Nobukazu Teranishi


Nobukazu Teranishi is a Japanese engineer who researches image sensors, and is known for inventing the pinned photodiode, an important component of modern digital cameras. He was one of four recipients of the 2017 Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering. As of 2017, he is a professor at the University of Hyogo and at Shizuoka University.

Biography

Teranishi studied physics at the University of Tokyo. He joined NEC Corporation in 1978, where he invented the pinned photodiode in 1980; the device was named in 1984. The pinned photodiode is a development of the charge-coupled device imager. It has improved efficiency compared with the CCD, resulting in reduced pixel size and higher image resolution. It remains an important component of digital camera technology. Teranishi continued to work for NEC Corporation until 2000, when he moved to Panasonic Corporation. As of 2017, he is a professor at the University of Hyogo and at Shizuoka University in Japan.

Awards

Teranishi received the Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering in 2017, with Michael Tompsett, Eric Fossum and George Smith. His earlier awards include medals from the British Royal Photographic Society and the Photographic Society of America, the Yamazaki Teiichi Award and the J.J. Ebers Award of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. He is a fellow of the IEEE.

Selected publications