engineering

Ping King Tien

Ping King Tien is a engineering topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Ping King Tien rather than just read about it. In short: Ping King Tien (Chinese: 田炳耕; pinyin: Tián Bǐnggēng; August 2, 1919 – December 27, 2017) was a Chinese-American electrical engineer and scientist, noted for his contributions to microwave amplifiers and integrated optical circuits. Biography Tien was born in Shangyu, Shaoxing, Chekiang (Zhejiang) province, China.

Key takeaways

Ping King Tien belongs to engineering; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Ping King Tien to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Ping King Tien from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Ping King Tien (Chinese: 田炳耕; pinyin: Tián Bǐnggēng; August 2, 1919 – December 27, 2017) was a Chinese-American electrical engineer and scientist, noted for his contributions to microwave amplifiers and integrated optical circuits.

Biography Tien was born in Shangyu, Shaoxing, Chekiang (Zhejiang) province, China. He did his undergraduate studies in the National Central University in Nanjing (the predecessor of Nanjing University and Southeast University in Mainland China) and Shanghai Jiao Tong University. He received his B.S. in electrical engineering in 1942. Tien continued his study in the United States, and received his master's degree in 1948 and PhD in 1951 both from the Stanford University. Tien then joined Bell Labs to work with John Robinson Pierce, eventually becoming head of Electronics Research (1959), Electron-Physics Research (1966), Micro-Electronics Research (1980), High Speed Electronics Research (1984), and fellow in the Photonics Research Laboratory (1989). He died in December 2017 at the age of 98.

Honors and awards Tien has received several honors and awards, including:

Elected Member of the United States National Academy of Sciences (in 1978) Elected Member of the United States National Academy of Engineering (in 1975) Elected Academician of the Academia Sinica (in 1988) Elected Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Elected Fellow of the Optical Society of America Elected Member of the Third World Academy of Sciences Elected Foreign Member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering 1979, IEEE Morris N. Liebmann Memorial Award "for contributions to integrated optics technology"

References Correspondence, Proceedings of the IRE, volume 40, issue 6, pages 728–729. June 1952.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Ping King Tien

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Ping King Tien claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In engineering, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Ping King Tien before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Ping King Tien ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Ping King Tien

In research: Ping King Tien appears in engineering research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Ping King Tien in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Ping King Tien is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1919 births, 2017 deaths, American electrical engineers, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Ping King Tien outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

Ask Teacher Smith questions about this articleOpens your AI tutor with a question about “Ping King Tien” →

Affiliate

Preply — study more efficiently by working with a personal tutor. 50% off.

How to study Ping King Tien in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Ping King Tien means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Ping King Tien out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Ping King Tien in simple terms?

Why does Ping King Tien matter?

Because it connects several engineering ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Ping King Tien?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Ping King Tien.