Scientific Director IPI and Full ProfessorInstitute for Photonic Integration, departments of Electrical Engineering (EE) and Applied Physics (AP), Eindhoven University of Technology.
Research ContextThe Institute for Photonic Integration (IPI) is a leading R&D center in the field of photonics. Photonic integration allows a variety of photonic functions (i.e. generation/amplification/processing/detection of light and O/E conversion) to be placed in the same semiconductor chip and be mass-manufactured in a highly reproducible and cost-effective way. We anticipate future use of photonic integrated circuits in data communications, imaging, spectroscopy and metrology due to the radical miniaturization, energy-savings, and step changes in resolution and speed. The work of the institute ranges from fundamental scientific research to the development of prototypes that are taken on to the product stage by industry. The Institute for Photonic Integration continues the research of the TU/e research school COBRA, in which several scientific staff members of both departments participate. In addition, a large cleanroom (800 m2) plus comprehensive laboratories for materials, devices and systems research are available. The research school has been one of the world's leaders of photonics research for decades. It has generated a range of start-up companies, and is cooperating with industries in various application domains.
The institute covers three fields: photonic materials (III-V semiconductors), photonic integrated circuits (PICs), and photonic systems:
- Materials. Research work here focuses on the development of advanced materials for photonics, including advanced growth and characterization of nanostructured semiconductors, metals and oxides.
- Photonic integrated circuits, or photonic microchips. A crucial element here is the creation of wafer-scale platforms to enable sustained advances in performance, and integration with microelectronics. The European platform JePPIX, was founded in 2007 to make the technology openly available, and this is coordinated from within the Institute for Photonic Integration.
- Systems that work on the basis of photonic microchips. The photonic systems are designed such that challenging application demands are met by translating system functions into PICs.
Within IPI we focus mainly on Indium-Phosphide (InP) semiconductor based Photonic Integration Technology and its applications.
The position
The candidate will be appointed as Director of the Institute for Photonic Integration (IPI) at the TU/e. Next to this, the candidate will be appointed as a full professor in one of the three research fields covered by IPI. The institute is a lean organization with a scientific director supported by a project officer and secretary. The scientific director defines the strategic research vision and the corresponding roadmaps in collaboration with the EE/AP research groups (technology push) and key industrial and societal partners (application pull). He/She will help to set up and coordinate the large national and European research project proposals to materialize roadmaps. He/She will actively interact and be the prime external representative towards governmental bodies such as NWO, OCW and Brainport as well as towards (major) industrial parties (such as ASML, KPN, NXP, Signify, Philips, …).