It is ...

Thomas J. Watson Research Center The Thomas J. Watson Research Center is the headquarters for IBM Research. Its main laboratory is in Yorktown Heights, New York, 38 miles (61 km) north of New York City. It also operates facilities in Cambridge, Massachusetts and Albany, ...

in 1984. He is currently an

IBM Fellow An IBM Fellow is a position at IBM appointed by the CEO. Typically only four to nine (eleven in 2014) IBM Fellows are appointed each year, in May or June. Fellow is the highest honor a scientist, engineer, or programmer at IBM can achieve. Over ...

and the Vice President of Science and Technology at Thomas J. Watson Research Center, IBM Research Division in Yorktown Heights, New York.

Life and career

Chen was born in

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocea ...

in 1951 to parents who were both teachers. He received his B.S. and

M.S. A Master of Science (; abbreviated MS, M.S., MSc, M.Sc., SM, S.M., ScM or Sc.M.) is a master's degree. In contrast to the Master of Arts degree, the Master of Science degree is typically granted for studies in sciences, engineering and medicine ...

degrees in physics from

National Cheng Kung University National Cheng Kung University (NCKU; ) is a Public university, public research university located in the East District, Tainan, East District of Tainan, Taiwan. Founded in 1931 during Taiwan under Japanese rule, Japanese rule as an engineering ...

, Taiwan, in 1974 and 1976, respectively, and earned his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering and applied science from

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...

in 1979 and 1985, respectively. He has published more than 60 papers in technical journals and conferences. His contributions to advanced bipolar technology had a major impact on IBM

S/390 The IBM System/390 is a discontinued mainframe product family implementing ESA/390, the fifth generation of the System/360 instruction set architecture. The first computers to use the ESA/390 were the Enterprise System/9000 (ES/9000) fa ...

mainframe systems. More recently, his contributions to

CMOS Complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor (CMOS, pronounced "sea-moss ", , ) is a type of MOSFET, metal–oxide–semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET) semiconductor device fabrication, fabrication process that uses complementary an ...

miniaturization and DRAM devices have had a profound impact on IBM's leadership in CMOS process technology and DRAM manufacturing. Chen was elected as a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (

IEEE The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is an American 501(c)(3) organization, 501(c)(3) public charity professional organization for electrical engineering, electronics engineering, and other related disciplines. The IEEE ...

) in 1999 for contributions to silicon bipolar and DRAM technology development. Chen has been recognized with several IBM Technical Innovation Awards and was named IBM Distinguished Engineer and IBM Fellow in 1996 and 1999, respectively. During the period of Feb. 1999 - Feb. 2003, Chen was the Director of Advanced Logic/Memory Technology Development at the Semiconductor Research and Development Center, IBM Microelectronics Division in

East Fishkill, New York East Fishkill is a Town (New York), town on the southern border of Dutchess County, New York, Dutchess County, New York (state), New York, United States. The population was 29,707 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Until its creation i ...

. During the period of 1992–1999, he was the Senior Manager responsible for the 64Mb/256Mb/1Gb

DRAM Dram, DRAM, or drams may refer to: Technology and engineering * Dram (unit), a unit of mass and volume, and an informal name for a small amount of liquor, especially whisky or whiskey * Dynamic random-access memory, a type of electronic semicondu ...

Technology Development in IBM/Siemens/Toshiba DRAM Development Alliance. Before assuming his role as the Project Manager in DRAM Development, he held a variety of managerial assignments in his career at IBM, including Functional Manager of High-Performance

BiCMOS Bipolar CMOS (BiCMOS) is a semiconductor technology that integrates two semiconductor technologies, those of the bipolar junction transistor and the CMOS (complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor) logic gate, into a single integrated circuit. ...

Technology, Manufacturing Engineering Manager in the Bipolar VLSI Line, and Manager of Optical Lithography Development at Watson Research Center.

Awards and honors

In 2011, he received the

IEEE Ernst Weber Managerial Leadership Award The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is an American 501(c)(3) public charity professional organization for electrical engineering, electronics engineering, and other related disciplines. The IEEE has a corporate office i ...

. In 2022, he was elected to the

Academia Sinica Academia Sinica (AS, ; zh, t=中央研究院) is the national academy of the Taiwan, Republic of China. It is headquartered in Nangang District, Taipei, Nangang, Taipei. Founded in Nanjing, the academy supports research activities in mathemat ...

References

External links

T. C. Chen at IBM Research
Fellows of the IEEE American people of Taiwanese descent Taiwanese computer scientists Computer hardware researchers IBM Fellows National Cheng Kung University alumni Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Members of Academia Sinica {{Taiwan-scientist-stub