Faculty

Yu-Chong Tai

Anna L. Rosen Professor of Electrical Engineering and Medical Engineering

Degrees and Appointments

B.S., National Taiwan University, 1981; M.S., University of California, 1986; Ph.D., 1989. Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering, Caltech, 1989-95; Associate Professor, 1995-2000; Professor, 2000-05; Professor of Electrical Engineering and Mechanical Engineering, 2005-13; Rosen Professor, 2013-; Cherng Medical Engineering Leadership Chair, 2017-22; Executive Officer for Electrical Engineering, 2005-2008; Executive Officer for Medical Engineering, 2013-22.

Research Overview

Professor Tai’s research uses Semiconductor/MEMS/NEMS technologies for medical applications. He has built the Caltech MEMS Laboratory (http://mems.caltech.edu), an 8,000-square-foot facility completely dedicated to medical devices. This facility has a clean-room lab (~3,000 sq. ft), CAD lab, a measurement/test/metrology lab, and a biological lab. It supports researchers (graduate students, postdoctoral scholars, visiting scholars and industrial members) to develop innovative MEMS/NEMS and medical devices. Examples of past devices include micromotors, microphones, neural chips, micro relays, micro power generators, micro valves, micro pumps, etc. Over the past 20 years, Prof. Tai has launched a major research effort into medical devices. Project examples include HPLC-on-a-chip, blood-labs-on-a-chip, wireless micro drug delivery, etc. Moreover, Tai’s group has had a major program for miniature or micro implants. To this end, Prof. Tai collaborates with many medical doctors and biologist (such as from UCSF, USC, UCLA, and industries) to develop integrated implants for cortical, retinal and spinal applications. Micro implant devices included spinal neural stimulators, ECG implants, retinal prosthetic devices, intraocular lenses, implantable wireless pressure sensors, micro pacemakers, etc. Tai's group is always looking for students, postdocs and researchers who love technology and enjoy building devices.

List of Research Areas

Medical devices, MEMS, Bio-MEMS, Micromachining, lab-on-a-chip, microfluidics, drug delivery, micro implants, circulating tumor cell, parylene, Bio-med

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