10.30 am
Photonic Integrated Devices and Systems: Technology for next Generation Telecom Networks - Ghanshyam Singh

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.

11.30 am
Reducing energy and increasing capacity – new directions for integrated optics in information interconnection, communications, sensing and processing - David Miller

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 [D. A. B. Miller, “Attojoule Optoelectronics for Low-Energy Information Processing and Communications: a Tutorial Review,” IEEE/OSA J. Lightwave Technology 35, 343-393, 2017].
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 [1]. 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 [A. Annoni, E. Guglielmi, M. Carminati, G. Ferrari, M. Sampietro, D. A. B. Miller, A. Melloni, and F. Morichetti, “Unscrambling light – automatically undoing strong mixing between modes,” Light Science & Applications 6, 2017] that can help increase communication density and that also offer many exciting opportunities in sensing and in information processing with optics itself.

Participation is free, but registration is recommended at this link.

Ghanshyam Singh

Dr. Ghanshyam Singh, a recipient of Distinguished Lecturer award from IEEE Photonics Society for term 2017-18, received B. Tech. degree in Electronics and Communication Engineering from NIT Silchar (then REC Silchar), M. Tech. and PhD degrees in Electronics and Communication Engineering from Malaviya National Institute of Technology (MNIT) Jaipur. In early 1999, he joined the academic staff of MNIT Jaipur, where he is an Associate Professor with the Department of EC Engineering. He has worked as visiting research scholar/visiting professor in the area of Photonic Switching and Networks for various periods at the Department of Physics, Herriot Watt University, Edinburgh, UK (March 2009), the Institute of Photonics, University of Eastern Finland, Joensuu, Finland (January – June 2010) under the CIMO Fellowship (Govt. of Finland) and Department of EEE, Keio University, Hiyoshi Campus, Yokohama, Japan (October 2013). Dr. Singh has extensive teaching, research and sponsored R&D experience (for various funding agencies from India and abroad) on many aspects of Optical Communication and Photonics Engineering and has published and reported over 100 research papers/review articles in peer reviewed International journals/conferences. He has delivered expert talks on related research topics during various events held in India and abroad (including the Germany, Finland, Japan, Ukraine, Belarus, China, Poland, Italy etc.). Dr. Singh is a senior member of OSA, IEEE and Fellow of OSI and IETE. He is also a life member of other professional societies including the SPIE, ISTE, IE (India), etc. Presently, Dr. Singh is engaged with joint research projects with partner researchers from Keio University (Japan), University of Vienna (Austria), Lviv National Polytechnic University, Lviv (Ukraine) and Cairo University (Egypt). His current research interest includes Micro and Nano-structured photonic devices for Integrated photonics.


David Miller

David Miller (B.Sc., St. Andrews, Ph.D., Heriot-Watt) is the W.M. Keck Professor of Electrical Engineering, and Professor by Courtesy of Applied Physics at Stanford University. He was with Bell Laboratories from 1981 to 1996, as a department head from 1987. His interests include nanophotonics, quantum-well optoelectronics, and optics in information sensing, interconnects, and processing. He has published over 270 scientific papers, holds 74 patents, is the author of the textbook Quantum Mechanics for Scientists and Engineers (Cambridge, 2008), and has taught open online quantum mechanics classes to over 30,000 students.
He was President of IEEE LEOS (now Photonics Society) in 1995, and has served on Boards for various societies, companies, and university and government bodies.
He was awarded the OSA Adolph Lomb Medal and the R. W. Wood Prize, the ICO International Prize in Optics, the IEEE Third Millennium Medal, and the 2013 Carnegie Millennium Professorship. He is also a Fellow of APS, OSA, IEEE, the Electromagnetics Academy, the Royal Society of London and the Royal Society of Edinburgh, holds two Honorary Doctorates, and is a Member of the US National Academies of Sciences and of Engineering.