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Honorary Doctorate
- Publish Date：2024-01-15
Simon Min Sze is remembered for paving the road for Taiwan‘s semiconductor industry
Photo from Photography team of Business Today
By DIGITIMES asia
Edited by Yen-Chien Lai
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Edited by Yen-Chien Lai
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Semiconductor legend and scholar Simon Min Sze was commemorated in Taiwan by his students, friends, colleagues, and semiconductor industry celebrities, including executives from TSMC, UMC, Macronix, Etron Technology, Phison Technology, etc., in a memorial held at the National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University (NYCU) on December 28, 2023. More than a hundred people came together to pay their condolences to the Sze family and celebrate the extraordinary life of Simon Sze and his influence on them.
NYCU president Chi-hung Lin presented an honorary citation furnished by the President's Office, a government recognition of those with exemplary contributions to the country.
A Legacy of Innovation: Simon Min Sze's Impact on Semiconductor Technology and Education
Sze was best known for inventing the floating-gate MOSFET with Korean electrical engineer Dawon Kahng in 1967, which was the basis of EPROM, E²PROM, and nearly all flash memory before the advent of 3D NAND. He passed away on November 7 in California and was dearly missed by his loved ones.
While working at Bell Labs in the United States, Sze gave lectures in Taiwan five times. National Chiao Tung University (now National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University) awarded him the honor of a lifetime appointment as a distinguished professor. Many of his students were inspired by him to devote their work to semiconductor research and development and later became innovators, entrepreneurs, and company executives.
Sze applied for a leave of absence and agreed to take half-pay from Bell Labs while teaching at NCTU. At that time, there was a need for well-organized textbooks on semiconductors. Sze spent that year completing, proofreading, and editing his seminal work, "Physics of Semiconductor Devices," after work. This work became the semiconductor "bible," widely used by university professors worldwide.
However, when he first taught at NCTU in 1968, the school facilities and living environment could have been better. Sze rode an old bike to work and took his children to school. His wife took a photo of Sze with his son and daughter on a bicycle, and they continued this tradition every ten years to share with their family and friends.
Nicky Lu, chairman and CEO of Etron Technology, said Sze also played a pivotal role in Taiwan's status as a manufacturing hub in global semiconductor supply chains today. Sze and IBM's Bob Evens were among the seven-person Scientific Advisor team whose advice started Taiwan's decision to develop its semiconductor industry. Sze's meeting with Y. S. Sun, the then Minister of Economic Affairs, jumpstarted the later program that sent 19 Taiwanese engineers to RCA for training in 1976.
Chin-Tay Shih, the former chairman of the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), who was among the 19 engineers, recalled that Sze also played a crucial role in guiding Taiwan to choose the right path during a time when there was no technological standard in the semiconductor market.
Chin-Tay Shih, the former chairman of the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), who was among the 19 engineers, recalled that Sze also played a crucial role in guiding Taiwan to choose the right path during a time when there was no technological standard in the semiconductor market.
Sze's Enduring Legacy: Nurturing Talent, Inspiring Innovation, and Shaping Taiwan's Semiconductor Landscape
"If Sze hadn't started semiconductor education in Taiwan during 1967-1976 and brought back the latest technological knowledge from the US, how would any engineers in Taiwan have acquired enough knowledge to learn from RCA years later? The ten years of Sze's devotion to semiconductor education planted the seeds of high-tech talent, which built the foundation of Taiwan's semiconductor industry for the next hundred years," said Lu.
Jack Sun and Philip Wong, both of whom served as Chief Technology Officers (CTOs) at TSMC, also credited Sze as the mentor who inspired them to pursue their careers in the semiconductor industry. They chose to challenge themselves to advance technology with relentless efforts.
Lu describes Sze as an extremely humble, soft-spoken, down-to-earth person who rarely talks about his contributions and achievements. Lu recalled attending the Flash Memory Summit (FMS) in the United States and discovering that the origin of flash memory was incorrectly attributed to Intel before spreading to Japan. Lu promptly requested the conference to correct the information, pointing out that Intel's development began in 1972, five years later than Sze and his Korean colleague Kahng's discovery of "Floating Gate Memory" in 1967. As a result, FMS awarded Sze the Lifetime Achievement Award the following year and featured his picture prominently in the first photo of flash memory's development history.
As a student of Sze, Nicky Lu has maintained close contact with him for decades. Lu mentioned that Sze took his achievement in discovering the floating-gate memory effect, with any chance of being recognized by the Nobel Physics Prize, lightly. When Sze learned that he had been ill and might only have two more months to live, he conveyed to Lu over the phone that he knew his days were numbered. However, he expressed that he had led a happy and content life, having fulfilled what he was destined to do during his lifetime.
During his 87 years of life, Sze also received several honors, including IEEE Fellow (1977), J. J. Ebers Award (1991), Academician of Taiwan's Academia Sinica (1994), Member of the US National Academy of Engineering (1995), Foreign Member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering (1998), IEEE Celebrated Member (2017), and The Future Science Prize in China (2021), among others.
During his 87 years of life, Sze also received several honors, including IEEE Fellow (1977), J. J. Ebers Award (1991), Academician of Taiwan's Academia Sinica (1994), Member of the US National Academy of Engineering (1995), Foreign Member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering (1998), IEEE Celebrated Member (2017), and The Future Science Prize in China (2021), among others.
Over two hundred individuals from the industry, academia, and research sectors gathered at NYCU to pay tribute to the late semiconductor pioneer, Academician Simon Min Sze.
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