Friday, March 07, 2003
521 Cory Hall, Hogan Room
2:10-3:00 p.m.

Professor Ming C. Wu

Electrical Engineering, UCLA

Micro/Nano Photonics and Optoelectronics for Communications and Sensing Applications

Abstract:

In the last few years, we have witnessed an explosive growth in several areas of photonics and optoelectronics, including Optical MEMS, nanoscopic photonic integrated circuits, and high-speed optoelectronics. In Optical MEMS, most of the current systems are based on free-space optics that requires long propagation distances. As a result, the systems are bulky even though the MEMS parts are small. In this talk, I will present some new directions in integrated micro-optical systems for communications, networking, or biosensing applications. By seamlessly integrating Optical MEMS with planar lightwave circuits, nanophotonic integrated circuits, or optoelectronics, Optical System-on-a-Chip (or System-in-a-Cube) can be achieved.

In this talk, I will first describe a free-space wavelength selective switch (WSS) based on a low voltage analog micromirror array. Approaches for integrating the WSS onto a chip by replacing free-space optics with integrated optics will be discussed. Since WSS is the basic building block of wavelength-selective crossconnect (WSXC), the chip-scale WSS offers a new path towards “monolithic” integration of WSXC’s. I will talk about our 3D integration scheme for integrating the entire WSXC in a solid “cube”. Use of novel artificial materials such as photonic crystal Superprism can further reduce the size of the chip (and cube). Next, I will talk about the integration of MEMS and nanophotonic integrated circuits. I will present two examples: MEMS-actuated photonic crystal switches, and reconfigurable wavelength-division-multiplexing (WDM) circuits based on MEMS-actuated microdisk resonators. The third topic I will cover is a new area enabled by integrating MEMS and optoelectronics. We have discovered a new way to drive and process liquid droplets and possibly micro-particles (e.g., biological cells) using optical beams. Combining this will optical detection, it is feasible to make an all-optical Lab-on-a-Chip for biological sensing applications.

Ming C. Wu received his B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from National Taiwan University in 1983, and the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences from the University of California, Berkeley in 1985 and 1988, respectively. From 1988 to 1992, he was a Member of Technical Staff at AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill. In 1993, he joined the faculty of Electrical Engineering Department of UCLA, where he is currently Professor. He is also Director of UCLA’s Nanoelectronics Research Center, and Vice Chair for Industrial Relations. His current research interests include MEMS, Optical MEMS, biophotonics, microwave photonics, and high-speed optoelectronics. Dr. Wu was the founding Co-Chair for IEEE LEOS Summer Topical Meeting on Optical MEMS in 1996. The meeting has now evolved into an international conference rotating among Europe, Asia, and U.S. Dr. Wu has also served in program committees of OFC, CLEO, MEMS, IEDM, DRC, ISSCC, and MWP. Dr. Wu has published over 340 papers, 4 book chapters, and holds 10 U.S. patents. He is a David and Lucile Packard Foundation Fellow (1992-1997), and an IEEE Fellow.