On February 28, the Fourth Session of the Fifth Academic Committee of the State Key Laboratory of Functional Materials for Informatics was held in Shanghai Institute of Microsystem and Information Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences. The members of the Academic Committee and some research backbones attended the meeting. The Academic Committee listened to the 2016 Annual Work Summary Report of the State Key Laboratory of Functional Materials for Informatics from researcher Zhitang Song, director of the laboratory. The report systematically summarized the laboratory profile, main research achievements and progresses, talents training and introduction, the open exchange and platform construction, the summary and prospect of 2016, and the key work plan in 2017 as well. Researcher Lixing You ((Hundred Talents Program), Zengfeng Di (Hundred Talents Program), Fuwan Gan (Shanghai Excellent Academic Leaders), Weili Liu (Shanghai Excellent Technical Leaders) and associate researcher Tianru Wu on behalf of the laboratory researchers gave the reports entitled “Superconducting nanowire single-photon detection technology”, “Development of high-end SOI materials”, “Silicon-based photon integration and new mechanism research on micro-nano light control”, “Electronic grade silica nano-materials and the key technology for atomic level surface polishing applications”, “Preparation of graphene, boron nitride two-dimensional crystal and their energy band engineering research”, respectively. Researcher Shumin Wang, deputy director of the laboratory, (Thousand Talents Program) gave a report on “Open topics”. The Academic Committee listened closely to the report and had extensive discussions, while commenting on the new open topic applications in 2017.

The members of the Academic Committee unanimously endorsed the achievements of the laboratory in 2016, especially on the research and application of superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors, the development of high-end SOI materials, the preparation and mass production of self-controllable and high reliability KFZ reinforced SOI wafers, the new material development of electronic grade silica nano-polishing and the construction for industrial production line of 10,000 tons ultra-pure SiO₂, the research on graphene two-dimensional crystal material, and the material development and application of the InGaAs detector.

The members of the Academic Committee put forward a large number of constructive comments focusing on the development and evaluation of the key laboratory: with the development of the key laboratory to meet the national strategic needs as the goal; the research area to take information functional materials as the main body; focus on concise scientific issues and the intrinsic link between the various research directions. For the key laboratory assessment, laboratory personnel shall focus on laboratory localization and targets closely, sort out the representative research results systematically, and pay attention to the solution of industry problems and scientific issues to make the main line clear and the emphasis prominent. The members hope that the laboratory personnel shall be courageous to accept the challenges and work harder in this next year to strive for good results in the laboratory evaluation.