With the rapid advent in sensors and actuators, and the ever-advancing wireless technologies, the idea of internet-of-things (IoTs) has had a revolutionary impact on ubiquitous computing with massive amount of data from the 5G/B5G-connected smart objects. This new paradigm has become the driving force for many new technologies, such as smart cities, telemedicine, telediagnosis, and point-of-care testing (POCT). This talk will give an overview of our recent progress on micro/nanotechnology-driven wireless sensors and integrated systems. The first part of this talk will discuss low-noise, batteryless and wireless harmonic/intermodulation sensors for physical and (bio-)chemical sensing, as well as ultracompact harmonic biosensors based on chemically-reconfigurable frequency modulators built using nanomaterial-based RF circuits. In addition, wearable antennas based on lightweight and stretchable nanocomposite materials will be discussed, along with their applications in wearable electronics and smart skins. The second part of this talk will discuss how the concepts of “PT-symmetry” originating from quantum mechanics and “time crystal” can be implemented using RF circuits and applied to enhance sensitivity and resolvability of wireless micro/nano-sensors, with some in-vivo demonstrations. The final part of this talk will showcase nanomaterial-based RF/analog circuits that leverage the intrinsically high entropy to generate electromagnetically unclonable function (EMUF)-based cryptographic keys for identifying and securing resource-scarce wireless sensors, RFID tags, and IoTs. The conference will be presented by Prof. Pai-Yen Chen.

Prof. Pai-Yen Chen is a Professor and University of Illinois Scholar in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC). He received the Ph.D. degree from the University of Texas at Austin in 2013, and M.S. and B.S. degrees from National Chiao Tung University in Taiwan in 2006 and 2004, respectively. He was a Research Scientist at Intellectual Ventures Laboratory (2013-2014), and a Research Staff in the Taiwan Semiconductor Research Institute (2006-2009). He has been involved in multidisciplinary research on applied electromagnetics, RF/microwave antennas and circuits, wireless sensors and systems, metamaterials, plasmonics, nanophotonics, and nanoelectronics. He has published numerous papers in high-ranked journals including Nature, Nature Electronics, Nature Nanotechnology, Nature Communications, and various IEEE transactions and 10 US patents. He has received several prestigious awards, including National Science Foundation CAREER Award, IEEE Sensors Technical Achievement Award (advanced career), IEEE Sensors Distinguished Lecturer, IEEE Sensors Council Young Professional Award, IEEE Raj Mittra Travel Grant (RMTG) Award, IEEE Chicago Distinguished R&D Award, SPIE Rising Researcher Award, ACES Early Career Award, PIERS Young Scientist Award, URSI Young Scientist Award, IOP Emerging Leader in Measurement Science and Technology, Air Force Research Laboratory Faculty Fellowship, University of Illinois Scholar, UIC Researcher of the Year, UIC College of Engineering Faculty Research Award, Donald Harrington Fellowship, United Microelectronics Corporation Scholarship, and quite a few best paper and design awards from IEEE flagship conferences. He currently serves as Associate Editor of IEEE Sensors Journal, IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, and IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters. He was a former Associate Editor of Applied Electromagnetics, IEEE Journal of Radio Frequency Identification, and IEEE Journal of Electromagnetics, RF and Microwaves in Medicine and Biology, and former Guest Editor of IEEE Journal of Selected Areas in Sensors and IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation. He currently serves as the chair of IEEE Chicago AP-S/MTT-S Joint Chapter and was the chair of IEEE Chicago Sensors Chapter and the ACES Board of Directors.