Mark J.W. Rodwell’s development of millimeter- and sub-millimeter-wave indium phosphide (InP) heterojunction bipolar transistors (HBTs) has extended the limits of high-frequency radio, high-speed optical communications and powerful imaging applications. During the mid 1990s, Dr. Rodwell sought a breakthrough in the InP HBT fabrication process to boost the device’s maximum frequency of oscillation and extend its circuit applications beyond microwave frequencies. Transistors and a series of circuits fundamental to high-frequency communications were subsequently demonstrated, establishing the feasibility of transistors with operating frequencies as high as 1–3 terahertz. Dr. Rodwell’s work has enabled development of ultra-high speed wireless radios/links in the previously never reached spectra of the “Terahertz Gap” for short-distance and portable communications and high-resolution cameras/imagers for detecting concealed objects.
An IEEE Fellow, Dr. Rodwell is currently a professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and director of the Nanofabrication Laboratory at the University of California, Santa Barbara.