Status
- In Memoriam
- Member, TC-15 RF/MIXED-SIGNAL INTEGRATED CIRCUITS AND SIGNAL PROCESSING, Technical Committees**
In Memoriam
Young-Kai “Y.K.” Chen passed away on May 1, 2026. He received the B.Sc. degree in electrical engineering from National Chiao Tung University in 1976, the M.Sc. degree in electrical engineering from Syracuse University in 1980, and the Ph.D. degree from Cornell University in 1988.
His professional career started at the Electronics Laboratory of General Electric, working on silicon and GaAs monolithic microwave integrated circuits for phased-array applications. He joined AT&T Bell Laboratories in 1988 as a member of the Compound Semiconductor Device Research Department. He subsequently served as Department Head of Heterostructure Electronics Research and Director of High-Speed Electronics Research. He later held senior technical leadership positions at Lucent Technologies, Alcatel-Lucent, Nokia Bell Labs, and III-V Lab in France. From 2017 to 2021, Dr. Chen served as a Program Manager in the Microsystems Technology Office of the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). He finally served as Deputy Chief Technology Officer at Coherent Corporation. Dr. Chen developed an outstanding career in industrial research and technology development, commercial implementation, research-program leadership, and executive-level technology strategist.
Dr. Chen was elected an IEEE Fellow in 1998, a Bell Laboratories Fellow in 2003, a member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering in 2004, a Fellow of the Optical Society of America in 2011, and an Academician of Academia Sinica, Taiwan, in 2016. He received many international awards, including the 1993 Young Scientist Award and the Under-40 GaAs Medal of the International GaAs and Related Compound Semiconductor Symposium, the Pan Wen-Yuan Outstanding Research Award, the Edison Patent Award, and the 2002 IEEE David Sarnoff Award, recognizing his exceptional contributions to high-speed compound-semiconductor electronics and optoelectronics for telecommunications.
Through his leadership, mentorship, and ability to cultivate new talents, Dr. Chen had an impactful influence on the careers of outstanding engineers and researchers who later became active contributors and leaders within the MTT-S community.