Prof Jean Pierre Colinge, Tyndall Institute
The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers has honoured the head of Cork-based Tyndall’s Micro-Nano Electronics Centre for his work on advancing technology for the benefit of humanity.
Prof Jean Pierre Colinge, an SFI-funded researcher, has been awarded the 2012 IEEE Andrew S Grove Award, which is given “for outstanding contributions to solid-state devices and technology” for his “contributions to silicon-on-insulator devices and technology.”
The award was established in 1999 and is named in memory of Andrew Stephen Grove, the Hungarian-born science pioneer and co-founder of the Intel Corporation.
The award is judged on criteria such as field leadership, contribution, originality, breadth, inventive value, publications and other achievements.
Colinge has generated exceptional scientific research outputs in the field of semiconductors, both in mainland Europe and in Ireland. In 2010, he was published in the renowned international journal Nature Nanotechnology for his work on fabricating the world’s first ever junctionless transistor at Tyndall National Institute.
Inventor of the junctionless transistor
“We are delighted that Prof Jean-Pierre Colinge has been recognised for his outstanding contribution over many years to the important field of silicon-on-insulator devices and technology,” said Prof Roger Whatmore, CEO at Tyndall National Institute.
“In his latest work at Tyndall, Jean-Pierre invented the ‘junctionless transistor’, which is a dramatic simplification of the transistor structure compared with current designs. Transistor dimensions continue to shrink as the semi-conductor industry follows Moore’s Law and we believe that Jean-Pierre’s invention will become a key design for the industry as it moves towards sub-10nm gate lengths.
“Tyndall is licensing this technology to world-leading semiconductor companies and the Micronanoeletronics team at Tyndall continues to advance the technology, particularly through the application of novel materials employing Jean-Pierre’s concepts,” Whatmore added.
