NanoPlasmonics, Microphotonics & Imaging

Research that includes:

  • Polymer, printed optical lenslet arrays
  • Microfluidic tuneable photopolymer lenses
  • Optical switches and planar lightwave MEMS
  • Vertically integrated microconfocal arrays
  • Bio-inspired integration of tuneable polymer optics with imaging electronics

BPN710: Reconfigurable Silicon Photonic Integrated Circuits

Sangyoon Han
2013

Silicon photonics has emerged as one of the key technologies for data communications, especially in datacenters. Using standard CMOS fabrication steps, optical modulators, photodetectors, and passive optical components have been realized. The photonic circuits demonstrated so far are mostly static. We are interested in dynamically reconfigurable or tunable circuits in Si photonics, such as tunable filters or optical switches. In this project, we integrate MEMS with Si photonics on an silicon-on-insulator (SOI) platform. The optical waveguides and passive optical components are...

BPN671: Tunable Silicon Photonics for Microsecond Wavelength Selective Switching

Anthony M. Yeh
2013

The wavelength selective switch (WSS) is a key enabling component for many optical circuit switching (OCS) architectures, which have the potential to allow datacenters to continue scaling beyond the cost and power efficiency constraints of current electrical networks. The applicability of these OCS networks in real-world datacenters is highly dependent on the speed and optical loss of the WSS elements. We have demonstrated a grating-based WSS in silicon photonics that improves on these metrics and allows greater integration potential relative to previously demonstrated MEMS-based WSS...

BPN678: MEMS-Electronic-Photonic Heterogeneous Integration (MEPHI)

Niels Quack
Behnam Behroozpour
Sangyoon Han
Phillip Sandborn
2014

Active III-V photonic components and passive Si photonic circuits are integrated with CMOS electronic circuits in this project. The modular MEMS-Electronic-Photonic Heterogeneous Integration (MEPHI) platform will make use of the high performance of the individual components and integrate (1) MEMS tunable VCSEL with high-index-contrast grating (HCG) mirrors, (2) photodetectors, (3) Si photonic waveguides, couplers, and interferometers, (4) high-efficiency vertical optical coupler between III-V and Si waveguides, and (5) CMOS circuits for frequency control and temperature compensation...

BPN651: Low Power, Low Noise Cavity Optomechanical Oscillators

Alejandro J. Grine
Turker Beyazoglu
Tristan Rocheleau
2014

Cavity optomechanics is a new and rapidly advancing field in which light is used to alter the properties of a mechanical element. Our project specifically aims to enhance mechanical motion by means of optical radiation pressure in a cavity of both high optical and mechanical quality factors. When enough light is built up in such a cavity, the mechanical self-oscillation results in precisely modulated light at the cavity output. Though there may be numerous applications for cavity optomechanics, we seek to use optomechanical oscillators as a replacement for power-hungry microwave...

BPN791: Integrated Photobioreactor with Optical Excitation Membranes (iPOEMs) for Efficient Photosynthetic Light Harvesting

Doyeon Bang
2015

Efficient photosynthetic light harvesting came into the spotlight due to the growing concerns on global energy crisis. However, non-uniform distribution of light in photobioreactor is one of major challenges for efficient photosynthetic light harvesting. We developed an integrated photobioreactor with optical excitation membranes (iPOEMs) by creating uniform optical antennas and scattering network in a flexible membrane. We demonstrated that iPOEMs are stable under temperature change (>80 ⁰C and <0 ⁰C) or illumination of intensive light (>50 mW/cm2). We developed iPOEMs with...

BPN609: Ultra-Sensitive Photodetectors on Silicon Photonics

Ryan Going
Tae Joon Seok
2015

As CMOS devices shrink in physical size, electrical interconnects between the devices will consume an ever-greater proportion of total chip power. A promising solution is to use silicon photonics for intra- and inter-chip communications. To be cost effective, both the optical transmitter and receiver should be made small, highly efficient, and CMOS compatible. Shrinking the photodiode will increase sensitivity and energy efficiency, but as it gets very small, the capacitance of the wire to the first amplifying stage in the receiver becomes significant. We present a solution which...

BPN830: High-throughput Integrated Chiral Analysis Platform (hiCAP) for Active Drug Discovery

Doyeon Bang
SoonGweon Hong
Jin-Ho Lee
2016

As we see the mirror image of our hand, many biological molecules such as DNA and proteins have left and right handed forms. We call this nature of handedness as the chirality of molecular structures. It is important to notice that we have right-handed sugars and left-handed amino acids, and there is a need for an effective method to screen pharmacologically active drugs as well as understanding the mechanisms of chiral interactions in living organisms. Here we describe a high-throughput integrated chiral analysis platform with microfluidics (hiCAP) for precise analysis of chirality...

BPN820: Multicast Silicon Photonic MEMS Switches

Sangyoon Han
Tae Joon Seok
2016

Silicon photonic switches have been developed for fast and low-cost optical switching. However most of demonstration is still limited in unicast operation. In this project, we develop a silicon photonic switch that is capable of multicast switching. We have implemented silicon photonic switches with movable waveguide couplers that can control power splitting ratio precisely. The switch has 4x20 ports, fast switching time (<9.6 us), low optical insertion loss (<4.0 dB), and small footprint (1.2 mm x 4.5 mm). We have demonstrated 1- to-2 and 1-to-4 multicast operation with the...

BPN811: High-Throughput Integrated Chiral Analysis Platform (hiCAP) for Active Drug Discovery

Doyeon Bang
SoonGweon Hong
Jin-Ho Lee
2016

As we see the mirror image of our hand, many biological molecules such as DNA and proteins have left and right handed forms. We call this nature of handedness as the chirality of molecular structures. It is important to notice that we have right-handed sugars and left-handed amino acids, and there is a need for an effective method to screen pharmacologically active drugs as well as understanding the mechanisms of chiral interactions in living organisms. Here we describe a high-throughput integrated chiral analysis platform with microfluidics (hiCAP) for precise analysis of chirality...

BPN807: Integrated Molecular Diagnostic System for Alzheimer’s Disease

Jin-Ho Lee
Ju-Young Byun
Jun Ho Son
Sang Hun Lee
2016

Amyloid beta (Aβ) is one of most crucial neuropathological biomarkers in Alzheimer's disease (AD). Up to date, the relation between the progress of the disorder and the interchange of Aβ level in the blood is still controversial; however, increasing evidence for transport of Aβ across the brain blood barrier (BBB) provides the linkage between concentrations of Aβ in central nervous system (CNS) and blood plasma. Hence, quantifying the Aβ level in blood plasma is considered as an emerging diagnostic method for AD. Here, we describe an integrated molecular diagnostic system (iMDx) for...