Richard Arthur Kiehl received the Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees in electrical engineering from Purdue University in 1970 and the Ph. D. degree from Purdue in 1974. His doctoral dissertation was on the electron dynamics of transferred-electron microwave devices.
He joined Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, New Mexico, as a Member of Technical Staff in 1974. While at Sandia, he worked on semiconductor devices primarily for radar applications. He initiated research on novel optically-controlled microwave devices based on the effect of light on the carrier dynamics in avalanche devices and was first to demonstrate modulation, phase-locking, and switching of active microwave semiconductor devices by optical techniques. These studies, which demonstrated high-speed control of microwave signals at isolation levels beyond those of electronic techniques, stimulated research on other optically controlled microwave devices for a range of applications.
In 1980, he joined AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill, New Jersey, as a Member of Technical Staff and began research on compound semiconductor devices for high-speed communications applications. He was a leading contributor to Bell Labs R&D in heterostructure electronics. He led the phase of the Bell Labs project on heterostructure field-effect transistors that first demonstrated a functional integrated circuit in this technology. He initiated research on heterostructure-based CMOS circuitry and was co-inventor of concepts for resonant-tunneling transistors. His pioneering studies in these areas had a major impact on research on compound semiconductor devices at many laboratories.
In 1985, he joined IBM as a Research Staff Member at the T. J. Watson Research Center, Yorktown Heights, New York. At IBM he focused his work on heterostructure-based CMOS circuitry in III-V and Si/SiGe materials for high-speed computer applications. He carried out a wide range of studies to examine the potential of heterostructure-based complementary FET circuits, including bandgap engineering for p-channel devices, vertical integration of complementary devices, and fabrication methods for CMOS circuitry in compound semiconductor materials. This work, which resulted in complementary AlGaAs/GaAs circuits with record speeds at low supply voltages, had an important impact on industrial R&D activities in the United States and Japan.
In 1993, he joined Fujitsu Laboratories Ltd., Atsugi, Japan, as Assistant Director of the Quantum Electron Devices Laboratory. He directed research aimed at exploiting physical phenomena in ultrasmall structures for nanoelectronic circuitry. He proposed logic circuitry based on electrical phase states in nanoscale devices and experimentally demonstrated a novel approach for creating single-electron tunneling circuits based on strain-directed metallic nanoparticle formation in a semiconductor. During his three years in Japan, he also developed an expertise in Japanese industrial, academic, and national research programs in nanoelectronics.
In 1996, he joined Stanford University as an Acting Professor of Electrical Engineering. At Stanford he explored various device, circuit and fabrication concepts for nanoscale electronics. He collaborated in a joint project with other electrical engineering faculty to theoretically and experimentally investigate possibilities for extending silicon MOS technology beyond conventional limits. He was also associated with Stanford's US-Japan Technology Management Center.
In 1999, he joined the University of Minnesota as Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering. At Minnesota he initiated collaborative work on self-assembly of circuitry by DNA scaffolding, which resulted in the first demonstration of DNA-directed assembly of two-dimensional nanocomponent arrays. He also initiated collaborative studies of the behavior of metal-molecule-metal junctions for possible device applications.
In January 2008, he joined the University of California, Davis as Professor and Chair of Electrical and Computer Engineering. His research is interdisciplinary and draws on a broad experience in electronic materials, devices and circuits. The goal of his research is to develop new device concepts, circuit architectures, and fabrication techniques for nanoscale information processing systems and other applications. His current research topics include metal-molecule-semiconductor junctions, nanotube and nanowire based transistors, information processing in nanoscale cellular nonlinear networks, and directed self-assembly of electronic components by DNA nanotechnology.
He played a leadership role within the University of Minnesota as principal investigator of a center for interdisciplinary research and education in nanoscience (MONALISA, 2001) and as principal author of a white paper defining the scope of a proposed nanotechnology center at the University of Minnesota (OMNI, 2002). He was theme leader for the research activities on "Nanoscale Architectures and Information Processing Paradigms" for Phase I of the SRC/MARCO research center on Functional Engineered Nano Architectonics (FENA, 2004-2010). He is the principle investigator of a DoD Multi-university Research Initiative (MURI) on "Biologically Assembled Quantum Electronic Arrays".
Dr. Kiehl has played an active role in support of the international professional and research communities. He served as Chairman, Albuquerque Section, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, and has served on the technical program committee for various conferences including the IEEE International Electron Devices Meeting, the Device Research Conference, the Workshop on Compound Semiconductor Microwave Materials and Devices, and the Optical Society Topical Meeting on Picosecond Electronics and Optoelectronics. He has served as session chairman at the Electrochemical Society Meeting, the International Conference on Solid State Devices and Materials (Japan), and the JRDC International Symposium on Nanostructures & Quantum Effects (Japan). He organized the DARPA Workshop on Optoelectronic Microwave Devices, the Advanced Heterostructure Transistors Conference, and the Workshop on III-V Device Instabilities. Most recently, he served on the program committee for the Silicon Nanoelectronics Workshop (Satellite Workshop of 2004 VLSI Symposia), co-chaired the Joint MARCO-NCN Workshop on Nano-Scale Reversible Computing (2005), and organized the MARCO/FENA Workshop on Computation in Nanoscale Dynamical Systems (2006).
He was invited to contribute a review article on modulation-doped heterostructures for the book "Low Temperature Electronics" (IEEE Press) and five of his technical papers were selected for reprint in "Modulation-Doped Field-Effect Transistors" (IEEE Press). He is co-editor of the book "High-Speed Heterostructure Devices" (Academic Press Semiconductors and Semimetals Treatise) and served as Associate Editor for the journal IEEE Electron Device Letters.
Professor Kiehl is a member of the American Physical Society and the American Chemical Society. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.