2009 - 2010
PARC
For pioneering contributions to the science and technology of hydrogenated amorphous silicon, and the development of flat panel x-ray medical imaging
Robert Street received a Ph.D. in 1971 from Cambridge University for work on the physics of chalcogenide glasses. He was a postdoc at Sheffield University, and then a visiting scientist to the Max Planck Institute in Stuttgart, Germany. He joined the Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) in California in 1976, where is a Senior Research Fellow.
After joining PARC, Bob studied electronic transport, defects, recombination and the role of hydrogen in amorphous silicon and later published a book on the properties of a-Si. In the late 1980’s he started research to develop a flat panel x-ray imaging technology based on a-Si thin film transistors and photodiodes. In 1996, PARC spun out the start-up company, dpiX, to commercialize the digital x-ray technology, which has since come to dominate medical x-ray imaging.
Since 2000, Bob has been exploring novel large area electronics technology for applications to flat panel displays and radiation image sensors. His research interests include organic semiconductor thin film transistors, jet-printing of electronic devices and arrays, flexible displays, silicon nanowires and new solar cell structures. Bob has published about 400 papers and 60 patents.