Welcome!

We are the High Speed Integrated Circuits Group, a research group with the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. We design and build cutting edge devices and circuits for the next generation of high-frequency applications.

Optical Society of America Awards R.W. Wood Prize to Prof. Milton Feng

Congratulations to Professor Feng and all past and current members of the HSIC group for this award!  Overall, the HSIC group has been awarded 16 patents and has published over 50 papers on the light-emitting transistor and transistor laser.

Professor Feng would like to thank all former and current HSIC group members for their efforts.

See the OSA announcement here

Congratulations to Mong-Kai Wu for Cover of Applied Physics Letters

Congratulations to Mr. Mong-Kai Wu for his paper, “Voltage modulation of a vertical cavity transistor laser via intra-cavity photon-assisted tunneling,” which was placed on the cover of Volume 101, Issue 8 of Applied Physics Letters.

Congratulations to Donald Cheng: Best Student Paper at CSMANTECH

Congratulations to Dr. Donald Cheng for winning Best Student Paper at CSMANTECH 2011 for his paper titled, “Type-II DHBTs Microwave Characterization and Metallization Issues”.  This paper described the problem of emitter-to-base shorts during the fabrication of Type-II submicron DHBTs.  He presented designs of experiment to identify the problem, as well as the solution to the problem.  Ultimately, the BE shorts were minimized, and devices were fabricated with room temperature current gain cutoff frequency (fT) up to 680 GHz.

Find the award announcement here:  http://www.csmantech.org/Conference%20Information/paperawards.html
Find the award-winning article here: Type-II DHBTs Microwave Characterization and Metallization Issues

Best of luck to our friend Donald at Infinera Corporation.

Transistor Laser is in the News

Two great new articles on the transistor laser were published this month!

From Compound Semiconductor: “The Transistor Laser: A Radical, Revolutionary Device

and from Optics and Photonics News: “The Metamorphosis of a Transistor into a Laser”

HKUST Webcast Lecture on Transistor Laser

Professor Feng gave an invited lecture on the transistor laser at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology’s Institute for Advanced Study.  He covers the history of its invention, the basic physics of operation, current research results, and future expectations for the novel device.

See the webcast here: Video

Milton Feng Endowed Scholarship Unveiled at 60th Birthday

Milton receives a plaque commemorating the creation of the Milton Feng Endowed Scholarhship

Milton receives a plaque commemorating the creation of the Milton Feng Endowed Scholarhship

At Professor Feng’s 60th birthday party on July 16th, 2010, Richard Chan unveiled the Milton Feng Endowed Scholarship.  The scholarship was formed through contributions by friends, colleagues, and former students. It was a fitting end to an evening of symposium-style talks, dinner, drinks, and general merrymaking.

Please contact Eric Iverson to inquire about pictures of the event.

HSIC Group Revises Kirchoff’s Law

After discovering a flaw in the 160-year-old circuit theory, Han Wui Then’s Transistor Laser research has revised Kirchoff’s current law to account for optical generation/recombination.  His research enables a simple and intuitive way to view the relationship between electrons and photons in direct semiconductors.

“Transistor-laser breaks Kirchhoff’s Law, rewrites textbooks”: EE Times

“Transistor laser rewrites the rules”: Optics.org

“Redefining Electrical Current Law With the Transistor Laser”: Science Daily

H. Then, M. Feng, and N. Holonyak Jr, “Physics of base charge dynamics in the three port transistor laser,” Applied Physics Letters,  vol. 96, p. 113509, 2010.

H. Then, M. Feng, and N. Holonyak Jr, “Microwave circuit model of the three-port transistor laser,” Journal of Applied Physics,  vol. 107, p. 094509, 2010.

New Course on LEDs and Solar Cells

In addition to ECE 447 (Active Microwave Circuit Design), Professor Feng will be joint-teaching a course with Professor K.Y. Cheng.  This new course will focus on the physical operation and Green Energy applications of LEDs and Solar Cells.

This will be a great opportunity to learn about these two important devices, from two men that worked with some of the most influential inventors in the field of optoelectronic devices.

Course webpage coming soon for ECE 498MF (Semiconductor LEDs and Solar Cells). For now, information can be found on the ECE department summary for the course

HSIC Group Breaks High Speed Light Modulation Record — Twice

“Scientists break high speed light modulation record — Twice” : Science Daily

“Han Wui Thenworks to create faster, cheaper network technology”: Illinois ECE Headline News

Publication download link: Applied Physics Letters

“4.3 GHz optical bandwidth light emitting transistor”
G. Walter, C. H. Wu, H. W. Then, M. Feng, and N. Holonyak, Jr., Appl. Phys. Lett. 94, 241101  (2009)

“Holy Grail” of a Terahertz Transistor Finally Within Reach

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World’s fastest transistor operates at blinding speed: New Scientist

World’s fastest transistor approaches goal of terahertz device: ECE News Bureau