Welcome to Professor Caofeng Pan from Beihang University!

On September 21, 2025, at the invitation of Associate Professor Kai Xiao, Professor Caofeng Pan from Beihang University visited our institution and delivered a report titled "Multimodal Brain-Inspired Perception Chips and Robotic Tactile Bionics."

Professor Caofeng Pan Profile: Professor Caofeng Pan is a Beihang University Blue Sky Distinguished Professor, doctoral supervisor, National Outstanding Youth Fund recipient, and member of the university's Academic Committee. He earned his bachelor's and doctoral degrees from the School of Materials Science and Engineering at Tsinghua University in 2005 and 2010, respectively. In 2012, he received the National Excellent Doctoral Dissertation Award. He subsequently conducted postdoctoral research at the School of Materials Science and Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology in the United States. From 2013 to 2023, he served as a researcher at the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences/Beijing Institute of Nanoenergy and Nanosystems. He has long been engaged in research on low-dimensional semiconductor multimodal brain-inspired tactile perception chips. He has published over 320 SCI papers in journals such as Nat. Photon., Nat. Comm., Adv. Mater., Chem. Rev., and Adv. Energy Mater., which have been cited more than 34,000 times, with an H-index of 103 (Google Scholar). More than 30 of his achievements have been selected as "China's Top 100 Most Influential International Academic Papers" and "ESI Highly Cited Papers." He holds 3 authorized U.S. patents and over 40 Chinese patents. He has been selected for the National Young Talents Program (2014), the Beijing Haiju Plan (2015), and other honors. He has received the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars (2021), the National Science Fund for Excellent Young Scholars (2016), the Clarivate Analytics Highly Cited Researcher (2023, 2024), the Henan Province Natural Science First Prize, and other awards. He has led major national research projects, including the National Key R&D Program (Sensor Special Project), the National Key R&D Program (Nano Special Project), the National Natural Science Foundation Distinguished Young Scholars Fund, Excellent Young Scholars Fund, Original Key Project, Joint Key Project, the Beijing Technological Innovation Plan and Key Natural Science Foundation Project, and the Chinese Academy of Sciences President's Fund. He currently serves as the deputy editor-in-chief of the international journals Sci. Bull. and Nanotechnology, and holds positions such as Vice Chairman of the Cross-Disciplinary Branch of the Chinese Materials Research Society, Standing Council Member of the Intelligent Sensing Functional Materials and Devices Branch, Council Member of the Nanomaterials and Devices Branch, and Vice Chairman of the Atomic-Level Manufacturing Innovation and Development Alliance.

Abstract:

Emulation of human senses via electronic means has long been a grand challenge in research of artificial intelligence as well as prosthetics, and is of pivotal importance for developing intelligently accessible and natural interfaces between human/environment and machine.

In this talk, we present a novel design of nanowire LED arrays, which can be used to directly record the strain distribution by piezo-phototronic effect with a resolution as high as 2.7 μm, which is published in Nat. Photonics. Such sensors are capable of recording spatial profiles of pressure distribution, and the tactile pixel area density of our device array is 6250000/cm2, which is much higher than the number of mechanoreceptors embedded in the human fingertip skins (~ 240/cm²).

When the device is under pressure, the images unambiguously show that the change in LED intensity occurred apparently at the pixels that were being compressed by the molded pattern, while those were off the molded characters showed almost no change in LED intensity. Instead of using the cross-bar electrodes for sequential data output, the pressure image is read out in parallel for all of the pixels at a response and recovery time-resolution of 90 ms. Furthermore, our recent studies achieve such piezo-phototronic effect induced strain mapping in a flexible n-ZnO NWs/p-polymer LEDs array system. This may be a major step toward digital imaging of mechanical signals by optical means, with potential applications in touch pad technology, personalized signatures, bio-imaging and optical MEMS.

This research not only introduce a novel approach to fabricate Si-based or polymer-based flexible light-emitting components with high performances, but also may be a great step toward digital imaging of mechanical signals using optical means, having potential applications in artificial skin, touch pad technology, personalized signatures, bio-imaging and optical MEMS, and even and smart skin.

Professor Caofeng Pan provided an in-depth interpretation of the design principles and innovative applications centered on the cutting-edge topic of "Multimodal Brain-Inspired Perception Chips and Robotic Tactile Bionics." The presentation was logically structured and stimulated profound reflection among the faculty and students present. During the interactive session, Professor Pan engaged in an inspiring discussion with the audience on technical challenges and future directions. The lively exchange, particularly his insightful responses to questions, significantly broadened everyone's research perspectives and ignited strong interest in interdisciplinary frontiers.