Photonic Integrated Circuitry

Duncan MacFarlane

The Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science

The University of Texas at Dallas

Richardson, Texas 75083

Thursday, September 23, 2004, 2:00-3:00pm

110 Jerry Junkins Building

Abstract

The ability to directly implement nanoscale photonic features on InP will enable an unprecedented age of integrated photonics. This talk will focus on continuing work to develop active optical filters, that is to say, optical filters with gain. There is value to including gain in optical filters. To a large extent, gain can overcome losses and yield higher quality factors. Additionally, gain can provide tunable, programmable and adaptive operation. This talk will cover a novel implementation architecture for active optical filters. In particular, it will cover some enabling technology, illustrate how digital signal processing can be applied to the analysis and design of these filters, and describe some filter structures that are novel even in conventional signal processing. The ultimate aim of this research is a nanotechnology based photonic integrated circuit that can be fabricated as a standardized part, then programmed by the user for a specific, customized application. While this premise is a common strength taken for granted in electronics (microprocessors, DSPs, FPGAs) this economy of scale and scope is completely new to optics.

Speaker Bio

Duncan MacFarlane is a full professor of electrical engineering at The University of Texas at Dallas. He has written more than 75 technical papers or patents in the general area of photonic systems and components. He is the inventor of this class of active optical filters. Specific research projects have included micro-optics, ultrafast lasers, photonic integrated filters, nonlinear optics, semiconductor lasers, ellipsometry, and advanced displays. His work in photonic filters is used widely by practicing optical component and system engineers in industry. He pioneered the manufacture of micro-optics using ink jet techniques, and invented a novel 3-dimensional volumetric display which has found application in aerospace. Duncan received his BSEE and MSEE from Brown University, his Ph.D. from Portland State University and his MBA from SMU. He has worked at Schafer Associates, Texas Instruments and at JDS Uniphase, and helped start Celion Networks, a telecommunications system start-up backed by Sequoia. He teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in Electromagnetics, Microwave Engineering, Optics, Probability and Statistics, and Electronics, and is Associate Dean for Interdisciplinary Programs. Duncan is a registered professional engineer in the state of Texas.

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