The photonic devices group is pleased to invite you at the seminar organized for the International Day of Light.
The seminar will be held by:
- Prof. Ghanshyam Singh (Distinguished Lecturer IEEE Photonics Society): “Photonic Integrated Devices and Systems: Technology for next Generation Telecom Networks”
- Prof. David Miller (Stanford University): “Reducing energy and increasing capacity – new directions for integrated optics in information interconnection, communications, sensing and processing”
Venue and date:
DEIB – Conference Room (building 20, Via Ponzio 34/5 – Milano)
On Wednesday, May 16th 2018
The talks will start at 10:30 (Prof. Ghanshyam Singh) and 11:30 (Prof. David Miller)
Photonic Integrated Devices and Systems: Technology for next Generation Telecom Networks
Telecommunications networks and systems are seeing extreme increase in network traffic which is growing at the tremendous rate of 30% per year (ref: report released by CISCO Inc.). It is estimated that the energy and cost requirements will increase tenfold in coming ten years. But this progress is not sustainable from ecological and economic point of view. However, this information explosion can be dealt with, using integration of very small photonic components on very high density Photonic Integrated Circuits (PICs). The technological advancements in PICs have made them a popular choice for components of next generation networks. Silicon being the evident choice due to its high availability, mature fabrication technology, and low cost has attracted the researchers to explore the possibilities of integrating the fast photonics components on a chip. At the same time, the unique material properties and direct bandgap, group III-V materials have huge potential in applications like laser, amplifiers, modulators and detectors. Due to robustness, flexibility, reliability and performance of PICs, many commercial solutions are now available for a variety of applications. In coming years, it is expected that the field will continue to advance and communication networks may see a shift from electronic to all-optical/electro-optic network infrastructure.
Reducing energy and increasing capacity – new directions for integrated optics in information interconnection, communications, sensing and processing
Information processing is increasingly limited by the energy required for interconnections and by the need for greater density of communications. Optics and photonics are the only approaches that allow us both to increase density and to reduce energy for communications on and off electronic chips and for all longer distances. Fortunately, recent advances and future possibilities show that integrated photonics can provide the necessary technical solutions; indeed, such advanced photonics technology will be essential if our use of information is to
continue to increase at current rates. This talk will summarize the arguments for why we need such photonics and also some of the surprising directions we will need to consider; for example, for short distance interconnects inside and possibly between machines, to reduce energy we may need to avoid any time-multiplexing and exploit parallel free-space optics instead. Fortunately, technologies like silicon photonics could help us do this. Such integrated technologies also offer radical possibilities such as self-configuring optics that can help increase communication density and that also offer many exciting opportunities in sensing and in information processing
with optics itself.