Prof. YANG Yansong Won 2023 IEEE Electron Devices Society Early Career Award
Prof. YANG Yansong has been selected as a recipient of the 2023 IEEE Electron Devices Society (EDS) Early Career Award!
As one of the highest honors in EDS, the award aims to promote, recognize, and support early career technical development within the Society’s field of interest. Judging criteria include the demonstration of field leadership in a specific area, specific technical contributions, impact on the profession or economy, originality, breadth, inventive value, publications, honors, and other appropriate achievements. The award will be presented at the EDS awards dinner, which will be held in conjunction with the International Electron Devices Meeting on December 10 in San Francisco, US.
Prof. Yang joined HKUST in early 2022. He was attracted to join the University because of its open environment that fosters academic freedom and supports cutting-edge research, as well as its top-tier faculty, students, and facilities that are instrumental in creating an intellectual community. Prior to that, he was a postdoc research associate at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), where he received his PhD and MS in Electrical Engineering in 2019 and 2017 respectively. He gained his BS degree from Huazhong University of Science and Technology in 2014.
Prof. Yang’s research focuses on developing multi-physics (including electrical, mechanical, and optical domains) hybrid microsystems for signal processing, sensing, and computing on a single chip. The related work includes the design and nano-microfabrication techniques of novel radio frequency micro-electromechanical systems (RF MEMS) platforms (resonators, filters, delay lines, switches, etc.) and photonic integrated circuits for higher operating frequencies and efficiency.
“The IEEE EDS Early Career Award is an important honor and an encouragement to my contributions to the field of RF MEMS. It recognizes my efforts in advancing technologies critical to wireless communication microsystems, particularly in developing 5G mmWave resonators and filters. This award is not just a personal achievement, but also an acknowledgment of the field’s potential to revolutionize global wireless communication device technologies,” he said.
He was deeply grateful to his colleagues, mentors, and collaborators whose guidance and insights had been invaluable in shaping his research and achievements. He also extended his gratitude to HKUST for providing an environment that nurtures innovation and research excellence. “The award will drive my ongoing pursuit of excellence in MEMS as well as pushing the boundaries of what is possible in the realm of 5G and 6G microsystem technologies. It will fuel my motivation to continue making impactful contributions to both academia and the electronics industry,” he added.
Prof. Yang is one of the pioneers in developing 5G and mmWave piezoelectric acoustic devices and contributes to the commercialization of thin-film lithium niobate 5G filters. His works have been awarded best paper awards six times and best paper finalists two times in top-tier international conferences. In 2018, his research on resonators/filters based on lithium niobate thin films and first-order asymmetric (A1) Lamb wave was honored as the best paper in the IEEE International Microwave Symposium (IEEE IMS). In 2019, his paper was selected as the only best paper in the acoustics field at the IEEE International Ultrasonics Symposium in recognition of his breakthroughs in 5G RF ultra-wideband filter chip technology. In 2020, he designed and manufactured the first single-chip integrated acoustics and electromagnetic hybrid RF filter chip working in the new 5G frequency band (8 GHz) and earned a nomination for the Advanced Practice Paper Award at the IEEE IMS.
He received the 2019 P. D. Coleman Graduate Research Award from UIUC and the 2022 Microwave Prize from the IEEE Microwave Theory and Technology Society. His publications have been repeatedly selected as “JMEMS RightNow Papers” of the IEEE Journal of Microelectromechanical Systems (JMEMS). He has more than 20 patents granted or pending in the US and China, and his published works have been adopted in dozens of patents of RF companies and contributed to their products.
What captivates him in his research area is the potential of MEMS technology to transform wireless communication microsystems. His work on developing high-frequency resonators and filters is set to enhance the miniaturization and data rate of wireless communication, which is urgently needed in the industry.
Looking ahead, his vision as an educator will be to train the next-generation engineers in his research field and foster their aspiration, passion, and perseverance. As a researcher, he endeavors to address the challenges in RF chips posed by the increasing complexity and demands of 5G/6G wireless communication systems in the post-Moore era*.
* The post-Moore era refers to the time when the number of transistors in an integrated circuit (IC) will no longer double every two years, as predicted by Moore’s Law.
Our heartflet congratulations to Prof. YANG Yansong!
Photo and Text credit @HKUST School of Engineering
