News

KNAW chooses Kofi Makinwa

• Thursday, 26 April 2018

Prof. Dr. Kofi Makinwa, Professor Electronic Instrumentation and chair of the Micro Electronic department to the faculty of EEMCS, is selected as a new member of The Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences (KNAW). Members of the KNAW, leading scientists from all disciplines, are chosen on their scientific achievements. The new academy members will be installed in September.

Professor Kofi Makinwa builds sensors based on chip technology. One of his achievements is a wind sensor without moving parts. Sensors form the connection between the real world and computers. ‘My field involves designing smart sensors: microchips that combine sensors and signal processing,’ explains the TU Delft Professor of Microelectronics. ‘I build chips that can ‘feel’ their environment, as it were, that can process this information and subsequently transfer it to a computer, all in one. Chip technology means that we can produce them very cheaply. Tyre pressure sensors in cars are one example of such a sensor. They measure the pressure in a rotating tyre and communicate the information wirelessly to the dashboard. Or the temperature sensors that can be found everywhere nowadays: in your smartphone, your car, your household appliances. Sensors that I developed at TU Delft are now in production at companies including SiTime, AMS and NXP, and are being used in Apple’s latest gadgets, for example’. Students appreciate Makinwa's enthusiasm and involvement. Thanks to Makinwa's contacts with the industry, they can often convert their designs into real prototypes. Makinwa was previously a member of the Young Academy of the KNAW and invented a cheap weather station for developing countries.