The ‘steam locomotive’ of printers

When Philip Chen joined Xerox Corp. in 1967, only big companies could afford printers and scanners. Now retired and with several patents to his name, Chen developed the Xenon flash lamp printer, which he considers the “steam locomotive” of printers. He also designed an optical disc drive for the Library of Congress to store its card catalogue information, which became the predecessor of CD drives. Chen’s next big project was to come up with a low-cost image scanner (they typically cost $20,000 at that time) for a company in Taiwan called Microtek. Chen earned a master’s degree in mechanical engineering from S&T in 1965.

Share This Story

Spark a Memory?

Share your story! Fill out the form below to share your fondest memory or anecdote of S&T. If you'd prefer not typing, you can also share by phone at 833-646-3715 (833-Miner150).

Lindsay (McNamee) and Garrett Blanchard

Lindsay (McNamee) and Garrett Blanchard

Lindsay (McNamee) and Garrett Blanchard met on a trip with other Christian Campus Fellowship members to the International Conference on…

Lynnae (Kempf) and Joe Wilson

Lynnae (Kempf) and Joe Wilson

Lynnae (Kempf) and Joe Wilson met and became friends during their first week on campus as freshmen. “I was on…

Alyssa Purdy and Ryon Owings

Alyssa Purdy and Ryon Owings

Alyssa Purdy and Ryon Owings met during Opening Week in August 2014. Both lived in TJ Hall’s north tower –…

Erin Hayden and Matthew Garger

Erin Hayden and Matthew Garger

Although Erin Hayden and Matthew Garger were both students at S&T for an overlapping year, they didn’t meet until the…

Jack Carney on the 2008 name change

Jack Carney on the 2008 name change

John F. “Jack” Carney, who served as chancellor at S&T between 2005 and 2011, explains his reasons for...

Sudha Sneha Devarakonda and Karthik Kumar

Sudha Sneha Devarakonda and Karthik Kumar

After Sudha Sneha Devarakonda and Karthik Kumar met through a mutual friend, they kept running into each other on the…