Ming C. Wu (Advisor)

Research Advised by Professor Ming C. Wu

Zero-Change Foundry Compatible Silicon Photonics MEMS Optical Switch

Arkadev Roy
Daniel Klawson
Jianheng Luo
Erik Anderson
Yiyang Zhi
Sirui Tang
Ming C. Wu
2025

We demonstrate broadband silicon photonics MEMS switch with more than 30 dB extinction ratio using a zero-change foundry compatible process and BEOL post-processing. © 2025 The Author(s)

Keywords: {Microelectromechanical systems;Optical switches;Microswitches;Lasers and electrooptics;Silicon photonics;Extinction ratio;Foundries;Broadband communication;Electro-optical waveguides}

Daewon Suk

Postdoctoral Researcher
Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences
Professor Ming C. Wu (Advisor)
PostDoc 2026 to present.

Daewon Suk is a dedicated researcher in integrated photonics, possessing a unique multidisciplinary background that combines Physics and Materials Science. He earned his Ph.D. in Physics from KAIST, where he developed strong expertise in optical and material engineering, as well as hands-on micro- and nanofabrication. Currently, he is a postdoctoral researcher at UC Berkeley in Prof. Ming Wu’s group, focusing on the development of Photonic Integrated Circuits (PIC) incorporating Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) actuators.

His research...

Huicong Deng

Graduate Student Researcher
Mechanical Engineering
Professor Liwei Lin (Advisor)
Professor Ming C. Wu (Advisor)
Ph.D. 2029 (Anticipated)

Huicong Deng received his B.E. in Electrical Engineering from University of Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2024. He is currently pursuing a Ph.D. degree in Mechanical Engineering, co-advised by Prof. Liwei Lin and Prof. Ming C. Wu. His research interest includes MEMS, integrated photonics and PMUTs.

Yiyang Zhi

Graduate Student Researcher
Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences
Professor Ming C. Wu (Advisor)
Ph.D. 2027 (Anticipated)

BPNX1012: All-Dielectric Integrated Microlens Couplers for Wafer-Scale Packaging

Sirui Tang
Jianheng Luo
Johannes Henriksson
2026

Despite the widespread adoption of silicon photonics, fiber coupling remains a major challenge for large-scale manufacturing. Our group has previously demonstrated integrated microlens couplers (IMCs) as an efficient, broadband, and polarization-insensitive solution for wafer-scale fiber-to-chip coupling, achieving a free-space coupling loss as low as 0.6 dB.

In this project, we replace polymer-based IMCs with hard-material SiON microlenses formed by transferring the lens profile from photoresist (PR) to SiON using anisotropic etching. By optimizing the oxide-to-nitride ratio, we...

BPN961: Integrated Visible Photonics for Scalable Trapped Ion Quantum Computing

Yiyang Zhi
Louis Paul Romero
Daniel Klawson
Arkadev Roy
Rohan Kumar
2026

Scaling trapped-ion quantum computers to solve practical problems requires dense, broadband, and fabrication-compatible optical interfaces. Current photonic integrated circuit (PIC) approaches are limited by per-device optical bandwidth, restricting achievable ion densities. We present a monolithically integrated quantum photonic platform for trapped-ion control that leverages additive manufacturing to enable scalable three-dimensional optical routing. Our device integrates waveguides and microscale printed focusing elements directly with a surface-electrode ion trap. We experimentally...

BPNX1052: Piezoelectric MEMS Programmable Photonic Integrated Circuits

Huicong Deng
Sirui Tang
Arkadev Roy
Yiyang Zhi
Yasuhiro Aida
Akira Konno
Masakazu Fukumitsu
Daniel Klawson
Liwei Lin
2026

Integrated silicon photonic switches are extensively used in modern compute infrastructure, serving as fundamental building blocks for high-speed data communication and computing in large-scale data centers. Our group has previously developed MEMS-based photonic switches that achieve large-scale integration, high bandwidth, and low optical loss. However, their operation is limited by the high driving voltages inherent to electrostatic MEMS actuation.

In this project, we aim to develop piezoelectric MEMS-based programmable integrated circuits for optical signal routing and on-chip...

Sirui Tang

Graduate Student Researcher
Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences
Professor Ming C. Wu (Advisor)
Ph.D. 2028 (Anticipated)
BSAC Fall 2025 Research Review Presenter

Daniel Klawson

Graduate Student Researcher
Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences
Professor Ming C. Wu (Advisor)
Ph.D. 2025

Daniel graduated with honors from the University of Maryland, College Park in 2020 with a B.S. in electrical engineering. He is a first-year doctoral student in the Ming Wu Integrated Photonics lab researching photonic integrated circuits for scalable trapped ion quantum computers.

BSAC Spring 2023 Research Review Presenter

...

BPNX1010: Foundry-Compatible Silicon Photonic MEMS Switch

Arkadev Roy
Daniel Klawson
Yiyang Zhi
Sirui Tang
Erik Anderson
2025

Integrated silicon photonic switches can serve as primary building blocks for low-latency, high-bandwidth interconnects for communication in data-intensive scenarios ranging from servers in datacenters to chiplets in multi-chip integrated packages. Our group has been developing MEMS-based large-scale silicon photonic switches which are particularly attractive for their low-loss, high-extinction, and low-power performance as well as sub-microsecond switching speed. Previous demonstrations, although fully compatible with CMOS foundries, relied upon a custom fabrication stack. The goal of the...