Canek Fuentes Hernandez

Associate Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering

Contact

c.fuentes@northeastern.edu
360 Huntington Ave
Boston, MA 02115

Social Media

Office

330 Dana Research Center
617-373-6328

Research Focus

Our research focuses on the use of electronic and ionic materials, and low-temperature additive fabrication processes to develop novel flexible or stretchable sensing platforms that can harvest energy from the environment and perform low level computation to enable resilient human-centric ubiquitous intelligent systems.

About

Canek Fuentes-Hernandez is an Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Northeastern University. His research has included multiple areas of physical optics and photonics, investigations of the physical properties of organic semiconductors, and the physics and engineering of microelectronic and optoelectronic organic semiconductor devices, including organic thin-film transistors, organic photovoltaics, organic photodetectors, high energy density capacitors, and organic light-emitting diodes. They also included encapsulation, reliability, and sustainability of organic devices and their applications.

His current research interests lie at the intersection between electrical and computer engineering, mechanical engineering, and material science. They include novel flexible and stretchable sensors capable of autonomous operation and fabricated using high throughput manufacturing methods. His goal is to enable low-cost multimodal sensing surfaces that operate at a local level or as part of a wireless network infrastructure to create new ways for users to interact with the living environment and in areas that support global-scale applications ranging from healthcare to smart agriculture and large scale sensing.

Education

PDF, Electrical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2007
PhD, Optical Sciences, University of Arizona, 2004
BS, Physics, Universidad Nacional Autonóma de México, 1998.

Teaching Interests

EECE4790 Capstone
EECE5698 Organic and Printed Electronics

Research Overview

Prof. Canek Fuentes-Hernandez leads the electrical surfaces and organic interfaces laboratory (eSOIL) at Northeastern University (NU). Our research interests lie at the intersection between electrical and computer engineering, physics, mechanical engineering and material science. Our research on organic and printed electronics aims to develop scalable power autonomous smart & connected surfaces that sense, compute and communicate information to address meaningful societal problems in healthcare, infrastructural and environmental monitoring, and human computer-interfaces.

Selected Research Projects

Skin-like discrete and ergonomic wearable interfaces.

Wearables enable a wide range of applications that support human health, safety and enable novel human-computer interfaces. Wearables based on inorganic semiconductors generally suffer from poor ergonomics, lack discreetness and require frequent battery recharging. Our goal is to develop discreet wearables with mechanical properties that are similar to those of the human skin, and with the ability to harvest energy from the environment to support wireless continuous operation for long periods.

Printable photodiodes for energy harvesting and advanced visual and non-visual optical sensing systems.

Photodetectors enable visual and non-visual optical systems that are fundamental for understanding and interacting with the world through digital technologies empowered by artificial intelligence. Modern photodetector applications include active sensors such as those used for autonomous navigation, e.g., light detection and ranging (LiDAR); or sensitive and fast cameras used time-resolved fluorescence microscopy and medical imaging; among many others. They also include passive sensors such as those used for machine vision, environmental monitoring to detect pollution and particulate matter; or in complex optical systems used for hyperspectral imaging; to name a few. Advanced commercial-of-the-shelf photodetectors and photodetector arrays, such as those based on inorganic photodiodes or avalanche photodiodes are fast and sensitive, but complex high-temperature manufacturing make them incompatible with flexible substrates, expensive to fabricate over large areas and to customize their physical properties. Our goal is to develop next generation flexible and light weight printable photodiodes and photodiode arrays for distributed energy harvesting and photodetection applications.

Department Research Areas

Microsystems, Materials & Devices

Selected Publications

Yang, J., Fuentes-Hernandez, C., Perini, C. A. R., Correa-Baena, J.-P. & Kippelen, B. “Organic Photodiodes Mimicking Visual and Nonvisual Photoreceptors in the Human Eye”. ACS Photonics 12,(12) 6614-6619, 2025. DOI: 10.1021/acsphotonics.5c01422
Oliver Moreno, C. Fuentes-Hernandez, B Kippelen, “Redefining artificial lighting: spectral engineering of light sources for well-being” Scientific Reports, 14, 1, 26298, 2024. DOI: 10.1038/s41598-024-78315-4
Zhang D., Fuentes-Hernandez C., Vijayan R., Zhang Y., Li Y., Park J-W, Wang Y., Zhao Y., Arora N., Mirzazadeh A., Do Y., Cheng T., Swaminathan S., Starner T., Andrew T.L., and Abowd G.D. “Flexible Computational Photodetectors for Self-Powered Activity Sensing” npj Flexible Electronics, 2022 DOI: 10.1038/s41528-022-00137-z.
Park, Y, Fuentes-Hernandez, C., Kim, K., Chou, W.-F., Larrain, F.A., Graham, S., Pierron, O.N, Kippelen, B. “Skin-like low-noise elastomeric organic photodiodes”, Science Advances, 7, eabj6565, 2021.DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abj6565.
Fuentes-Hernandez, C., Chou, W.-F., Khan, T.M., Diniz, L., Lukens, J., Larrain, F.A., Rodriguez-Toro, V., Chang, Y.-C., Kippelen, B. “Large-area low-noise flexible organic photodiodes for detecting faint visible light”. Science, vol. 370, pp. 698, 2020. DOI: 10.1126/science.aba2624
Zhang, D., Park, J. W., Zhang, Y., Zhao, Y., Wang, Y., Li, Y., Bhagwat, T., Chou, W.-F., Jia, X., Kippelen, B., Fuentes-Hernandez, C., Starner, T., Abowd, G. D., “OptoSense: Towards Ubiquitous Self-Powered Ambient Light Sensing Surfaces.” Proc. ACM Interact. Mob. Wearable Ubiquitous Technol. 4 (3), Article 103, 2020. DOI:10.1145/3411826
Jia, X., Fuentes-Hernandez, C., Wang, C.-Y., Park, Y., Kippelen, B., “Organic thin-film transistors with high environmental operational and thermal stability through the use of a bilayer gate dielectric,” Science Advances, vol. 4, pp. eaao1705, 2018. DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aao1705
Zhang, X., Fuentes-Hernandez, C., Zhang, Y., Cooper, M.W., Barlow, S., Marder, S.R. and Kippelen, B. “High performance blue-emitting organic light-emitting diodes from thermally activated delayed fluorescence: A guest/host ratio study.” Journal of Applied Physics 124 pp. 055501, 2018. DOI: 10.1063/1.5041447
Kolesov, V.A., Fuentes-Hernandez, C., Chou, W.-F., Aizawa, N., Larrain, F.A., Wang, M., Perrotta, A., Choi, S., Graham, S., Bazan, G.C., Nguyen, T.-Q., Marder, S.R. and Kippelen, B. “Solution-based electrical doping of semiconducting polymer films over a controlled depth.” Nature Materials, vol. 16, pp. 474-480, 2017. DOI: 10.1038/nmat4818.
Zhou, Y., Fuentes-Hernandez, C., Khan, T.M., Liu, J.C, Shim, J. W., Dindar, A., Youngblood, J.P., Moon, R., Kippelen, B., “Recyclable organic solar cells on cellulose nanocrystal substrates,” Scientific Reports vol. 3, 1536, 2013. DOI: 10.1038/srep01536
Zhou, Y. Fuentes-Hernandez, C., Shim, J.W., Meyer, J., Giordano, A.J., Li, H., Winget, P., Papadopoulos, T., Cheun, H., Kim, J., Fenoll, M., Dindar, A., Haske, W., Najafabadi, E., Khan, T.M., Sojoudi, H., Barlow, S., Graham, S., Bredas, J.-L., Marder, S.R., Kahn, A., Kippelen, B. “A universal method to produce low work function electrodes for organic electronics” Science vol. 336, pp. 327-332, 2012. DOI: 10.1126/science.1218829.

Google Scholar Profile

Faculty

Sep 15, 2023

Fall 2023 PEAK Experiences Awardees for Undergrad Research

Several engineering and science students mentored by COE faculty are recipients of Fall 2023 PEAK Experiences Awards from Northeastern’s Office of Undergraduate Research and Fellowships.

Undergraduate

May 03, 2023

Teams Share Top Honors in Electrical and Computer Engineering Capstone Presentations

Two student teams tied for first place in the 2023 Electrical and Computer Engineering capstone presentations. One designed and built a modular video game controller to help increase accessibility; the other created a robotic poker-playing platform to aid in teaching and learning card games.

Students

Dec 22, 2022

Inaugural AJC Merit Research Scholars for Research Co-ops at Northeastern

Several engineering and science students mentored by COE faculty are recipients of the inaugural AJC Merit Research Scholars from Northeastern’s Office of Undergraduate Research and Fellowships. It provides exceptional students with the opportunity to pursue STEM research co-ops in the laboratories of Northeastern University faculty.

Faculty

Feb 14, 2022

Self-Powered Sensorial ‘Skin’ the Future of Motion and Gesture Recognition

Groundbreaking research on flexible photodetectors with computational powers by Canek Fuentes-Hernandez, associate professor, electrical and computer engineering (ECE), and Gregory D. Abowd, dean of the College of Engineering and professor of ECE, has been published in npj Flexible Electronics. The researchers developed a new approach to achieve motion and gesture recognition using arrays of thin and flexible organic photodetectors distributed in space.