Location Redwood City, California, United States Regions San Francisco Bay Area, Silicon Valley, West Coast Gender Male
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stitute of Technology, and his Ph.D. in applied quantum physics from Yale University.
From Yale, Lai joined IBM Yorktown TJ Watson Research Center as a Member of Technical Staff where he conducted research on silicon-silicon dioxide interface properties. He did the pioneer work that showed the two carrier nature of interface state generation
under stress conditions.
Lai joined Intel in 1982 to develop scalable E2PROM and he co-invented the EPROM tunnel oxide (ETOX) flash memory cell, which has become industry standard. Lai and his team solved the electrical erase distribution control for ETOX and were able to introduce manufacturable products many years before other companies. He and his team have developed through 2006 ten generations of ETOX technologies achieving 1000X cell size reduction. This is accomplished by industry’s first self aligned source, self aligned poly, trench isolation and salicided gates in flash manufacturing.
In 1999, he started a team to develop alternative memory technologies and Intel was one of first major semiconductor company to pursue phase change memory (PCM). PCM products are now ready for customer sample. He was appointed Vice President of Intel’s Technology and Manufacturing Group in 2000. He retired from Intel end of 2006.
From February 2007 to July of 2008, he was Vice President, Business Development, Ovonyx Inc. In this role, Lai worked with semiconductor industry to develop phase change memory into main stream non-volatile memory products. He left Ovonyx in July 2008 to work on starting a PCM company in China. Currently, he serves as a consultant for companies on the memory industry and is on the board of MagSil, a MRAM startup company.
Lai was recognized as an IEEE Fellow in 1998 for his research on the properties of silicon MOS interfaces and the development of flash EPROM memory. He is also awarded the 2008 IEEE Andrew Grove Award for his contribution to flash memories. He holds 8 patents and has published 34 papers. At Intel, he received the Patent of the Year Award in 2003 and Intel Achievement Award in 2006 for his contribution to the Intel Micron Joint Venture.
