John F. Wager received the B.S. degree in engineering physics from Oregon State University in 1977 and the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from Colorado State University in 1978 and 1981, respectively.

From 1982-1984 he worked at Hughes Research Laboratories where he was involved in the development of compound semiconductor devices for high-speed and optoelectronic applications. He joined the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Oregon State University in 1984, and is currently a professor in the School of EECS.

Wager received the Loyd Carter Award for outstanding and inspirational teaching in the OSU College of Engineering in 1989, the OSU College of Engineering Alumni Professor Award for outstanding scholarly contributions to the college and to the university in 1996, the OSU College of Engineering Research Award for outstanding and sustained research leadership in 2000, and the OSU Sigma Xi Researcher of the Year in 2006. He also received the Society for Information Display (SID) Special Recognition Award “for his pioneering contributions to the development of oxide TFTs” in 2012.

His specialization and research focus is in the area of solid-state materials and devices. Recent research thrusts include transparent electronics, printed electronics, and photovoltaics.

Wager is an IEEE Fellow and a Society for Information Display Fellow.

Research Interests
Transparent electronics, oxide electronics, printed electronics, MIM electronics, thin-film photovoltaics, and nanolaminate metamaterials.

Research Description
Transparent electronics is a nascent technology involving the realization of invisible electronic circuits. For this purpose, we are developing new types of transparent materials, devices, and circuits.

The idea underlying intelligent luminescence is to first integrate sensor, processor, and actuator capabilities together into a smart pixel, and then to densely interconnect such smart pixels via nonlinear feedback in such a manner that emergent behavior characteristic of intelligence is achieved. We believe that transparent electronics/optoelectronics offers an excellent platform for constructing such intelligent luminescent systems. As an initial step in this direction, we are working to fabricate first a transparent pixel and then a transparent display.

Thin-film solar cells constitute an attractive approach to clean, renewable, and affordable energy. Some materials that we have recently been exploring appear to have properties well-suited to photovoltaic applications. We believe that by employing such materials in a pin double heterojunction configuration, we will be able to improve thin-film solar cell efficiency and lifetime using inexpensive, environmentally ‘green’ material constituents.

The goal of our low-cost electronics effort is to identify appropriate thin-film materials, devices, manufacturing routes, and applications to achieve electronic functionality at a reduced cost.

This research is being undertaken in collaboration with Professor Keszler’s & Sleight’s, Tate’s, and Chang’s groups in the Departments of Chemistry, Physics, and Chemical Engineering, respectively.