Award Information
Established in 2019, this award will recognize and honor SSCS members in their early career who are exploring innovative and visionary technical work within the field of solid-state circuits. The award aims to emphasize pioneering developments that are at the frontiers of IC design or possess an imminent potential to expand the field through new categories of circuit technologies, system design, and/or emerging applications.
Those who receive this award must be a current SSCS Member in good standing and have received their highest degree (Bachelor or Higher) within ten years of the Award’s application deadline.
One award will be given annually, but only if a suitable awardee is identified. The award’s cash prize may be split among multiple recipients. The winner of this award will receive a plaque and honorarium of $5,000.
The call for nominations will be made in our primary SSCS member communications, the Solid-State Circuits Magazine and Society Newsletter. The nomination package will consist of: (1) a one to two-page description of the candidate’s current contributions and vision of how the candidate’s research and development work will advance the field of solid-state circuits; (2) a list of publications or patents to support the nomination; (3) a maximum of three letters of recommendation from people familiar with the candidate’s work.
The Award selection process will be managed by the SSCS Awards Committee, which consists of an appointed Chair, who will select additional members of the Committee or appoint sub-committees as needed.
Award nominations will be accepted during the year prior to the year the award is presented. Self-nominations are permitted.
The SSCS Awards Committee or its appointed sub-committee shall evaluate nominations as to whether the nominee’s contribution is significant and merits consideration. A slate of selected nominees will be presented by the Awards Chair to the SSCS Administrative Committee and the winner will be selected by the SSCS Administrative Committee by vote.
This award will be presented at the plenary session of one of the SSCS financially sponsored conferences, at the choice of the recipient.
Announcement of the Award winner will appear in the Solid-State Circuits Magazine, SSCS Newsletter, and SSCS Website.
Submission Instructions
A platform called OpenWater is used to upload nomination packages. For detailed instructions on how to use the OpenWater platform, click here.
The nomination cycle is open annually from June 1 through October 15. Watch your email, social media, and our website for details! If you have any questions, please use the form here.
The following materials must be uploaded as part of the nomination package:
- A one to two-page description of the candidate’s current contributions and the vision of his or her research and development and how it will advance the field of solid-state circuits (PDF only, 25 MB Max)
- A list of the candidate’s publications or patents to support this nomination (PDF only, 25 MB Max)
In addition, letters of recommendation must be submitted (maximum of three letters, PDF only, 25 MB Max). The nominator will submit names of those providing a letter of recommendation in the OpenWater system, and then the OpenWater system will send an email to those people asking them to upload their letter of recommendation.
Awards are governed by the TAB Awards and Recongition Manual, and the IEEE Policies. These include, but are not limited to:
1. Individuals serving on any board or committee involved at any stage of the recipient selection or approval process for an award shall be ineligible to receive, or act as a nominator or reference for, that award. A list of SSCS Awards Committee members can be found at the top of this page. Please refer to the SSCS Bylaws for a list of elected, appointed, or ex-officio AdCom positions whose holders are ineligible. The names of those holding AdCom positions can be found here. If you have any questions, please use this form.
2. An individual shall receive only one award for a given achievement, unless the significance merits a higher award, which may be given in the following year or thereafter.
Lin Cheng Receives 2026 IEEE Solid-State Circuits Society New Frontier Award
The IEEE Solid-State Circuits Society (SSCS) presented its 2026 New Frontier Award to Lin Cheng, recognizing him for his work in magnetic-coupling-based power transfer technologies and for developing high-efficiency, high-density, fast-transient power converters, and for his outstanding publication record, with 80 peer-reviewed papers—including 21 at ISSCC and 14 at JSSC—as first author or principal investigator. The award was presented at the 2026 IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISSCC) in San Francisco, California, USA, with his colleague Dongfang Pan accepting the honor on his behalf.
About Lin Cheng: Lin Cheng received his B.Eng. degree from Hefei University of Technology, Hefei, China, in 2008, the M.Sc. degree from Fudan University, Shanghai, China, in 2011, and his Ph.D. from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST), Hong Kong, China, in 2016. He was a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering at HKUST from 2016 to 2018. In 2018, he joined the School of Microelectronics, University of Science and Technology of China (USTC), Hefei, where he is currently a Full Professor.
At USTC, he leads a research group dedicated to designing advanced power management ICs, with a current focus on power delivery architectures and circuit design for high-performance computing and AI processors, along with integrated isolated power solutions for industrial applications and high-speed supply modulators for 5G power amplifiers. In parallel with his academic research, he founded Hefei CLT Microelectronics in 2022, a start-up company that has successfully brought multiple products into mass production, including power management ICs for DDR5 modules and automotive-grade power chips. This effort translates his research innovations into production-grade power-management ICs, bridging academic circuit-level advances with industrial-scale deployment.
Dr. Cheng has served as a member of the Technical Program Committee of the IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISSCC) since 2024. He also served as the Technical Committee Chair for the IEEE International Conference on Integrated Circuits, Technologies & Applications (ICTA) 2024. He is a recipient of the IEEE SSCS 2014–2015 Pre-Doctoral Achievement Award, the Hong Kong Institution of Science 2018 Young Scientist Award (Honorable Mention), and the Best Design Award from the IEEE ASP-DAC 2020 University Design Contest.
Lin Cheng
Full ProfessorSchool of Microelectronics, University of Science and Technology of China (USTC), Hefei
Past Recipients
| Year | Recipient |
|---|---|
| 2025 | Masoud Babaie, Delft University of Technology and Kaiyuan Yang, Rice University |
| 2024 | Taekwang Jang, ETH Zurich |
| 2023 | Ruonan Han, Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| 2022 | Kaushik Sengupta, Princeton University |
| 2021 | Dr. Rikky Muller, University of California at Berkeley |
| 2020 | Professor Nan Sun, Tsinghua University, China |