The prestigious ShanghaiJiaotongUniversity in China said Friday it has fired its MicroelectronicsSchool dean for faking research that led to a fraudulent chip.
Chen Jin, who also is a manager of Hanxin Sci-Tech, developed four chips called Hanxin that failed to perform functions Mr. Chen had claimed, such as running an MP3 player and authenticating fingerprints, the university said in a posting on its web site.
Hanxin 1, designed by Mr. Chen, was deemed too simplistic to perform properly. The subsequent Hanxin chips developed by his company also were faulty. Hanxin 4, for example, is a dual-core chip that contains poached technologies, the university said. Ditto for Hanxin 2.
Mr. Chen was not only stripped of his job, he also was ordered to pay back the public money he spent on the research. The Ministry of Science and Technology and other government agencies barred him from doing any public-funded research and receiving stipends in the future.
“The university doesn’t support any kind of scientific fraud,” said the Chinese web posting. “From now on, the university will step up to improve its research oversight and fund management.”
Black Eye for Shanghai
The news is a black eye for the university and the Chinese government, which is keen on building a strong domestic chip industry. The government, like its counterpart in Taiwan, provides monetary and other incentives to kick-start new chip design firms and manufacturers.
Jiaotong and another university in Shanghai―Fudan―both have strong engineering programs. Shanghai Jiaotong has been expanding in recent years, moving many of its departments to a new campus on the city’s outskirts.
The university created the School of Microelectronics out of the larger School of Electronics and Electrical Engineering three years ago, in an effort to devote more resources to chip design research and education.
Shanghai is also home to several chip foundry companies, including Semiconductor Manufacturing International, Grace Semiconductor Manufacturing, and Hua Hong Group.
Shanghai Jiaotong began investigating Mr. Chen after receiving a tip last December and brought in the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Ministry of Education, and the Shanghai government. The investigators spent two months interviewing Mr. Chen, his research team, and the whistle-blowers. They also reviewed the four Hanxin chip designs.
The investigators concluded their technical review and provided their conclusion to the university a few days ago.