Research Bio

Clark Nguyen is a Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences at UC Berkeley whose research focuses on microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), timing and frequency control, sensors, wireless communications, and RF circuits. He is best known for pioneering work on MEMS-based oscillators, filters, and resonators, which have enabled advances in wireless communication systems, and which enable the MEMS-based timing devices now used in countless electronic systems, including smartphones and mobile computing devices. His company, Discera, was the first to commercialize MEMS-based timing oscillators and upon acquisition left in its wake numerous continuing companies in this space. Nguyen’s innovations in MEMS technology have provided smaller, more efficient, and higher performance components for electronics and mobile devices. His lab combines microfabrication, circuit design, and systems engineering to develop scalable technologies for next-generation communication systems with a recent emphasis on all-mechanical signal processors.

As a program manager in the Microsystems Technology Office of DARPA from 2002 to 2005, Nguyen helped spark a broad swath of new (at the time) MEMS activities from which modern derivatives continue today, including work on novel packaging for harsh environments, micro gas analyzers, inertial measurement sensors, micro-scale power generators, and chip-scale atomic clocks.

Nguyen is a Fellow of the IEEE, a past-president of the IEEE Ultrasonics Ferroelectrics and Frequency Control Society, and the current president of the IEEE MEMS Technical Community. His contributions have been recognized with the IEEE Cady Award and the IEEE Bosch MEMS Medal. He has published extensively in IEEE journals and conferences and holds multiple patents in MEMS technology. At Berkeley, he trains students in microfabrication and microsystem design, advancing the integration of MEMS into communication, sensing, and computing devices.

Research Expertise and Interest

electrical engineering, computer sciences, integrated circuits, sensors, micro electromechanical systems, signal processors, timing, frequency control, RF communications, micromachining technology