Randy Hoffman: Council of Outstanding Early Career Engineers - 2012

Senior Engineer Hewlett-Packard Company | Corvallis, Ore. 

Randy Hoffman’s master’s research at Oregon State University led to the invention of a family of oxide semiconductor- based thin-film transistors (TFT). He carried this new technology with him to Hewlett-Packard, where he continued to develop it in collaboration with the university.“The timing of this invention aligned nicely with a major need in the flat panel display industry to move from amorphous silicon-based TFT backplanes to a higher-performance TFT device,” says Hoffman. “The opportunity to participate in the development of new semiconductor device technology from invention in the labs of Oregon State through commercialization in the flat panel display industry has been tremendous, and is an exemplary picture of constructive collaboration between academics and industry.”Hoffman’s graduate work in the integration and device physics of oxide semiconductor-based thin-film transistors produced several publications and the first in a series of foundational patents in this new field. He now holds more than 40 U.S. patents.“The research facilities in the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science provided a great deal of freedom to explore tangential ideas and concepts and was a key factor in my discoveries,” says Hoffman. “Co-location and a strong working framework with Hewlett-Packard provided an ideal transition from academia to industry.”