Sayfe Kiaei

Professor, School of Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering, Arizona State University
Endowed Chair Professor in Analog and RF Integrated Circuits
Director, NSF Industry–University Cooperative Research Center (IUCRC) Connection One
IEEE Fellow

Dr. Sayfe Kiaei is an internationally recognized researcher, educator, technology innovator, and academic leader whose career spans more than four decades across academia, industry, government-sponsored research, and international technology development. He currently serves as Professor in the School of Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering at Arizona State University (ASU), Motorola Endowed Chair Professor in Analog and RF Integrated Circuits, and Director of the NSF Industry–University Cooperative Research Center (IUCRC) Connection One. Throughout his career, he has made significant contributions to integrated circuits, wireless and wireline communications, power management systems, sensors and bioelectronics, renewable energy technologies, signal processing, and communication standards. His work has bridged fundamental research, industrial innovation, and technology commercialization, resulting in major advances in communication systems, semiconductor technologies, and energy systems. 

Prior to joining Arizona State University in 2001, Dr. Kiaei served as a Senior Member of Technical Staff at Motorola, where he held leadership roles within the Wireless Technology Center, Broadband Products Operations, and Land Mobile Products Sector. At Motorola, he led the development of advanced wireless and wireline communication technologies including cellular systems from 2G through emerging 4G architectures, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, GPS receivers, DSL and DOCSIS broadband systems, and digital two-way radio platforms. He represented Motorola in numerous international standards organizations, including the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), ETSI, 3GPP, DSL working groups, Bluetooth SIG, and IEEE wireless standards committees, contributing to technologies that became foundational elements of modern communications infrastructure. 

Earlier in his career, he served as a faculty member at Oregon State University, where he helped establish the Computer Engineering program and co-directed one of the nation's earliest NSF Industry–University Cooperative Research Centers focused on analog and digital integrated circuits. 

Dr. Kiaei's technical expertise encompasses a broad range of disciplines including analog, digital, RF and mixed-signal integrated circuits; power management integrated circuits; wireless and wireline communication systems; DSP and multimedia processing; sensors and bioelectronics; renewable energy systems; MEMS technologies; and semiconductor system architecture. His research has contributed to RF transceivers, low-power communication systems, adaptive signal processing, wireless sensor networks, implantable medical devices, hearing aid electronics, power electronics, solar energy systems, battery management technologies, and advanced semiconductor design methodologies. His multidisciplinary perspective has enabled successful integration of circuit design, communications theory, signal processing, and system-level optimization across numerous applications. 

A hallmark of Dr. Kiaei's career has been his ability to build and lead large-scale research enterprises. He founded and directed the NSF IUCRC Connection One Center at Arizona State University, a multi-university, industry-driven research center focused on communication systems, integrated circuits, wireless technologies, sensors, multimedia systems, and power management. The center brought together more than thirty industrial partners and multiple universities, creating a highly successful model for industry-academic collaboration. Prior to Connection One, he co-founded and co-directed the NSF Center for the Design of Analog/Digital Integrated Circuits (CDADIC), one of the earliest cooperative research centers dedicated to IC design. Together, these centers helped train hundreds of graduate students and foster collaborations that advanced both research and technology transfer. 

Beyond microelectronics and communications, Dr. Kiaei has played a major leadership role in international energy initiatives. From 2014 to 2020, he served as Director and Principal Investigator of the USAID-funded Partnership Center for Advanced Studies in Energy (USPCAS-E), an $18 million program involving Arizona State University and leading universities in Pakistan. The initiative established graduate programs, research laboratories, energy-focused academic infrastructure, and international faculty and student exchanges. Subsequently, he led the USAID-funded Center of Excellence for Energy (COE-Energy), a $22.5 million collaboration between ASU and leading Egyptian universities. These programs advanced research and workforce development in renewable energy, power systems, photovoltaics, energy storage, smart grids, power electronics, and sustainability while strengthening international scientific partnerships. 

From 2008 to 2012, Dr. Kiaei served as Associate Dean for Research in the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering at Arizona State University. In this leadership role, he oversaw engineering research growth, developed strategic research initiatives, facilitated large-scale federal and industrial partnerships, and supported the establishment of major interdisciplinary centers. During his tenure, engineering research expenditures increased substantially, and ASU successfully secured its first NSF Engineering Research Center, the Quantum Energy and Sustainable Solar Technologies (QESST) ERC. He played a key role in organizing multi-university collaborations involving leading institutions including MIT, Georgia Tech, Caltech, the University of Delaware, and others. 

Dr. Kiaei has secured and managed tens of millions of dollars in research funding from organizations including the National Science Foundation, DARPA, NASA, USAID, the Department of Defense, Intel, Motorola, Broadcom, Qualcomm, Raytheon, Texas Instruments, and numerous other government and industrial sponsors. His funded projects have addressed areas such as wireless spectrum sharing, cognitive radio, MEMS sensors, bioelectronics, implantable medical devices, solar energy systems, LiDAR technologies, adaptive mixed-signal circuits, power management systems, autonomous sensor networks, and advanced communication architectures. These efforts have supported the development of cutting-edge technologies while educating large numbers of graduate and undergraduate researchers. 

Dr. Kiaei's scholarly accomplishments include more than 200 journal and conference publications, numerous patents and patent applications, invited keynote presentations, standards contributions, and extensive editorial service. He has served as Associate Editor or Editor for several leading IEEE journals, including IEEE Transactions on VLSI Systems, IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems, IEEE Communications Magazine, IEEE Microwave Magazine, and IEEE Systems Journal. He has also held leadership positions in major international conferences such as RFIC Symposium, ISSCC, ISCAS, IMS, ICC, and ISLPED, and was a founding member of the IEEE RFIC Symposium. His contributions have helped shape both the academic and industrial directions of RF, mixed-signal, and communication-system research. 

His achievements have been recognized through numerous prestigious honors, including elevation to IEEE Fellow, the IEEE Darlington Best Paper Award, Motorola's Global Standards Award, the National Science Foundation Industrial University Fellowship, the NSF Research Initiation Award, and the Carter Best Teaching Award at Oregon State University. He has also served as Chair of the IEEE Circuits and Systems Society Fellow Committee and has been an active contributor to IEEE professional activities for more than three decades. 

In addition to his academic and research accomplishments, Dr. Kiaei is widely recognized as a technical consultant and expert witness in semiconductor technology, wireless communications, integrated circuits, power management, bioelectronics, wireless standards, GPS systems, MEMS technologies, and communication networks. His expertise has been sought in patent litigation, intellectual property disputes, standards-related matters, and technology evaluations involving some of the world's leading technology companies. Through his combined contributions to education, research, industrial innovation, standards development, and international collaboration, Dr. Kiaei has established a distinguished legacy as one of the leading figures in integrated circuits, communications, and energy systems engineering.