The IEEE Orange County Computer Society
Presents

Silicon Photonics:
The Potential Impact in Medicine & Defense.

Silicon has emerged as the ultimate manufacturing platform. IC manufacturers are building chips that contain 1 billion transistors and are mass manufacturing them with such efficiency that they can be sold in consumer electronic products. This combination of technological sophistication and economics of scale is unparalleled in the history of the industrial world. While silicon dominates the electronic industry, with one or two minor exceptions, there are no photonic devices that are manufactured in silicon. Yet, fueled by the proliferation of the internet, photonics technology has become the bedrock of modern communication.

This talk will review recent breakthroughs in the field of silicon photonics, including developments of optical amplifiers, lasers, optical switches, and wavelength converters. It will discuss the potential impact of silicon photonics in computer interconnects as well as in previously unforeseen applications in medicine and defense.

BIOGRAPHY

Dr. Bahram Jalali is a Professor of Electrical Engineering and the Director of the UCLA Optoelectronic Circuits and System Laboratory. From 1988-1992, he was a Member of Technical Staff at the Physics Research Division of AT&T Bell Laboratories in Murray Hill, New Jersey, where he conducted research on ultrafast electronics and optoelectronics. His current research interests are in silicon photonics and RF-photonic signal processing. Prof. Jalali has over 200 publications and holds 6 US patents. He is a Fellow of IEEE and OSA and Chair of the Los Angeles Chapter of IEEE-LEOS. While on sabbatical from UCLA during 1999-2001, Prof. Jalali founded Cognet Microsystems, a Los Angeles based fiber optic component company. He served as the Company’s CEO, President and Chair, from the Company’s inception through its acquisition by Intel Corporation in April 2001. He has received the BridgeGate 20 Award for his contributions to the Southern California economy. From 2001-2004, he served as a consultant at Intel Corporation. Prof. Jalali serves on the Board of Trustees of the California Science Center.