High Technology Electronics Research and Education

Prof. Lester F. Eastman
John L. Given Foundation Professor of Engineering
School of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Cornell University

Compound semiconductors and their heterojunctions, as well as nanofabrication technology, have led to substantial microwave and photonic device innovations and developments, especially at universities. During the past 25 years the nanofabrication, and during the past 37 years the compound semiconductor material growth, have been substantial components of the graduate research and education at Cornell. In addition, substantial interaction with many industries and universities have occurred. A number of other U.S. universities now have such nanofabrication facilities and expertise, and in the past two years, countries like Sweden and Germany have constructed these facilities, for example. Graduate students are learning to independently operate sophisticated equipment, and to be innovative in achieving new and better materials and devices. "device quality" materials structures, with high purity, composition control, and abrupt heterojunction continue to be advanced. Some innovation samples have been atomic-planar doping, pseudomorphic quantum well lasers for .98 mm pumps for fiber amplifiers and for high speed direct modulation, AlInAs barriers for InP-based HEMT’s, AlGaInP visible lasers, undoped polarization-induced two-dimensional electron gas HEMT of AlGaN/GaN for record microwave power density, 1020/cm3 electrons in Al.8Ga.2N for UV optical sources, and initial epitaxial InN with the proper band gap of ~ .8 V. The experiences of the graduate students in achieving these advances have positioned them for very strong careers in industry and at universities.
Since 1965, Prof. Eastman has been doing research on compound
semiconductor materials, high speed devices, and circuits, and has been
active in organizing workshops and conferences on these subjects at
Cornell. In 1977, he joined other Cornell faculty members to found the
National Research and Resource Sub Micron Facility at Cornell (now Cornell
Nanofabrication Facility). He initiated the Joint Services Electronics
Program at Cornell in 1977 and directed it for ten years. He was the IEEE
Electron Device Society National Lecturer in 1983. He was a member of the
U.S. Government Advisory Group on Electron Devices from 1978-1988, and
serves as a consultant for several industries. He is a Fellow of IEEE and
APS, a member of the National Academy of Engineering and the
Electromagnetics Academy, and was appointed the John L. Given Foundation
Professor of Engineering at Cornell in January 1985. In 1991 he was
awarded the Welker Medal and Annual Award of the International Symposium
on Gallium Arsenide and Related Compounds. He was awarded the Alexander
von Humboldt Senior Fellowship in 1994, and the Aldert van der Ziel Award
in 1995. The IEEE honored him with their 1999 Graduate Teaching Award and
Third Millennium Medal 2000. He has supervised 110 Ph.D. theses. Over
the years his students and former students have made significant
contributions and won national and international prizes by advancing the
state of the art of molecular beam epitaxy and microwave transistors, and
optoelectronic devices.