Source: Guangming Daily By: Liu Jun May 18th 2015 (12th Edition)
He is an average Chinese student studying abroad, yet he is worshiped by his brothers-in-study and becomes eminent in developing key technologies of the next generation 5G communication system— millimeter-wave IC on the global scale. Being calm, deep and grave, he appears to be more experienced than a 32-year-old man should be. After graduation, he gracefully declined almost 10 world famous chip design enterprises who invited him with high salaries and insisted on coming back home to continue his research and development in 5G chips. He is the 2013 winner of Chinese Government Award For Outstanding Self-financed Students Abroad, an intelligent, diligent, reserved and ambitious post-80s. He obtained his doctorate in University of Louvain in Belgium. Not long ago, the staff reporter met him in the farewell held by Education Section, Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in the kingdom of Belgium.
Zhao Dixian was admitted by Fudan University in 2002, he chose microelectronics as his major.After getting bachelor’s degree, he first studied in the Netherlands, later he went for further study in ESAT-MICAS Microchip Design Laboratory, University of Louvain, in Belgium in May, 2010. The laboratory is a world renowned microchip scientific research institution and researchers there devote themselves to studying frontier chips. With five years’ efforts, Zhao, who has just passed thirty, makes great breakthrough in developing millimeter-wave IC, one of the core technologies of 5G communication.
Zhao Dixian told the correspondent that one of his tutors once encouraged him with the following words, “Einstein need not refer to others’ thesis in that he is a scientist who writes to set the pace.” Studying abroad for 8 years not only laid solid foundation for Zhao to carry out professional academic researches, but also gave him self-confidence to exceed—those “big shots”in International Communication Circle are not out of reach—he could entirely catch up with and even surpass them through great efforts.
Zhao is a hard-working person with good brains, he knows clearly the principle of “precise knowledge of self and precise knowledge of the enemy leads to victory.”If one wants to do scientific researches, he needs to know the choke point of the industry at present, the most advanced research findings in the world and trend of development. By studying intensively, analyzing and calculating repeatedly, Zhao finally rules the roost. So far, performance of circuit he designed is confirmed to have achieved the ultimate limit state. More importantly, his findings win recognition among experts and scholars in the industry. When working towards his PhD, Zhao attended ISSCC(International Solid State Circuits Conference)—the so-called “Olympics”in the sphere of IC— for many times. He also published nearly 20 dissertations in Journal of Solid-State Circuits(a world top IC magazine) and T-MTT(a top microwave magazine). Among them, he got 9 dissertations published in the capacity of first author. Besides, he applied for 3 American Invention Patent, 2 of which has been approved. In February,2014, he won the top prize for IC PhD candidate—SSCS Pre-doctoral Achievement Award. Zhao Dixian becomes a vertitable Chinese scholar who is the “bellwether of writing thesis ”.
After achieving his doctoral degree, Zhao soon received invitations from nearly 10 world famous chip design companies for his reputation and excellent ability in the industry. These companies promised to offer him first-rate working conditions and favourable wages that is admired by an avalanche of people, but he irrevocably decided to go back to China. Why? He gave us an unsophisticated, sincere answer—time waits for no man. He explained that millimeter-wave IC plays an important role in the coming fifth-generation mobile communicatin(5G) and bears profound significance in improving China’s internaitonal competitivness in communication-related information field. Chinese scientific research institutions started studying and developing 5G chips almost at the same time as those of the European and American counterparts. As a Chinese “insider”, he felt it an inalienable duty to work for his country. “5G standard is being formulated”, he stressed, “major companies and scientific research institutions around the world invest much capital as well as manpower in developing 5G.” “As a result, I need to maintain a sense of crisis, seize every minute and second to make competitive 5G chips with help of my globally technological superiority in millimeter-wave IC, thus marking the research and standard-setting of 5G chips with “Chinese Brand”.”
Zhao Dixian notified the reporter the other day that he had started his research work in State Key Laboratory of Mobile Communication(Communication IC Research Group), Southeast University. He is confident to work with his colleagues and devlop world leading, 5G-applicative communincation front-end chips within two or three years.
