Prof. Wen-Ya LeeTaiwan
National Taipei University of Technology
| 2025 to present | | Professsor |
| 2019 - 2025 | | Associate Professor |
| 2015 - 2019 | | Assistant Professor |
Polymer electronics, memory, Artificial synapses, wearable electronics
Dr. Wen Ya Lee is a Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology at the National Taipei University of Technology (Taipei Tech), where he leads a research group dedicated to pioneering the future of soft electronics. His academic and research career is marked by a clear and progressive evolution of focus, beginning with his Ph.D. from National Taiwan University, where he built his foundational expertise in polymer electronics. To broaden his international experience and collaboration, Dr. Lee joined Stanford University as a postdoctoral fellow, where he specialized in the emerging field of stretchable electronics. Upon returning to Taiwan and joining Taipei Tech, he first established his group's expertise by focusing on wearable electronics and memory devices. Building on this foundation, his research then advanced into the more complex domain of synaptic electronics and neuromorphic computing (2020-present). Currently, his team is forging the fundamental understanding in soft bioelectronics and neuromorphic devices, which is critical for pioneering advancements in artificial intelligence, personalized healthcare monitoring, and human-machine interfaces.
Stretchable Elastomers for Artificial Synapses and Neuromorphic Computing
TBA TBA
Materials and Devices for Neuromorphic Computing and Technologies/TBA
The development of intrinsically stretchable electronics is critical for next-generation wearable applications. However, achieving high-performance operation at low voltages remains a significant challenge due to the limitations of current dielectric materials. This presentation outlines a comprehensive strategy to engineer Nitrile Butadiene Rubber (NBR) using thiol-ene click chemistry to create multifunctional, photo-patternable, and high-permittivity materials for stretchable organic field-effect transistors (OFETs) and artificial synapses. The polarizability and hysteresis of NBR dielectrics will be demonstrated how to precisely modulate using multi-functional thiol cross-linkers. This approach not only yields a high dielectric constant and excellent solvent resistance but also enables direct photo-patterning without photoresists. These devices effectively mimic synaptic behaviors, including Long-Term Potentiation (LTP) and Long-Term Depression (LTD), and have been successfully integrated into a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) for acoustic classification, achieving 99% accuracy even under 60% mechanical strain. Collectively, these studies establish photo-curable NBR as a versatile platform for realizing scalable, low-power, and mechanically robust neuromorphic systems.