EECS Alumnus Named 2012 Lauds & Laurels Distinguished Alumnus for Engineering
Truc Vu recognized for his outstanding service and contributions to UC Irvine
Truc Q. Vu, Ph.D., Vice President of Wafer Fab Technology at Microsemi Corporation, is the recipient of the 2012 Lauds & Laurels Distinguished Alumnus Award from The Henry Samueli School of Engineering. Vu earned M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) in 1988 and 1992 respectively.
Since joining Microsemi in May 2000, Vu has held various positions including Director of Process Technology, Director of Process Engineering, Director of Wafer Fabs and, since 2004, Vice President of Wafer Fab Technology. He is responsible for process development and sustaining engineering at Microsemi’s five wafer fabs and is also responsible for managing external foundries: Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Limited; United Microelectronics Corporation; GlobalFoundries Inc.; MagnaChip Semiconductor Corporation and WIN Semiconductors Corporation. The company’s products can be found in notebook computers, cell phones, wireless LAN systems, LCD televisions, pacemakers, defibrillators, jet engines, missile systems and satellites.
His Ph.D. thesis research in the Samueli School, under the guidance of Chancellor’s Professor Chen S. Tsai, Ph.D., involved combining optical integrated circuits in gallium arsenide (GaAs), Lithium niobate (LiNbO3) and yttrium iron garnet (YIG) planar waveguides to achieve complex optical functions in a single substrate. He invented the hybrid waveguide lens that combined Fresnel and chirp-grating to increase the efficiency, numerical aperture and reduce spot size. Vu also invented the front-side illuminated, back-side bumped PIN photodiode that provides a new class of photodiodes functionally similar to backside illuminated devices. This invention overcomes a major limitation of prior, backside-illuminated diodes that required the substrate to be “transparent” at the photodiode operating wavelength.
Dr. Vu has taught semiconductor process technology and electronics materials classes at Cal State Long Beach and UC Irvine. He has over 20 publications, eight patents and two patent applications. He is a senior member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), a member of Industrial Advisory Board for EECS and a member of Engineering Leadership Council at UC Irvine. He is married with two children and lives in Newport Beach, Calif. His eldest son is a sophomore in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at UC Irvine.
