Autor: Noboru Kimizuka

Shunpei Yamazaki, Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd., Kanagawa, JAPAN Dr. Shunpei Yamazaki is an authority on semiconductors, memory devices, and liquid crystal displays. Listed on over 4, 000 US utility patents, Dr. Yamazaki was named in the Guinness Book of World Records as holding the most patents in the world; hailed the most prolific inventor in history by USA Today (in 2005). His most notable work is on the thin-film transistor — a significant discovery being a crystalline structure in Indium gallium zinc oxide (IGZO) material, which he discovered „by chance” in 2009. Today Dr. Yamazaki is President of the Semiconductor Energy Laboratory (SEL), where he and his team pioneered the unique development of ultra-low-power devices using CAAC-IGZO technology. A joint venture with the Sharp Corporation manufacturing smartphones using crystalline oxide semiconductors (IGZO) is a global first. In 2015 Dr. Yamazaki received the SID (Society for Information Display) Special Recognition Award for „discovering CAAC-IGZO semiconductors, leading its practical application, and paving the way to next-generation displays.” His paper on CAAC-IGZO ranked in the top 15 most downloaded papers of Wiley Electrical Engineering and Communications Technology journals, 2014. Dr. Yamazaki is also an IEEE Life Fellow. Noboru Kimizuka, Kimizuka Institute for Natural Philosophy, Poland Noboru Kimizuka: director of Kimizuka Institute for Natural Philosophy in Poland and adviser of Semiconductor Energy Laboratory, Co., Ltd. He received a Doctor of Science degree from Tokyo Institute of Technology. He joined in the National Institute for Research in Inorganic Materials (NIRIM) of Science and Technology Agency in 1967 (The institute later became the National Institute for Materials Science.) In 1985, he synthesized crystalline IGZO for the first time in the world at NIRIM. Since then, he devoted himself for developing homologous IGZO for about ten years. After he left NIRIM, he served as a researcher and a visiting professor, teaching young people at universities in the U.S., Britain, Mexico, Taiwan, South Korea, and Japan. He is a member of the Chemical Society of Japan, the Ceramic Society of Japan, the Physical Society of Japan, and American Ceramic Society.