SPEAKERS
Plenary Speaker
Raja Manickam Founder CEO, iVP Semiconductor
Title: Manufacturing Built up Integration
Abstract: The last 3 decades has been about squeezing more transistors, creating analog and digital structures in same process and passive integration using substrates or wafer level interconnects. However, the new frontier is in integrating different domains in electrical, optical and even magnetic elements in single subsystems. The challenges in people who have knowledge in multiple domains, equipment balancing or modular equipment required, companies sharing IP so the boundaries can be managed.
Bio: With over three decades in the world of Semiconductors, Raja's journey is a testament to his unwavering commitment to innovation and excellence. Raja started as a test engineer at Texas Instruments, but quickly jumped into management. From adeptly managing product lines to steering manufacturing floors, Raja's entrepreneurial spirit came to the forefront when he founded Tessolve Semiconductor, a venture that thrived under his leadership from its inception to a successful exit. As the CEO of OSAT for TATA Electronics, Raja continued to leave an indelible mark on the semiconductor landscape. His overarching dream has consistently been to cultivate environments where employees find freedom from fear and bureaucracy, allowing them to channel their energies into innovation and execution. Despite his extensive experience in fundraising, business strategy, and successful company building, Raja remains, at heart, an engineer with a profound desire to nurture a community dedicated to creating impactful solutions. Raja has a degree in Electronics from IIT Kharagpur. He is a mentor and a sought-after speaker on semiconductor ecosystem development.
Invited Speakers
Dr Patrick Lo CTO, Advanced Micro-Foundry (AMF)
Title: From Concept to Volume-Production: How Silicon Photonics Foundries Promote Industry Transformation and Grow with the Industry?
Abstract: For >2 decades on Silicon Photonics technology from “Lab-based scientific and engineering curiosity” to commercially validated products development and deployment, we have been witnessing a rapid progress in aspects of its technologies, application exploration and market adoption and development as a viable and indispensable platform. Unlike conventional electronic IC industry which has gradually established standard foundry services (not entirely true either), silicon photonics requires high customization due to the complexity of the photonic devices. This talk will discuss the current status of silicon photonics in terms of recent industrialization effort, different products and market progressing and how future platforms developments are needed to manage the ever growth demand. With this backdrop, this talk will discuss on the progress made by the industry as whole, and shares s experience in aspect of how dedicated foundry has been promoting the industry of the integrated photonics and grow with the growing industry in symbiosis.
Bio: Patrick received Ph.D. in electrical and computer engineering from the University of Texas at Austin, USA, in 1992. He was with Integrated Device Technology, Inc., USA, on Silicon-CMOS semiconductor manufacturing areas in process and integration R&D. From 2004 to 2017, he was with IME/Singapore, where he was the Laboratory Director and Program Directors of Nanoelectronics and Photonics program and subsequently the Deputy Executive Director of the institute covering R&D. At 2017, he co-founded the company as Advanced Micro Foundry Pte Ltd, being the President and now as CTO, focusing on silicon photonics manufacturing technology industrialization and commercialization, with dedicated Si Photonics Foundry Services and Solutions. He was the recipient of the IEEE George E. Smith Award for Best Paper Published in the IEEE Electronic Device Letters in 2007. He has won both Singapore’s National Technology Award and President Technology Award for his works on nano-Electronics and Photonics in 2008 and 2010, respectively.
Dr Andrew Brown Senior Director, Global Business Development, SPIE
Title: Global Photonics Market Trends
Abstract: This presentation will unveil the most recent data and trends from analysis by SPIE of the global photonics industry. For over a decade, SPIE has tracked and analyzed the companies that are core to driving photonics-enabled markets and applications. Now exceeding $370 billion, the core photonics market has grown at a CAGR of nearly 7.5 percent, exceeding global GDP growth of ~4 percent over the same timeframe. Photonics underpins many end-uses such as streaming services, and a new estimate of the total photonics-enabled products and services market is $16 trillion, or 15 percent of the total global GDP.
Bio: Andrew Brown earned his PhD in laser physics from St. Andrews University, Scotland. After emigrating to the US, Andrew held technical and business leadership positions at several photonics companies including Aculight Corporation that was acquired by Lockheed Martin. Andrew leads the global business development activities for SPIE and frequently talks on the size and importance of the global photonics industry.
Associate Professor Chengkuo Lee National University of Singapore
Title: Artificial Intelligence (AI)-Enhanced Photonic Nose
Abstract: Artificial-Intelligence (AI)-enhanced nanosensors are rapidly emerging as a promising solution. With the inception of machine learning algorithms being applied to enhance nanosensors, mid-infrared (MIR) waveguide sensors and nanoantenna sensors are promising for label-free compositional detection of mixtures leveraging plentiful absorption fingerprints. Leveraging the AI-enhanced photonic nanosensors, i.e., AI-enhanced Photonic Nose, the MIR absorption spectra of mixture in water and air can be successfully distinguished and decomposed to single component spectra for predicting concentration. Our work indicates the potential of further extending this AI-enhanced Photonic Nose sensing platform to MIR spectrometer-on-chip aiming for the data analytics of multiple organic components.
Bio: Chengkuo Lee received his Ph.D. from the University of Tokyo in 1996. Currently, he is the director of Center for Intelligent Sensors and MEMS, and the Global Foundries Chair Professor in Engineering at National University of Singapore. He has trained more than 35 PhD students graduated from ECE, NUS. He has contributed to more than 470 peer-reviewed international journal articles in the fields of MIR Photonics, Metamaterials, Sensors, and AIoT. His Google Scholar Citations are 32000+ and H-index is 97. He is recognized as one of the 21 most influential professors at NUS in 2023.
Associate Professor Donguk Nam Nanyang Technological University Singapore
Title: Strain-engineered GeSn light sources for photonic-integrated circuits
Abstract: Recently, silicon photonics has emerged as the leading technology for building a practical, fault-tolerant quantum computer. Utilizing the same manufacturing techniques used for electronic chips containing billions of components, silicon photonics enables the creation of millions of quantum photonic devices on a tiny chip to increase the number of photonic qubits for quantum computing. This unique ability of silicon photonics has spurred global competition among universities and companies to develop key quantum photonic devices and circuits. Despite the successful demonstrations of many of the components required for quantum computing, creating an integrated light source—a crucial piece for preparing resources—remains a significant challenge because efficient light emission in silicon-compatible materials is fundamentally prohibited. In this work, we will share our recent results in developing GeSn lasers that can potentially become a strong candidate to complete the missing link for fully integrated photonic circuits.
Bio: Dr. Donguk Nam received his Ph.D. (2014) and M.S. (2012) degrees both in the Department of Electrical Engineering from Stanford University, and obtained a B.Eng. degree from Korea University (2009). In Aug 2017, he joined NTU as an Assistant Professor. His research works focus on developing quantum photonic devices and systems for integrated optical and quantum computing technologies. His research group has constantly published research outputs in high-impact journals including Nature Communications, which have been highlighted by a number of media and magazines including Channel NewsAsia (CNA) and Optics and Photonics News (OPN). Dr. Nam has served and is currently serving as a committee chair and member for several top international conferences such as CLEO, IEEE SUM, ECS Meetings, etc. He is the recipient of several awards including 2023 NTU College of Engineering (COE) Research - Young Faculty Award (Special Mention), 2020 Early Career Teaching Excellence Award and 2023 Inspirational Mentor for Koh Boon Hwee Award from NTU.