Electronics and Nanoscale Engineering

Speaker: Professor Christophe Caucheteur

Short bio: Christophe Caucheteur is Professor at University of Mons (UMONS), Belgium and F.R.S-FNRS Research Director. He is the head of the Advanced Photonic Sensors Unit (APS), recipient of an ERC Starting Grant in 2011 and specializes in photonics and optical fiber sensors. He is also the founder of a spin-off company, B-SENS, since 2016.

Summary: Plasmonics has revolutionized light manipulation at the nanoscale by combining electromagnetic waves with electrons in noble metals, enhancing applications in biosensing and imaging. Notable examples like the Biacore series illustrate the effectiveness of surface plasmon resonance (SPR) in detecting biomolecules. Plasmonic optical fibers, especially tilted fiber Bragg gratings (TFBGs), are renowned for their adaptability and exceptional sensitivity to subtle refractive index (RI) changes, making them highly effective in biosensing. Research on TFBGs has continually advanced plasmonic biosensing for medical diagnostics and environmental monitoring. The exploration of TFBGs as highly sensitive refractometers began in 2001, focusing on spectral shifts under varying RI values. It was discovered that increasing the RI caused a redshift in the spectral modes, leading to a globally shifted spectrum. This pivotal finding paved the way for further studies into the spectral properties of TFBGs, particularly in the infrared range. In 2007, Shevchenko and Albert made significant progress by enhancing TFBG sensitivity to RI changes with a 20 nm gold coating, enabling resonance with surface plasmons. This improvement was experimentally confirmed through observations of "anomalous resonance" in the spectrum. Subsequent research in 2011 demonstrated that SPR responses could be fine-tuned by adjusting the polarization of incident light. Since then, numerous studies have highlighted the high biodetection capabilities of gold-coated TFBGs for various targets, including proteins and cells. This ongoing development emphasizes the effort to create advanced analytical techniques, aiming to improve signal-to-noise ratio and sensitivity while enhancing the technological readiness of TFBG sensors. We will review our main achievements gathered on that topic during the past decade.

Speaker: Dr. D. Scott Holmes

Speaker: Dr Marco Carminati

Short Bio: 

Speaker: Professor Peter Huggard

Biography of the speaker:

Professor Huggard is an expert in technology for that part of the electromagnetic spectrum lying between microwaves and infrared, the terahertz. He leads the globally important and unique 35 strong Millimetre Wave Technology Group in the R&D, delivery and application of state-of-the-art scientific instruments for studying the Earth’s atmosphere and for radioastronomy. High impact societal benefits include increased national income, more accurate weather forecasts, lower cost electricity, and a deeper scientific understanding of clouds, our changing climate and the distant universe. He obtained his PhD at Trinity College Dublin in 1991 and worked for the University of Bath between 1998 and 2000. He became a Scientist at RAL in 2000 and has secured and delivered on over £6M of technology projects since then.

Abstract:

The Millimetre Technology Group at RAL Space, part of UK Research and Innovation, specialises in the development and supply of waveguide heterodyne technology at frequencies from the W-Band to above 1 THz. I will describe the Group’s capabilities, particularly in the areas of precision CNC machining and air-bridged Schottky diode technology, and report on some recent collaborative instrumentation projects for Earth observation, radioastronomy and atmospheric science.  The largest of these is the supply of high reliability space flight receivers at frequencies up to 229 GHz for atmospheric remote sensing, part of EUMETSAT’s MetOp-Second Generation programme. The heterodyne receivers, some working with low noise amplifiers, will provide global atmospheric data on humidity and temperature, critical inputs to numerical weather prediction.

Last year, the Group delivered CARUSO to the Sardinia Radio Telescope. CARUSO (Cryogenic Array Receiver for Users of the Sardinia Observatory) is a 16 pixel, dual polarisation sideband separating receiver covering 75 to 116 GHz. It incorporates cryogenic p-HEMT low noise amplifiers and sideband separating InGaAs sub-harmonic mixers with low local oscillator power requirements. The design and performance of the instrument will be reported. Finally, I will present GRaCE (G-band Radar for Cloud Experiments), a 200 GHz ground based solid state Doppler cloud radar. The zenith looking GRaCE is intended to derisk technology and to build the science case for a high frequency space borne cloud radar. Instrument performance aspects and recent results from cloud observations will be discussed. 

Speaker: Dr William McGenn

Abstract: The radio instruments used on radio telescopes are, in principle, not much different to those used in many communication systems that are in constant use in the modern world. The difference comes from the need to increase the sensitivity of these instruments to allow for ever more detailed observations of the universe around us, including cooling the receivers to cryogenic temperatures. As the application area of radio astronomy develops with technological capability, larger arrays of telescopes and more complex receiver architectures (focal plane arrays and phased array feeds) are becoming more prevalent. This is increasing the numbers of components that are needed as well as placing physical limitations on the size and placement of these components.

In microwave, millimetre, and submillimetre-wave instruments transistor based Low Noise Amplifiers (LNAs) are the technology of choice. This talk will present an overview of my work in the Advanced Radio Instrumentation group at the University of Manchester, as part of a project to manufacture and characterise over 100 W-band LNAs for a new multi-pixel receiver that has just been installed on a telescope. This will include the process of miniaturising the LNA to fit the receiver, and how we are building on this in our next projects, and also the process of building a three-channel cryogenic, automated noise measurement system in order to increase the throughput of LNA measurements. I will end my talk with a look towards the future, and introduce the new research that is investigating the limitations of transistor performance at cryogenic temperatures.

Bio: Dr William McGenn is a research associate in the Advanced Radio Instrumentation Group at the University of Manchester, a cross department research group that specialise in the design and characterisation of microwave, millimetre-wave and submillimetre-wave radio instrumentation systems, primarily for use in radio astronomy observatories. William specialises in the design and characterisation of cryogenic Low Noise Amplifiers (LNAs), and the transistors and components needed for this. Prior to this William was a PhD student in the Centre for High Frequency Engineering at Cardiff University, where he used RF IV waveform measurement systems to study the reliability of GaN HEMT transistors.

Speaker: Prof Maryam Shojaei Baghini

Abstract: A highly affordable programmable frequency measurement system (PrO-FMS) based on hardware-software co-design featuring the usage of frequency estimation for sub 100 nm particulate mass measurement. Details of the Pro-FMS and the lab measurement results with reference to a commercial desktop frequency counter will be shown.

Brief biodata of the speaker: Maryam Shojaei Baghini is a TATA Trust Chair Professor in Frugal Engineering in the Department of Electrical Engineering IIT Bombay, India. Her research interests span analog/mixed-signal/RF IC design for various applications, sensor systems and device-circuit co-design. She has published 328 peer-reviewed papers and is the joint-inventor of 6 granted U.S. patents and 24 granted Indian patents. She is fellow of INAE and distinguished Lecturer of IEEE Sensors Council from 2022 to 2024. She is recipient of Qualcomm-India faculty award. Maryam received the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Electronics Engineering from Sharif University of Technology, Tehran, followed by 2 years of industry experience and postdoctoral research at IIT Bombay before joining as a faculty member in 2008. 

Speaker: Dr. Luigi G. Occhipinti

Abstract:

Printable sensors and electronic technologies are unique enablers of flexible, conformable, lightweight, skin-compliant, and bio-compatible integrated smart systems, for multi-sectorial applications, including personalised diagnostics and therapeutics. 

Solely powering autonomous IoT devices with batteries may not sustain the growing complexity and size of the IoT ecosystem as it proceeds to one trillion nodes. For that leveraging energy storage with ambient energy harvesting technologies might help mitigate the sustainability challenge. Also, when it comes to sensors and electronics for data acquisition and processing, the design and development of ultra-low power printed electronic circuits and sensors, made of eco-friendly materials and manufacturing processes, plays a critical role in managing the power budget at the system level, and reducing the burden of batteries and conventional electronics to the environment. 

Our recent works focus on thin-film, organic and graphene-based sensors [1]-[8], ambient energy harvesters and storage [9]-[11], ultra-low power printed electronics [12]-[13], and integration in flexible, stretchable and textile substrates [14]-[16], as suitable technologies for next generation flexible and wearable smart systems, alongside AI-based human data models and data processing [17]-[18].

In this talk I will discuss design, advanced materials and heterogenous integration technology challenges and approaches for next generation printed and flexible electronics, having sustainability as their key driving development factor, alongside functionality, bio/eco-compatibility, and end-use convenience.

Bio: 

Luigi Occhipinti has been managing research and innovation for over 25 years, encompassing multiple fields of engineering including sensors, biomedical devices, electronic design and manufacturing, advanced signal processing, AI and robotics, renewable energies, and nanomaterials. Luigi is active both in academia and industry. After completing his PhD studies in 1995, he worked for over 18 years in the global semiconductor player SGS-Thomson Microelectronics (now STMicroelectronics), covering multiple roles in the organisation from team leader to group technical director, strategic alliances and R&D programs manager, with responsibility of teams located in Italy, France and Singapore.  Since 2014 he works at the University of Cambridge, Department of Engineering, where Luigi is currently the Director of Research in Graphene and Related Technologies and covering the role of Deputy Director and Chief Operating Officer of the Cambridge Graphene Centre. The outcome of his research and innovation are captured in over 130 scientific publications in journals and conference proceedings, 3 book chapters, and over 65 patents and patent applications in 45 different patent families having Luigi as inventor or co-inventor (9 as sole inventor).

Speaker: Luigi G. Occhipinti

Abstract:  Printable sensors and electronic technologies are unique enablers of flexible, conformable, lightweight, skin-compliant, and bio-compatible integrated smart systems, for multi-sectorial applications, including personalised diagnostics and therapeutics.

Solely powering autonomous IoT devices with batteries may not sustain the growing complexity and size of the IoT ecosystem as it proceeds to one trillion nodes. For that leveraging energy storage with ambient energy harvesting technologies might help mitigate the sustainability challenge. Also, when it comes to sensors and electronics for data acquisition and processing, the design and development of ultra-low power printed electronic circuits and sensors, made of eco-friendly materials and manufacturing processes, plays a critical role in managing the power budget at the system level, and reducing the burden of batteries and conventional electronics to the environment.

Our recent works focus on thin-film, organic and graphene-based sensors. ambient energy harvesters and storage, ultra-low power printed electronics, and integration in flexible, stretchable and textile substrates, as suitable technologies for next generation flexible and wearable smart systems, alongside AI-based human data models and data processing.

In this talk, I will discuss design, advanced materials and heterogenous integration technology challenges and approaches for next-generation printed and flexible electronics, having sustainability as their key driving development factor, alongside functionality, bio/eco-compatibility, and end-user convenience.

Bio: 

Luigi Occhipinti has been managing research and innovation for over 25 years, encompassing multiple fields of engineering including sensors, biomedical devices, electronic design and manufacturing, advanced signal processing, AI and robotics, renewable energies, and nanomaterials.

Luigi is active both in academia and industry. After completing his PhD studies in 1995, he worked for over 18 years in the global semiconductor player SGS-Thomson Microelectronics (now STMicroelectronics), covering multiple roles in the organisation from team leader to group technical director, strategic alliances and R&D programs manager, with responsibility of teams located in Italy, France and Singapore.

Since 2014 he works at the University of Cambridge, Department of Engineering, where Luigi is currently the Director of Research in Graphene and Related Technologies and covering the role of Deputy Director and Chief Operating Officer of the Cambridge Graphene Centre.

Luigi is Senior member of IEEE, the world's largest technical professional organization dedicated to advancing technology for the benefit of humanity, as well as member of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBS), the IEEE Electron Device Society (EDS), the American Chemical Society (ACS), the Materials Research Society (MRS), and sits in multiple advisory boards of multinational collaborative research programs, experts technology groups, and editorial boards of scientific journals and book series.

He also served in different standardisation committees, such as the IEEE P1620 on Organic Transistors and Materials, the IEEE P1620.1 on Organic Transistor-Based Ring Oscillators, the IEC/CEI CT105 on Fuel Cells technology, the IEC/CEI CT111 (Environmental Standardization for Electrical and Electronic Products and Systems), and the IEC/CEI CT113 (Nanotechnologies).

Luigi is the General Co-Chair of the IEEE International Conference on Flexible and Printable Sensors and Systems (FLEPS) 2022 and former Technical Programme Chair since the first edition in 2019. He is also Programme Committee Member and former Chair of the Innovations in Large-Area Electronics Conference and Exhibition (innoLAE) since 2015.

The outcome of his research and innovation are captured in over 130 scientific publications in journals and conference proceedings, 3 book chapters, and over 65 patents and patent applications in 45 different patent families having Luigi as inventor or co-inventor (9 as sole inventor).

Speaker: Professor Sanghyeon Kim

Abstract: 

Recently, monolithic 3-dimensional (M3D) integration has stirred much attention in various applications such as CMOS, RF, image sensors, etc. III-V could be promising candidates for the materials due to their superior material characteristics and low process temperature, which are important constraints in M3D integration. III-V would have benefited from its superior carrier transport characteristics allowing high-frequency applications. Especially, recent needs in communication chips for transistor technology providing high cutoff frequency and co-integration capability will require M3D integration of III-V transistors on Si CMOS.  In this talk, we discuss the potential applications of III-V-based M3D including communication and quantum computing.

Biography: 

SangHyeon Kim received his B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in electronic engineering from The University of Tokyo, Japan, in 2009, 2011, and 2014, respectively. After his Ph.D., he was with Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST), Korea in 2014 until he moved to Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Korea in 2019. Before joining KAIST, he was a post-doc R&D Specialist at imec, Belgium from 2017 to 2018. He is currently an associate professor with the School of electrical engineering, KAIST, Korea. His current research interests include Next-generation computing/communication devices, monolithic 3D integration, MicroLED, thin-film imager, and MID-IR photonics, etc.

*** If you have any questions related to this talk please contact the organiser Dr. Kaveh Delfanazari (kaveh.delfanazari@glasgow.ac.uk).

Speaker: Professor Robert R. Thomson

Abstract: Photonic lanterns are guided wave components that facilitate the efficient transfer of light between multimode and single mode guided wave systems. In this talk, I will discuss how photonic lanterns work, how they can be fabricated and some of the emerging applications for these powerful devices.

Short Bio: Robert R. Thomson obtained the B.Sc in Physics from Heriot Watt University in 2000, the M.Sc in Optoelectronics and Laser Devices from the University of St Andrews in 2001, and the Ph.D in Physics from Heriot Watt University in 2006. From 2010-15 he was an STFC Advanced Fellow, developing photonic technologies for applications in astronomy. He is currently Full Professor of Photonics at the Institute of Photonics and Quantum Sciences (IPaQS) at Heriot Watt University in Edinburgh, Scotland, where he leads the photonic instrumentation group (phi.eps.hw.ac.uk). He has published over 100 articles in leading journals such as Adv. Opt. Photon., Phys. Rev. Lett., and Nat. Commun. and has received grants valued at >£34M (£10M as PI). His research interests range from fundamental optics to highly applied photonics in areas such as ultrafast laser micro-fabrication and biomedical photonics (see u-care.ac.uk). He co-founded Optoscribe Ltd in 2010, which was acquired by Intel in 2022.

*** If you have any questions related to this talk please contact the organiser Dr. Kaveh Delfanazari (kaveh.delfanazari@glasgow.ac.uk).

Speaker: Professor Martin Kuball

Wide and increasingly ultrawide bandgap semiconductors play a dominant role for power and RF devices for net zero eg intelligent power networks as well as improved communication systems; they offer opportunities to deliver higher and higher powers, and higher voltages than traditional semiconductors can provide, for applications ranging from radars, satellite communications to power conversion for example in advanced power networks, electric planes, just to name a few. With these though come challenges, for device reliability – high peak device temperatures and high electric fields near e.g. a gate edge or in the dielectric can drive the devices to early degradation/failure if not managed well. How can these assessed ? How can these be mitigated for ? Can integration of wide and ultra-wide bandgap semiconductor with other materials, e.g. diamond, offer solutions ? What are consequences for packaging – new die attach and packaging solutions such as metals/diamond composites? Challenges (and solutions) will be discussed on examples.

Speaker: Michael Thompson

Abstract: The superconducting proximity effect in graphene can be used to create Josephson junctions that are tunable using a field effect gate. This has the potential to add additional functionality to technologies based on these junctions and hybrid graphene Josephson junctions have already been used to create microwave circuits, qubits, bolometers and superconducting interference devices (SQUIDs). In order to optimise these electronic circuits, it is important to understand the sources of noise that may hinder their performance. At cryogenic temperatures, the noise of such devices is below that of our room temperature electronics. By performing a cross-correlation technique using two parallel measurement channels and with thousands of time averages, we are able to measure the noise of graphene junction SQUIDs to below the limits of our electronics. From these measurements we find that the sensitivity of our graphene SQUIDs is comparable with conventional devices made using tunnel-junctions. Graphene junctions are more robust against electrostatic discharge than metal-oxide tunnel-junctions making graphene SQUIDs an attractive alternative. However, it has been shown that the current-phase-relation (CPR) of ballistic graphene junctions is non-sinusoidal. Through simulations of both sinusoidal and skewed CPRs, we find that SQUIDs with a skewed CPR, as expected for our devices, have reduced sensitivity. This skewness can be varied with temperature and carrier density, which has important implications for the design and operation of electronic circuits making use of these junctions.

Biography: Michael is a Lecturer and RAEng Research Fellow working in the Department of Physics at Lancaster University. He completed his PhD in 2014 studying narrow bandgap GaInSb quantum wells for optoelectronics. Following this he worked on InAs nanowire photodetectors, graphene Josephson junctions and other 2D material devices. In 2019 he was awarded an RAEng research fellowship to develop low temperature electronics using 2D materials. 

Speaker: Prof. Ruonan Han

Abstract:

Terahertz (THz) electronics is attracting increasing attentions due to the recent “beyond-5G” research. On the other hand, it may surprise many that devices for THz wave generation and detection had in fact been reported as early as one century ago, and even the CMOS-based low-cost THz circuit also already has more than 10 years of history. Despite those advances, exploration of unique and practical applications of the THz technology, especially the applications for THz chip-scale systems, is still insufficient. In this talk, we briefly introduce our recent research outcomes in this regard. Showcased prototypes include gas molecular spectrometer with high specificity, chip-scale molecular clock, high-angular-resolution radar, lightweight wireline chip link, mm-sized packageless RFID, cryogenic low-power interconnects, and so on.

Speaker’s biography:

Ruonan Han received his B.S. degree from Fudan University in 2007 and Ph.D. degree from Cornell University in 2014. He is now a tenured associate professor at the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, MIT. His research group focuses on RF-to-photonics integrated systems for spectroscopy, metrology, imaging, quantum sensing/ processing, broadband/secure communication, etc. He serves on the Technical Program Committee of IEEE ISSCC conference and RFIC Symposium. He and his students have won three best student paper awards (2012, 2017 and 2021) in the RFIC symposium. He is the IEEE MTT-S Distinguished Microwave Lecturer in 2020-2022, and the winner of the Intel Outstanding Researcher Award in 2019 and the National Science Foundation CAREER Award in 2017.

Speaker: Prof. Charlie Ironside

Abstract

Focused ions beam (FIB) machines are versatile instruments that use high energy ions – usually Gallium ions -to mill a vast variety of samples with nanometer spatial resolution, down to around 8nm resolution. The FIBs are usually combined with other capabilities such as Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEMs) and secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMs) in instruments that provide excellent tools for nanofab and defect analysis for nanodevices.   This talk covers employing a focused ion beam instrument for nanofabrication of optical diffraction grating intended as components for chip-scale atom traps [1] and a slice-and-view FIB-SEM technique that discovered defects in vertical cavity surface emitting lasers (VCSELs)[2]. Also check out :- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2w6iwBc-UI

 [1]   X. Sun et al., "Rapid prototyping of grating magneto-optical traps using a focused ion beam," Opt Express, Article vol. 29, no. 23, pp. 37733-37746, Nov 2021, doi: 10.1364/oe.439479.

[2]   X. Sun et al., "Targeted defect analysis in VCSEL oxide windows using 3D slice and view," Semicond Sci Tech, Article vol. 36, no. 6, p. 6, Jun 2021, Art no. 065015, doi: 10.1088/1361-6641/abfa2f.

Speaker: Naeem Altaf

After many years in the Space Industry, I have experienced countless challenges around gaining access to space (even in developed countries like the US) — so I could only imagine the challenges that individuals in developing nations must face. In this talk, I will like to give an overview of the Space Industry. I will share the vision of the ENDURANCE CubeSat mission which is aimed to answer the question: How can we streamline the process of getting school-aged children to access the wonders of space - to inspire the next generation of future space explorers and leaders?
I will discuss the clear solution: We could leverage IBM / RedHat technology to allow students worldwide to interact directly with a CubeSat in Low Earth Orbit - giving them the ability to use code to access data from various sensors, take pictures, perform calculations, and get the results back down to earth via ground stations and the IBM Cloud. I will discuss how we are making space accessible to everyone on this planet - In other words, Democratizing Access to Space.

Speaker: Tom Hayward

Domain walls (DWs) in soft, ferromagnetic nanowires have been a topic of intense research interest due to proposals to use them as data carriers in energy efficient, non-volatile logic and memory devices. However, despite their apparent technological potential, these devices have been challenging to realise, because DWs pinning and propagation is highly stochastic, making digital devices unreliable [1]. While materials engineering approaches can be used to supress stochasticity [2], it is also interesting to consider whether alternative computer paradigms could prove more resistant to, or even benefit from, the DWs’ stochastic behaviours, thus converting it from a technologically inhibitive phenomenon into a functional property. 

In this talk I will introduce the basic physical behaviours of domain walls in magnetic nanowires and show how these lead to complex and stochastic interactions between DWs and defect sites. I will then present a combination of experimental measurements and simulations that illustrate how these behaviours can be used to realise two different neuromorphic (brain-like) computing paradigms in hardware: feed-forward neural networks and reservoir computing [3]. The work presented will include experimental demonstrations of how these devices can be used to performed benchmark machine learning tasks such as spoken/written digit recognition.

[1] T.J. Hayward and K.A. Omari, Beyond the quasi-particle: stochastic domain wall dynamics in soft ferromagnetic nanowires, Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics 50, 8, 084006 (2017).

[2] T.J. Broomhall, A.W. Rushforth, M.C. Rosamond, E.H. Linfield, and T.J. Hayward, Physical Review Applied 13, 024039 (2020).

[3] R. W. Dawidek, T. J. Hayward, I. T. Vidamour, T. J. Broomhall, M. Al Mamoori, A. Mullen, S. J. Kyle, P. W. Fry, N. J. Steinke, J. F. K. Cooper, F. Maccherozzi, S. S.Dhesi, L. Aballe, M. Foerster, J. Prat, E. Vasilaki, M. O. A. Ellis, D. A. Allwood, submitted to Advanced Functional Materials (2020).

Speaker: Prof Alexander Grigorenko

 Abstract:

“We will discuss plasmonic surface lattice resonances which appear when metal nanoparticles are arranged in ordered arrays. If one of the diffracted waves propagates in the plane of the array, it may couple the localized plasmon resonances, leading to an exciting phenomenon of the drastic narrowing of plasmon resonances down to 1−2 nm in spectral width. This presents a dramatic improvement compared to a typical single particle resonance line width of >80 nm. The very high quality factors of these diffractively coupled plasmon resonances and related effects have made this topic a very active and exciting field for fundamental research, and increasingly, these resonances have been investigated for their potential in the development of practical devices for communications, optoelectronics, photovoltaics, biosensing, and other applications. We describe the basic physical principles and properties of plasmonic surface lattice resonances and pay special attention to the conditions of their excitation in different experimental architectures by considering the following: in-plane and out-of-plane polarizations of the incident light, symmetric and asymmetric optical (refractive index) environments, the presence of substrate conductivity, etc. We will also review recent progress in applications of plasmonic surface lattice resonances in various fields.”

Biography:

Prof. Grigorenko graduated from Moscow Physical Technical University in 1986 and got his PhD in 1989. He worked in the General Physics Institute for 10 years under the guidance of A. M. Prokhorov – laser inventor. After a spell as a postdoc in Bath and Plymouth Universities, he became a Lecturer and then Professor at the University of Manchester (from 2002). Prof. Grigorenko enjoys science in general and optics in particular.

Meeting link:

https://uofglasgow.zoom.us/j/97931764773?pwd=ZS9oUFI5YUNqZXNZWktvK28xK29Vdz09

Speaker: Dr. Pol Forn-Díaz

Abstract:

Superconducting qubits have become the dominating physical platform worldwide on which to develop quantum processors. A race exists between large-scale computing technology providers to attain an error corrected quantum processor. That feat is still several years away, and current efforts are diverted towards finding particular applications for realistic problems with faulty quantum processor prototypes. The recently founded group at IFAE in Barcelona is developing superconducting quantum processors to implement quantum annealing protocols, which operate without quantum error correction.

In this seminar, I will first introduce the quantum computing project starting at IFAE which specifically targets coherent quantum annealer prototypes through project AVaQus. This project aims at developing individual circuit elements, qubits and couplers, designed to maintain quantum coherence while operated as quantum annealers.

In the second part of the talk I will present the first results obtained at the IFAE lab operating a single superconducting transmon qubit as a universal approximant of bounded complex mathematical functions stored in the degrees of freedom defining the qubit state. This new algorithm has been developed by the quantum computing group at the Barcelona Supercomputing Center and is a new example of a hybrid classical-quantum algorithm, providing a new, useful functionality for quantum computers.

Short bio:

Dr. Pol Forn-Díaz leads the Quantum Computing Technology group at the Institute for High Energy Physics in Barcelona since 2019. The group focuses on using superconducting qubits applied to quantum annealing, quantum optics in the ultrastrong coupling regime, and their interaction with high energy physics. Dr. Forn-Díaz obtained his PhD from TU Delft, under the supervision of Prof. Hans Mooij, one of the inventors of the superconducting flux qubit. After a postdoc in cold atoms at Caltech in the Kimble lab, he went on to a second postdoc at IQC Waterloo co-supervised by Prof. C. M. Wilson and Prof. A. Lupascu working on microwave quantum optics and superconducting qubits. In 2017, Dr. Forn-Díaz returned to Barcelona to set up a new quantum computing program together with experts in quantum algorithms such as Prof. J. I. Latorre (University of Barcelona) and Dr. A. Garcia-Saez (Barcelona Supercomputing Center). The three of them co-founded the startup Qilimanjaro Quantum Tech, which develops coherent quantum annealers for realistic short-term applications. Dr. Forn-Díaz is the coordinator of the FET-Open consortium AVaQus to develop coherent quantum annealers, and the Quantera consortium SiUCs to develop quantum technologies in the ultrastrong coupling regime.

Speaker: Dr. Giorgos Georgiou

Nanoelectronics is without any doubt the driving force of today's consumer electronics and it is an elemental technology of the so-called quantum revolution. As a general trend, over the last years, electronic devices have become smaller and smaller pushing the boundaries of classical electronics towards a new regime, where quantum effects emerge. It is therefore a natural development to benefit from the quantum nature of nano-electronic systems. The advent of quantum computer technology relies exclusively on the generation, detection and manipulation of a quantum wavefunction, called qubit. There are several types of qubits under development, ranging from superconducting, quantum dot, optical, atomic qubits etc. My work is focused on flying qubits in 2-dimensional electron systems. These electron qubits are generated using RF pulses with a typical time duration of about ~70ps. The advantage of a qubit defined in the time domain is that it can be manipulated on the fly, meaning that we can perform several quantum operations on it while it propagates through a device. In addition, it can used to study time depended interactions with its environment. This is particularly important in solid state devices where qubits interact strongly with their environment, i.e. the Fermi sea. In this presentation, I will discuss on how we can generate a qubit defined in the time domain and how it is measured using time-resolved techniques, adopted from optics. My vision is to extend this concept to even shorter duration qubits using femtosecond lasers and THz technology. This will translate into several hundreds of quantum operations over a ‘flying’ distance of a few micrometers.

Speaker: Malcolm R Connolly

Abstract: I will describe our recent work and the future prospects of using III-V and V-VI semiconductor Josephson junctions in transmon, Andreev, and topologically-protected qubits.

Bio: EPSRC early career fellow on mesoscopic superconductors (Cambridge 2014-2017, Imperial 2019-present), Marie Curie on gatemons (NBI Copenhagen, 2017-2019), Lecturer and PI of Quantum Science and Device Facility (Imperial 2019-present).

Zoom Meeting ID: 964 9796 0764
Passcode: 662279

Speaker: Malcolm R Connolly

Abstract: I will describe our recent work and the future prospects of using III-V and V-VI semiconductor Josephson junctions in transmon, Andreev, and topologically-protected qubits.

Bio: EPSRC early career fellow on mesoscopic superconductors (Cambridge 2014-2017, Imperial 2019-present), Marie Curie on gatemons (NBI Copenhagen, 2017-2019), Lecturer and PI of Quantum Science and Device Facility (Imperial 2019-present).

Local host: Martin Weides

Speaker: Malcolm R Connolly

Abstract: I will describe our recent work and the future prospects of using III-V and V-VI semiconductor Josephson junctions in transmon, Andreev, and topologically-protected qubits.

Bio: EPSRC early career fellow on mesoscopic superconductors (Cambridge 2014-2017, Imperial 2019-present), Marie Curie on gatemons (NBI Copenhagen, 2017-2019), Lecturer and PI of Quantum Science and Device Facility (Imperial 2019-present).

Local host: Martin Weides

Speaker: Kaveh Delfanazari

Topological superconductors with a superconducting gap in their bulk and topologically protected metallic states on their edges and surfaces host exotic quasiparticles such as anyons and Majorana fermions. Such exotic (non-abelian) quasiparticles have been proposed for manipulation and application in topological electronics (topotronics) and fault-tolerant topological quantum processing and computing because their quantum states defined by a pair of Majorana zero modes (MZMs) work as a nonlocal qubit [1]. In the first section of my talk, I will present (i) the fabrication methods of two types of artificially engineered hybrid superconducting circuits with Josephson junctions and Josephson field-effect transistors, and (ii) sub-Kelvin temperature/magnetic field B dependent DC-RF quantum transport measurements [2-4]. I experimentally demonstrate that the 2D Josephson junctions under small vertical magnetic fields (B < 100 mT) show quantized magnetoconductance plateaus due to topological phase transitions to nontrivial phases hosting MZMs. In the second part of my talk, I will discuss Josephson junction based solid-state, integrated and ultra-broadband superconducting THz lasers, hybrid meta-photonic circuitry, and nano/micro antennas for applications in on-chip communication and quantum computation [5,6]. I will conclude with a discussion on my plans in Glasgow.

[1] Physical Review B 101, 115409 (2020)

[2] J. Vis. Exp. 150 (e57818) (2019)

[3] IEEE Trans. on Appl. Superconductivity 28 (4), 1-4 (2018)

[4] Advanced Materials 29 (37), 1701836 (2017)

[5] Proceedings of the IEEE, 108 (5), 721-734 (2020)

[6] IEEE Photonics Journal 9 (5), 1400308 (2017),

Speaker: Roger Appleby

Abstract.

Work on two projects will be reviewed, CONSORTIS (Concealed Object Stand-Off Real-Time Imaging for Security) and a scatterometer for the European Space Agency.

Within the European commission Seventh Framework Programme (FP7),CONSORTIS,a stand-off system operating at sub-millimetre wave frequencies (200-600 GHz) for the detection of objects concealed on people has been designed and fabricated. This system scans people as they walk by the sensor and is aimed at next generation aviation security.

This presentation will describe the top level system design which brings together both passive and active sensors and discuss the trade-offs required to deliver the necessary performance. The passive system operates in two bands, 250 and 500 GHz and is based on a cryogen free cooled focal plane array sensor with 9000 elements whilst the active system is a solid-state 340GHz radar with 16 transceivers. A modified version of OpenFx was used for modelling the passive system which used characters with cinematography quality. The strengths and weaknesses of working in an FP7 consortium such as CONSORTIS will also be reviewed.

A quasi-optical scatterometer has been delivered to the European Space Agency capable of measuring diffuse and specular scattering in the regions of the spectrum from 50-750GHz and the system performs to its design criteria. It can also measure the reflection and transmission coefficients of smooth materials and these can be used for extracting the dielectric constant. The talk will describe the scatterometer and some of the difficult technical problems that had to be overcome in its delivery.

Speaker: Paul Warburton

Quantum annealing makes less stringent demands on qubit coherence than gate-based approaches, thereby enabling proof-of-principle demonstrations of annealers with around 2000 superconducting flux qubits.  Furthermore by capacitively shunting the flux qubit and reducing the circulating current one can achieve both high coherence and low leakage, making the flux qubit an excellent approximation to a two-level quantum system. Nevertheless most measurements on experimental annealers are plagued by noise, and the role of coherence in quantum annealing is not currently understood.

I will describe our experimental and analytical work on both understanding coherence in flux qubit annealers and how to optimise their use for real-world applications in the presence of noise. We have used the Schrieffer-Wolf transformation to extract the Pauli coefficients from quantum circuit models and developed this technique to investigate non-stoquastic Hamiltonians arising from simultaneous inductive and capacitive qubit interactions. We have analysed the extent to which Landau-Zener-Stückelberg oscillations can be used as a coherence metric in the context of quantum annealing. We have also developed a new method for embedding real-world problems with high qubit connectivity onto hardware graphs of limited degree and show experimentally that this method outperforms rival embedding techniques for annealers in the presence of noise.

The research is based upon work supported by EPSRC (grant reference EP/R020159/1) and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA), via the U.S. Army Research Office contract W911NF-17-C-0050. The views and conclusions contained herein are those of the authors and should not be interpreted as necessarily representing the official policies or endorsements, either expressed or implied, of the ODNI, IARPA, or the U.S. Government.

Speaker: Peter Parbrook

Abstract.

III-Nitride materials are now well established as the technology of choice for light emission for short wavelength visible and near UV applications.  Such devices are particularly efficient in the blue-violet region of the spectrum. However efficiencies drop both in the green (leading to the “green gap” problem) and also in the ultra-violet.  In this presentation we will discuss the opportunities and challenges in extending the range of wavelengths that III-N materials can address

Speaker: Themed Workshop

Semiconductor lasers for advanced photonic systems

A THEMATIC WORKSHOP 

Friday 29 March 2019
Rooms R526 and R530, James Watt South Building, University of Glasgow

14:30
Semiconductor Symposium, presenting current state of the art research by our invited speakers
Dr Paul Griffin (Senior Lecturer, University of Strathclyde)
Dr Scott Watson (Research Associate, University of Glasgow)
Dr Paulo Hisao Moriya (Research Associate, Institute of Photonics)

15:30
Poster session, Coffee & Networking

16:00
IEEE Distinguished Lecturer Prof Liam Barry
“Advanced optical sources for spectrally efficient photonic systems”
(Professor of Electronic Engineering, Dublin City University)

17:00
Drinks reception

18:00
Networking (optional)

event.bookitbee.com/21816/semiconductor-lasers-for-advanced-photonic-systems

Speaker: Professor Xingsheng Wang

The continuous scaling of advanced MOSFETs are the driven force of Moor’s Law. This presentation will give you a brief description of the research activities in our group about negative-capacitance FET (NCFET) fabrication and modelling, and Poisson-Schrodinger simulations and compact modeling of 7nm FinFETs and 5nm nanosheet transistors, and IC design for the 4kb HfOx based RRAM memory chip. I will show you the latest fascinating results such as subthreshold-slope of NCFET, wave function variations of nanosheet widths, and IC design tests

Speaker: XingSheng Wang

Speaker: Dr. Rair Macedo

Devices operating at millimetre-wave frequencies are widely used in communication and signal processing system. During the last decades, we have witnessed incredible progress in high frequency semiconductor electronics. However, despite an increased use of millimetre wave technology there is still a large gap of advances in structures working at high GHz frequencies. Some of the developments in this frequency rage have employed resonances in ferromagnetic materials. One problem with most of these materials is that they generally require large magnetic fields to obtain higher operational frequencies. Here, I will discuss magnetic metamaterials which can be used to engineer these resonances at particular frequencies and with greater field tunability. These are based on the properties of natural hyperbolic media; and these have recently enabled a series of advances in optics, which will also be discussed. We based our hyperbolic metamaterial on spin canting in antiferromagnets and by creating artificial magnetic multi-layers it is possible to achieve frequency tunability of 30 GHz with external fields smaller than 500 Oe. These structures have unique features in microwave waveguides that act as, for example, tunable band-pass and band-stop filters.

 Rair Macedo is a Leverhulme Research Fellow at the Materials and Condensed Matter Physics (MCMP) group in the School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Glasgow. Rair holds a first degree in Physics (2009-2013) where he investigated optical effects due to phonons in the infrared. His PhD (2013-2016) work was undertaken in order to receive training in theoretical aspects of modelling electromagnetic properties of magnetic structures. In 2016, he became a postdoctoral researcher at the MCMP where he worked on artificial magnetic spin ices – nanomagnets artificially structured to display new physical properties.

His current research interest centres around: magnetic media, in special new artificial nanomagnets (spin ices); polaritons as a route to new optical effects; as well as cavity polaritons and devices at THz and GHz frequencies.

Speaker: Prof. Donald Lupo

there is a lot of talk about putting electronic sensors "everywhere", enabled both by miniaturization of classic Si electronics and advances in printed electronics. However, sensors everywhere require power everywhere, and the idea of billions of small objects fitted with batteries is a waste disposal nightmare. An alternative is the harvesting of ambient energy, e.g. from light, RF radiation and movement, but some kind of interim storage is needed, and miniature printable, fully non-toxic supercapacitors appear to be a promising alternative This talk will cover the following topics related to make a viable printed energy harvesting and storage system: 

• printed energy harvester for RF, motion and light
• printed non-toxic supercapacitors for energy storage
• integrated energy harvesting and storage systems

Speaker: Vincent Hayward

The astonishing variety of phenomena resulting from the contact between fingers and objects may be regarded as a formidable trove of information that can be extracted by organisms to learn about the nature and the properties of objects. This richness, which is completely different from that available to the other senses, is likely to have fashioned our somatosensory system at all levels of its organisation, from early mechanics to cognition. The talk will illustrate this idea through examples and show how the physics of mechanical interactions shape the messages that are sent to the brain; and how the early stages of the somatosensory system en route to the primary areas are organised to process these messages.

Speaker: Jean-Claude Diels

*** The poor man’s LIGO ***

Jean-Claude Diels

Department of Physics & Astronomy

Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering

Center for High Technology Materials

The University of New Mexico

When & where: Wednesday 25th April 2018, 14:00-15:00, room 514, Rankine Building

Host: Matteo Clerici, contact: matteo.clerici@gasgow.ac.uk

Abstract: It seems absurd to associate the words “poor” with the multimillion euro LIGO project. However, one may dream... or not?

Frequency combs are revolutionising metrology, providing absolute frequency calibration over the optical spectrum, as well as a link between optical and RF frequencies. Sophisticated schemes of electronic stabilisation have been elaborated to control the wavelength of a particular tooth of the comb, and the teeth spacing.

This researcher, however, does not even have enough funding to buy an electronic stabilisation system! I will show instead that all parameters of a frequency comb can be controlled by a purely optical method, inserting an optical element inside the laser cavity. No other electronics than the power supply of the laser is involved (which, unfortunately, is not that cheap).

Metrology with lasers is generally performed by interfering two laser beams. Performing that operation inside a laser can lead to a considerable increase in sensitivity. This should not come as a surprise since a laser oscillator can be considered as a Fabry-Perot of infinite finesse. It is sometimes taken for granted that spatial resolution with light is limited to the wavelength. Through intracavity phase interferometry, we have demonstrated a phase sensitivity of 1 part in 100,000,000, which corresponds to resolving optically periodic changes in the optical path of femtometres. Two ultrashort pulses are circulating in the laser cavity, producing two interfering frequency combs. The noise in the two output combs is correlated, resulting in a sub-Hertz beat note bandwidth, even when the individual tooth of each frequency comb is several MHz wide (typical of an unstabilised laser).

We are thriving to bring this resolution down to the attometre, through a new method of phase response amplification. In this analogue of “electronic amplifier with feedback”, each tooth of the frequency combs is locked to a giant dispersion. 

Bio: Jean-Claude Diels started his career in Research constructing a CO2 laser as part of his one-year military service (too long) in Belgium.  He went then for 5 years (much too long) as a Research Scientist in the fundamental Research laboratories of “Philips Gloelampenfabrik" in Eindhoven, with the assignment to "do modern research" with "unlimited budget” (which was soon exceeded).  He spent the next 3 years (way too short) to do PhD thesis research on coherent pulse propagation in two-level systems with Professor Erwin L. Hahn at UC Berkeley.  The next two years (too long) were spent at the Max Plank Institute with Professor Fritz Schaefer, the colourful (usually covered with red) father of dye lasers.  He got an appointment as Associate Research Professor at the University of Southern California ("What??? I have to raise my own salary?").  After experiencing the "Centre d’Energie Atomique” of Saclay near Paris (not the Texan Paris), and before the collapse of the Center for Laser Studies at USC, he moved to the CAQE (Center for Applied Quantum Electronics) of the University of North Texas in Denton, where he stayed for 5 years (too long), interrupted by a sabbatical at the University of Bordeaux, France.  He has been since (much too long) at the University of New Mexico, where he graduated more than 50 PhD students.  He co-authored with Wolfgang Rudolph the graduate textbook Ultrashort Laser Pulse Phenomena: Fundamentals, Techniques and Applications on a Femtosecond Time Scale and with Ladan Arissian the book, Lasers:  The Power and Precision of Light, celebrating the 50th anniversary of the laser, and published 5 book chapters.    He is the recipient of the 51st Annual Research Lecturer Award (April 2006), and of the 2006 Engineering Excellence Award of the Optical Society of America. 

Tea/coffee will be served. All welcome!

Speaker: Mathieu Luisier

Abstract: With the rapid decrease of the semiconductor device dimensions, technology computer aided design (TCAD) has entered a new era where one- dimensional models and (semi-)classical approximations such as the drift-diffusion, energy-balance, or Boltzmann Transport equations are no more valid to simulate the properties of nanoscale components. These approaches must be replaced by more advanced, but computationally more intensive ones based on discrete quantum mechanics, including energy quantization, geometrical confinement, and tunneling currents, capable of going beyond the ballistic limit of transport, and operating at the ab-initio level (from first-principles). In this talk, two applications of a simulator fulfilling these requirements will be presented: the investigation of devices based on 2-D materials and the study of atomic-scale conductive bridging random access memory (CBRAM) cells. It will be shown how an accurate modeling tool can reveal the physics of these systems and provide design guidelines to experimentalists.

Bio: Since 2016 Mathieu Luisier is Associate Professor of Computational Nanoelectronics at ETH Zurich, Switzerland. He graduated in electrical engineering in 2003 and received his Ph.D. in 2007, both from ETH Zurich. After a one-year post- doc at the same institution, he joined in 2008 the Network for Computational Nanotechnology at Purdue University, USA, as a research assistant professor. In 2011 he returned to ETH Zurich to become Assistant Professor. His current research interests focus on the modeling of nanoscale devices, such as multi-gate nanowires, III-V MOSFETs, band-to-band tunneling transistors, 2-D semiconductors, memristors, or lithium ion batteries. He won an honorable mention at the ACM Gordon Bell Prize for high performance computing in 2011 and was finalist in 2015. In 2013, he received a Starting Grant from the European Research Council (ERC).

Speaker: Mathieu Luisier

Abstract: With the rapid decrease of the semiconductor device dimensions, technology computer aided design (TCAD) has entered a new era where one- dimensional models and (semi-)classical approximations such as the drift-diffusion, energy-balance, or Boltzmann Transport equations are no more valid to simulate the properties of nanoscale components. These approaches must be replaced by more advanced, but computationally more intensive ones based on discrete quantum mechanics, including energy quantization, geometrical confinement, and tunneling currents, capable of going beyond the ballistic limit of transport, and operating at the ab-initio level (from first-principles). In this talk, two applications of a simulator fulfilling these requirements will be presented: the investigation of devices based on 2-D materials and the study of atomic-scale conductive bridging random access memory (CBRAM) cells. It will be shown how an accurate modeling tool can reveal the physics of these systems and provide design guidelines to experimentalists.

 

Bio: Since 2016 Mathieu Luisier is Associate Professor of Computational Nanoelectronics at ETH Zurich, Switzerland. He graduated in electrical engineering in 2003 and received his Ph.D. in 2007, both from ETH Zurich. After a one-year post- doc at the same institution, he joined in 2008 the Network for Computational Nanotechnology at Purdue University, USA, as a research assistant professor. In 2011 he returned to ETH Zurich to become Assistant Professor. His current research interests focus on the modeling of nanoscale devices, such as multi-gate nanowires, III-V MOSFETs, band-to-band tunneling transistors, 2-D semiconductors, memristors, or lithium ion batteries. He won an honorable mention at the ACM Gordon Bell Prize for high performance computing in 2011 and was finalist in 2015. In 2013, he received a Starting Grant from the European Research Council (ERC).

Speaker: Prof Themis Prodromakis

Abstract: Large attention has been recently given to a novel technology named memristor, for having the potential of becoming the new electronic device standard. Memristors are dynamic nanoscale electron devices that are nowadays regarded as a promising solution for establishing next-generation memory and computation, owing to their potential of achieving “more” (functionality/information storage) for “less” (power and physical dimensions). Most interestingly, it has been envisioned that mimicking the functionality of biological brain systems could fulfil its potential. During this talk, I will present how memristors can be exploited in practical applications, with particular emphasis in the areas of memory and computation. I shall highlight the opportunities that this emerging technology brings for addressing the needs of modern massively parallel computing and identify the current challenges hindering their full potential.

Speaker: Dr Nathalie Lidgi-Guigui

Abstract: The Raman scattering is a well known analytical chemistry technique where the light is scattered by the vibrating bounds of a molecule. As so it gives a molecular fingerprint of a specific compound. However, Raman scattering is not a very sensitive technique. To circumvent this drawback, it is possible to take advantage of the optical properties of metallic nanoparticles (NP). When exposed to light, coherent oscillations of the free electron gas are taking place on the NP. These so called Localized Surface Plasmon (LSP) create an electromagnetic field which is the basis of the near field enhancement of Raman scattering. This electromagnetic effect is responsible for an enhancement factor that can be as high as 10^8. Another effect, the chemical effect, has a weaker contribution to the Raman scattering enhancement. Its origin is discussed among the community but is probably based on the shifting of the molecules energy levels when it is bound to the NP surface.

In this talk we will focus on the use of SERS substrate for the detection of pollutant in water. We will present results concerning hydrophobic and hydrophilic compounds. The first are organic molecules, consisting of two or more fused aromatic rings known as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). This group of compounds have received considerable attention due their toxicity and carcinogenicity. The hydrophilic compound that we have worked on is paracetamol. This is the most used drug around the world and as so it is highly found in waste water. However, in order to study its impact on the marine environment it is first needed to be able to quantify its presence.

Obviously, these two class of pollutants do not present the same issues in terms of sensing. In the first case it is important to reach a very low limit of detection when the quantification and the specificity are the key for the hydrophilic pollutants. We will present the strategy of surface functionalization we have adopted in both case that include the use of Molecular Imprinted Polymers (MIP) for the detection of paracetamol and the exploitation of pi-pi stacking for the detection of naphthalene, fluoranthene and benzo[A]pyrene.

In the last part of the talk, I will show how the nanostructured surface can play an active role in the functionalization. We have recently demonstrated that the LSP can support chemical reactions such as the well known click chemistry thiol-ene reaction. It is even possible to go further and to performed a different functionalization on different direction of a nanostructure by taking advantage of the light polarization.

Biography: After completing my undergraduate studies in material sciences at the University Pierre and Marie Curie in Paris, I followed my interest in nanotechnologies by enrolling in a doctoral program at the Unité Mixte de Physique CNRS Thales where I developed my field of expertise the nanoparticles growth and their electronic properties. After obtaining my Ph.D. in 2005, I joined the team of Prof. R. E. Palmer at the University of Birmingham where I studied the growth and deposition of size selected clusters and their interactions with proteins. The skills I developed in liquid phase AFM were valued through my second post-doc at the University of Evry. Since 2010 I am a reader at the University Paris 13. My main research interests focus on the development of highly sensitive sensors for biomolecules and pollutants. In my group, we use and develop original lithography techniques to fabricate large assembly of organized nanostructures for SERS (Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy). Through the years we have developed several functionalization paths that have enable us to pre-concentrate analytes, to detect their presence in low concentration and to follow their structural evolution. Recent results are focusing on the possibility of making these sensors active by exploiting the tremendous ideas of plasmon based chemistry.

Speaker: Prof Giorgio Metta

Abstract: The iCub is a humanoid robot designed to support research in embodied AI. At 104 cm tall, the iCub has the size of a five-year-old child. It can crawl on all fours, walk and sit up to manipulate objects. Its hands have been designed to support sophisticate manipulation skills. The iCub is distributed as Open Source following the GPL licenses and can now count on a worldwide community of enthusiastic developers. The entire design is available for download from the project’s repositories (http://www.iCub.org). More than 30 robots have been built so far which are available in laboratories across Europe, US, Korea, Singapore, and Japan. It is one of the few platforms in the world with a sensitive full-body skin to deal with the physical interaction with the environment including possibly people. I will present the iCub project in its entirety showing how it is evolving towards fulfilling the dream of a personal humanoid in every home.

Short bio: Giorgio Metta is Vice Scientific Director at the Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT) and Director of the iCub Project at the same institute where he coordinates the development of the iCub robotic platform. He holds a MSc cum laude (1994) and PhD (2000) in electronic engineering both from the University of Genoa. From 2001 to 2002 he was postdoctoral associate at the MIT AI-Lab. He was previously with the University of Genoa and since 2012 Professor of Cognitive Robotics at the University of Plymouth (UK). He is member of the board of directors of euRobotics aisbl, the European reference organization for robotics research. Giorgio Metta research activities are in the fields of biologically motivated and humanoid robotics and, in particular, in developing humanoid robots that can adapt and learn from experience. Giorgio Metta is author of more than 250 scientific publications. He has been working as principal investigator and research scientist in about a dozen international as well as national funded projects.

Speaker: Dr Sara Ghoreishi-zadeh

Abstract: Next-generation implantable and wearable medical devices are emerging to address specific unmet healthcare needs, particularly those in medical monitoring and diagnostics. Monitoring of metabolites (e.g., glucose, lactate) in human body is of significant importance in health-care and personalised therapy. In this talk, I will present our sub-mW CMOS IC that enables the fabrication of miniaturised, inductively powered, and implantable devices for multi-metabolite detection. Next, I will illustrate a novel differential sensing technique to enhance the electrochemical sensing performance. I will also present promising results from our sensors that are developed, for the first time, by growing Pt nano-structures on CMOS IC. 

Despite remarkable advances in electrochemical sensor design, the constant need of the sensors for calibration remains a barrier to their diagnostic potential. I will briefly discuss our latest results showing how electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) may be used to auto-calibrate the sensors. In the second part of the talk, I will present our on-chip interface for recovering power and providing full-duplex communication over an AC-coupled 4-wire lead between active implantable devices. 

Biography: Dr. Sara Ghoreishi-zadeh received the B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees (both with distinction) in Electrical engineering from Sharif University of Technology, Iran, and the PhD degree from Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland, in 2015. She then joined the Centre for Bio-inspired Technology, Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Imperial College London, UK.  where she is currently a Junior Research Fellow. Her current research focus is integrated circuit and system design for implantable and wearable medical devices. She has been a Review Committee Member and track chair for IEEE conferences including ICECS 2016 and BioCAS 2017. She is an editor of the Journal of Microelectronics and a member of IET and the IEEE CAS, EMB and SSC societies.

Speaker: Prof JC Chiao

Abstract: Recent advances in micro- and nano-technologies provide unique interfacing functionalities to human tissues, with features of miniaturization and low power consumption. Interfaces between biological objects and electronics allow quantitative measurement and documentation of physiological and biochemical parameters, and even behaviors. The interfaces also provide direct modification of cells, tissues, or organs by electrical stimulation making it possible to manage chronic diseases with a closed loop between body and portable computer. Wireless communication and power transfer in the implantable systems enable in-situ sensing for freely-behaving animals or patients without constrains. Wireless networking also allows ubiquitous access to physiological information for treating complex problems in body. 

This lecture focuses on our research progress in wireless micro sensors for clinical and neurobiological applications. The systems are based on integrated platforms such as wireless energy transfer for batteryless implants, miniature and flexible electrochemical sensors, nanoparticle modified surfaces, MEMS devices, and wireless communication. Several implantable, wireless diagnosis and therapeutic systems targeting management of pain and gastric disorders will be discussed with emphases on the sensor technologies. These technologies empower new personalized medicines to improve human welfare and assist better living. Sensor device designs, fabrication, characterization, system integration and clinical experiments will be presented.

Biography: J.-C. Chiao is Greene professor and Garrett professor of Electrical Engineering at University of Texas - Arlington. He received his PhD at Caltech and was with Bellcore, University of Hawaii-Manoa and Chorum Technologies before he joined UT-Arlington in 2002.  

Dr. Chiao has published more than 260 peer-reviewed papers and received 12 patents. He received the 2011 O'Donnell Award in Engineering presented by The Academy of Medicine, Engineering and Science of Texas. He received the Tech Titan Technology Innovator Award; Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Excellence in Engineering Teaching Award; Research in Medicine milestone award by Heroes of Healthcare; IEEE MTT Distinguished Microwave Lecturer; IEEE Region 5 Outstanding Engineering Educator; and IEEE Region 5 Individual Achievement awards. His works have been covered by National Geographic magazine, Henry Ford Innovation Nation, National Public Radio and many media.  

Currently, he is an IEEE Sensors Council Distinguished Lecturer and serving as the Editor-in-Chief for Journal of Electromagnetics, RF and Microwaves in Medicine and Biology.

Speaker: Siegfried Bauer

Abstract: In the talk, I will briefly discuss the use of dielectrics in soft devices, together with future applications in electronic skin, soft forms of robots and energy harvesters. Dielectrics employed include hard metal oxides, ferroelectrets, ferroelectric polymers, polymers and elastomers. Valve metal oxides are critically important in capacitors and as gate and floating gate dielectric in ultraflexible, imperceptible electronic skin. Here, ultrathin polymer films employed for foil capacitors form the substrate for electronic circuits enabling crumpling like a piece of paper without affecting performance. We demonstrated filters and coupling capacitors for integrated ultraflexible circuits and amplifiers. Ferroelectrets and ferroelectric polymers transform electronic skin into pressure and touch sensitive devices. Soft elastomers with high dielectric breakdown strength are widely considered for the advancement of dielectric energy harvesting devices. Recent work indicates natural rubber to be versatile for the sustainable conversion of mechanical into electrical energy. Developing stable soft elastomer electrets may lead to novel concepts for bias voltage free energy harvesting and stretchable piezoelectric materials. Soft elastomers are also ideally suited as a substrate for mechanically deformable electronic skin. In the talk, I will give a tour d’horizon on our recent research on dielectrics in soft devices. Future applications may arise in wid ranging fields, from consumer and mobile appliances to biomedical systems, sports and healthcare.

Biography: Siegfried Bauer studied physics at the University of Karlsruhe, where he graduated with the Diplom in 1986. In 1990 he received a PhD in physics from the same university. In 1992 he joined the Heinrich Hertz Institute for Telecommunication Engineering in Berlin. In 1996 he received the Habilitation degree from the University of Potsdam. In 1997 he joined the Johannes Kepler University in Linz, Austria, where he became a full professor and head of the Soft Matter Physics Department in 2002. Siegfried Bauer is a member of the editorial board of Advanced Science, Advanced Materials Technologies, Applied Physics Reviews, Applied Physics A and the IEEE Transactions on Dielectrics and Electrical Engineering. He received several awards for his work, including the Karl Scheel award of the Physical Society of Berlin in 1997, a pioneer of smart production award from the Austrian Society for Environment and Technology in 2010, and an ERC Advanced Investigators Grant in 2011. In 2016, he has been elevated to IEEE Fellow, in 2017 he was distinguished speaker of the Southwest Mechanics Lecture Series in the US. His research centers on soft materials for sensors, transducers, flexible and stretchable electronics. He has coauthored more than 180 refereed scientific publications, including contributions to Science and journals of the Nature family. His work has received more than 13.000 citations with an h-index of 62 on Google Scholar.

Speaker: Jan Mol

Abstract: Graphene nanoelectrodes [1] provide a versatile platform for contacting individual molecules. Unlike metal electrodes, graphene is atomically stable at room temperature and screening of the gate electric field is strongly reduced by the two-dimensional nature of the electrodes [2]. Molecules can be anchored to the graphene via π-π stacking bonds. I will present single electron transport measurements of single pyrene-functionalised C60 molecules [3]. Strong electron-phonon coupling in these molecules leads to the observation of Franck-Condon blockade (see Figure 1). In addition to spectroscopic transport features arising from the electronic and mechanical degrees of freedom of the fullerene molecule, we observe the effect of quantum interference in the graphene leads [4]. Density-of-states fluctuations due to multi-mode Fabry-Perot interference in graphene result in energy dependent coupling between the graphene leads and the molecule [5]. Finally, I will present thermoelectric measurements of our graphene-based nanostructures, and show the energy dependent Seebeck coefficient both in the sequential electron tunnelling and quantum interference regime. Our experiments demonstrate the capability of graphene-based molecular junctions for studying transport in single molecules, and highlight spectroscopic features that cannot readily be observed in metal-molecule junctions.

Speaker: Keysight Technologies

From the company that has been a leading innovator in Spectrum and Network measurements for 70 years, please join us for a FREE RF & Microwave Fundamentals Seminar to help improve your understanding of basic Network Analysis and Spectrum Analysis measurements, including real applications, thus improving your efficiency and effectiveness whether you are in R&D or design & test.

A vector network analyzer (VNA) is a precision measuring tool that tests the electrical performance of high frequency components, in the radio frequency (RF), microwave, and millimeter-wave frequency bands (we will use the generic term RF to apply to all of these frequencies). A VNA is a stimulus-response test system, composed of an RF source and multiple measurement receivers. It is specifically designed to measure the forward and reverse reflection and transmission responses, or S-parameters of RF components. S-parameters have both a magnitude and a phase component, and they characterize the linear performance of the DUT. While VNAs can also be used for characterizing some non-linear behaviour like amplifier gain compression or intermodulation distortion, S-parameters are the primary measurement. The network analyzer hardware is optimized for speed, yielding swept measurements that are faster than those obtained from the use of an individual source and an individual receiver like a spectrum analyzer. Through calibration, VNAs provide the highest level of accuracy for measuring RF components.

You can see our latest solutions, and expand on the practical knowledge you need to have to perform your day-to-day-measurements. Application and product experts from Keysight will be on-hand to give demonstrations and technical presentations around the latest innovations, features and capabilities that enhance the fundamental measurements.

This seminar will run through 4 main sessions:

Session 1: Network Analysis Fundamentals and Calibration
1st Section: 9:30am - 10:30 am
Coffee Break 10:30am – 10:45am
2nd Section: 10:45am - 12pm
Lunch 12pm – 1pm

Session 2: 900Hz - 120GHz Broadband Frequency System Presentation, PNA-B models capabilities and application areas + demo
1 - 2pm
Coffee Break 2pm – 2:15pm

Session 3: Cable & Connector care
2:15pm - 3pm
Networking Break 3pm – 3:15pm

Session 4: Spectrum Analyzers Basics
3:15pm - 4pm

Speaker: Nicolas Fontaine

Abstract: Space-division multiplexed (SDM) systems use the multiple spatial modes in either multi-core fiber (separated modes), or the spatially overlapping but orthogonal modes in multi-mode fibers to either increase the capacity or photon-efficiency of optical fiber links. The new challenges in SDM are how to couple into and out of the various SDM fibers without insertion loss (IL) or mode-dependent loss (MDL), and building components that have comparable performance to, and that offer a cost advantage over systems using multiple single-mode fibers.  We will show several components for space-division multiplexing in multi-mode fibers including "photonic lantern" spatial multiplexers which are lossless adiabatic single-mode to multi-mode converters, multimode amplifiers, and wavelength selective switches for routing signals in few-mode fiber. These components enable transmission of signals across multi-mode fiber using up to 30 spatial and polarization modes.

Biography: Nicolas Fontaine obtained his Ph. D. in 2010 at the University of California, Davis in the Next Generation Network Systems Laboratory [http://sierra.ece.ucdavis.edu] in Electrical Engineering. In his dissertation he studied how to generate and measure the amplitude and phase of broadband optical waveforms in many narrowband spectral slices. Since June 2011, he has been a member of the technical staff at Bell Laboratories at Crawford Hill, NJ in the advanced photonics division.  At Bell Labs, he develops devices for space-division multiplexing in multi-core and few mode fibers, builds wavelength crossconnects and filtering devices, and investigates spectral slice coherent receivers for THz bandwidth waveform measurement.

Speaker: Dr José Figueiredo

Abstract: Microwave photonics brings together a variety of techniques used in microwave and in photonics engineering to provide new functionalities at radio frequencies very difficult or virtual impossible to achieve using only microwave or photonic techniques. New approaches to light modulation, light detection and light and RF generation at microwave and millimetre-wave frequencies have been investigated by combining double barrier quantum well (DBQW) resonant tunnelling diodes (RTDs) with optical components such as optical waveguides, photodetectors and semiconductor lasers. The seminar reviews the collaborative work between the Universities of Algarve and Glasgow aiming the development of novel electronic and optoelectronic integrated devices and circuits that take advantage of the high-speed and highly non-linear properties of RTDs to achieve high frequency optical modulation, photo-detection and to operate as optical and voltage controlled microwave photonic oscillators with significantly lower power consumption and operating voltage, with a small footprint compared with current devices and circuits.

Biography: José Figueiredo received the degree in Physics (Optics and Electronics) and the Master of Optoelectronics and Lasers, both from the University of Porto, Portugal, in 1991 and 1995, and the PhD in Physics (Microelectronics and Optoelectronics) also from the University of Porto in co-supervision (Professor Charles Ironside) with the University of Glasgow (2000). He is currently an Assistant Professor with the Department of Physics, Faculty of Science and Technology, University of Algarve. His research interests include electronic and optoelectronic circuits employing negative differential resistance devices for high frequency applications spanning from radio-over-fibre and related wireless-photonics links, to wireless sensors and neuromorphic information processing circuits.

Abstract: Microwave photonics brings together a variety of techniques used in microwave and in photonics engineering to provide new functionalities at radio frequencies very difficult or virtual impossible to achieve using only microwave or photonic techniques. New approaches to light modulation, light detection and light and RF generation at microwave and millimetre-wave frequencies have been investigated by combining double barrier quantum well (DBQW) resonant tunnelling diodes (RTDs) with optical components such as optical waveguides, photodetectors and semiconductor lasers. The seminar reviews the collaborative work between the Universities of Algarve and Glasgow aiming the development of novel electronic and optoelectronic integrated devices and circuits that take advantage of the high-speed and highly non-linear properties of RTDs to achieve high frequency optical modulation, photo-detection and to operate as optical and voltage controlled microwave photonic oscillators with significantly lower power consumption and operating voltage, with a small footprint compared with current devices and circuits. 

Abstract: José Figueiredo received the degree in Physics (Optics and Electronics) and the Master of Optoelectronics and Lasers, both from the University of Porto, Portugal, in 1991 and 1995, and the PhD in Physics (Microelectronics and Optoelectronics) also from the University of Porto in co-supervision (Professor Charles Ironside) with the University of Glasgow (2000). He is currently an Assistant Professor with the Department of Physics, Faculty of Science and Technology, University of Algarve. His research interests include electronic and optoelectronic circuits employing negative differential resistance devices for high frequency applications spanning from radio-over-fibre and related wireless-photonics links, to wireless sensors and neuromorphic information processing circuits.

Speaker: Dr Daniele Brida

Abstract: Many fundamental and ubiquitous physical phenomena have origin at the ultrafast timescale. The possibility to investigate various primary processes on their intrinsic timescales relies on the generation of ultrashort pulses with widely tunable carrier frequency, from ultraviolet to mid- and far-infrared. These optical waveforms allow the investigation of microscopic light-matter interactions in a wide variety of condensed material systems to unveil the deep origin of their optoelectronic properties. 

A novel idea consist in exploiting the optical field itself to control the properties of crystals and nanostructures. With this approach, it becomes possible to access phenomena occurring within a oscillation of light as benchmarked by three experiments: i) optical switching of plasmonic resonances in semiconducting nanostructures; ii) quasi-instantaneous localization of electronic wavefunctions in GaAs by non-resonant bias with intense THz radiation; ii) ultrafast electron transport driven by the peak electric field of a single-cycle optical pulses focused on nanostructured gold circuits.

Biography: I am group leader at the Physics Department of University of Konstanz (Germany) with a position funded by Zukunftskolleg, an interdisciplinary center promoting independence for young academics, and by the Excellence Initiative of the German Federal Government and States. Previously I was employed as Assistant Professor in the Physics Department of Politecnico di Milano (Italy) where I worked in the group of Prof. Giulio Cerullo. My main scientific interests are generation of broadband optical pulses ranging from UV to mid-IR, their temporal compression down to few optical cycles with adaptive techniques and the passive stabilization of the carrier-envelope phase. I also use ultrashort pulses for condensed-matter spectroscopy with extreme temporal resolution: I have studied coherent phonons in nanotubes and carotenoids, charge transfer in polymers and electronic dynamics in metals and superconductors. I am also interested in ultrafast phenomena occurring in nanostructures.

I have published more than 50 scientific papers in renowned international journals of high impact factor (including Nature, Nature Materials, Nature Physics, Nature Communications, PNAS, Laser & Photonics Review and Physical Review Letters) and I am author and coauthor of more than 100 proceedings presented at international conferences. Several of these contributions were invited. I co-authored a book chapter about ultrafast optical parametric amplifiers and I am also an inventor with two pending patent applications. I participated in several symoposia and colloquia as invited speaker.

Speaker: Prof Martina Gerken

Abstract: Point-of-care and wearable biomedical sensors require a compact, portable setup as well as room-temperature operation. Results of our research on two types of biomedical sensors are presented: Magnetic-field sensors and protein sensors. We investigate magnetic-field sensors based on resonant magnetoelectric cantilevers of strain-coupled magnetostrictive, piezoelectric, and substrate layers. Also, surface-acoustic-wave (SAW) based sensors with a magnetostrictive layer at the surface are discussed. Both sensor types have the potential to measure biological signals in an unshielded environment at room temperature. For sensing protein concentrations in fluids, we employ specifically-functionalized, nanostructured, optical slab waveguides as transducers and an intensity-based optical readout scheme. A handheld measurement setup is demonstrated that allows for imaging detection of binding events at the surface. The performance of LED-based and laser-based readout of refractive index changes is compared.

Biography: Martina Gerken received the Dipl.-Ing. degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Karlsruhe, Germany, in 1998, and the Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA in 2003. From 2003 to 2008 she was assistant professor at the University of Karlsruhe, Germany. In 2008 she was appointed as a full professor of Electrical Engineering and Head of the Chair for Integrated Systems and Photonics at Kiel University, Germany. In 2016 she was on a 6-months sabbatical at the University of Glasgow.

Speaker: Dr Najah Abu Ali

Abstract: Nanonetworks is a promising revolutionary advancement in several fields such as health, industry, agriculture, environment, sport, etc. The latest achievements in realizing nanoscale sensors provide an unprecedent opportunity to augment almost every sector in our lives with a myriad of nanoscale sensors which can reach previously inaccessible locations in objects or living things. Recent progress and active research in nanosensing technology have led to increasing interest in the interconnection of nanosensing devices with traditional networks to form the Internet of nanothings (IoNT). In this talk, we investigate the requirements and challenges of the connectivity of nanonetworks with traditional BAN, WiFi, and cellular networks to realize the application of IoNT on one level. We also examine the seamless connectivity and data dissemination in electromagnetic nanonetworks on another level.  We evaluate current applications and case studies regarding the practical deployment of nanosensor networks and expand on them to comprise the implementation of IoNT.

Biography: Dr Najah Abu Ali is currently an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Information Technology in the United Arab Emirates University (UAEU). She earned her Ph.D. from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Queen's University in Kingston, Canada, specializing in resource management in computer networks. Her MSc and BSc were both attained in Electrical Engineering at the University of Jordan. Her general research interests include modelling wireless communications, resource management in wired and wireless networks, and reducing the energy requirements in wireless sensor networks. More recently, she has strengthened her focus on the Internet of Things, particularly at the nano-scale communications level, in addition to vehicle-to-vehicle networking. Her work has been consistently published in key publication venues for journals and conference. She has further co-authored a Wiley book on 4G and beyond cellular communication networks. She has also delivered various seminar and tutorials at both esteemed institutions and flagship gatherings. Dr Abu Ali has also been awarded several research fund grants, particularly from the Emirati NRF/UAEU funds and the Qatar National Research Foundation.

Speaker: Etienne Gheeraert

The key to the efficient transmission and conversion of low-carbon electrical energy is the improvement of power electronic devices. Diamond is considered to be the ultimate wide bandgap semiconductor material for applications in high power electronics due to its exceptional thermal and electronic properties. Two recent developments - the emergence of commercially available electronic grade single crystals and a scientific breakthrough in creating a MOS channel in diamond technology, have now opened new opportunities for the fabrication and commercialisation of diamond power transistors.
These will result in substantial improvements in the performance of power electronic systems by offering higher blocking voltages, improved efficiency and reliability, as well as reduced thermal requirements thus opening the door to more efficient green electronic systems.
The current research carried out mainly in Japan and Europe will be presented, with the various device architectures explored, including MOSFET, MESFET, JFET and rectifiers. Results obtained in the framework of the first European research collaboration on diamond devices, aiming at fabricating the first HVDC diamond based converter will also be presented.

Speaker: Jocelyn Achard

For the past 10 years, diamond, and more particularly single crystal diamond, has attracted a strong interest from the scientific community, mostly fueled by the significant progresses achieved in the synthesis of high purity and crystalline quality material and the reduction of its production cost. Thus new devices and new areas of application are emerging, especially in the field of electronics device and quantum sensing that are currently booming. This presentation will outline the steps that enabled spectacular progresses in diamond growth, in particular in obtaining thicker and larger single diamond crystals. We will then address the developments that have been made to try to reduce the production costs of the material which remain a major impediment to its development. Finally, even if significant growth rates have been achieved, it is also essential to control the crystal quality and more particularly dislocations. The latest development done in this area will be presented.

Speaker: Professor Michael S. Shur

Professor Michael S. Shur, Patricia W. and C. Sheldon Roberts Professor, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, will be visiting the School of Engineering. As part of his visit he will deliver the Electronic Systems Design Centre Spring Lecture entitled, "Terahertz Sensing"

Abstract

Terahertz sensing is enabling technology for detection of biological and chemical hazardous agents, cancer detection, detection of mines and explosives, providing security in buildings, airports, and other public space, short-range covert communications (in THz and sub-THz windows), and applications in radioastronomy and space research. This lecture will review the-state-of-the-art of existing THz sources, detectors, and sensing systems. As application examples, I will discuss THz space exploration, sensing of biological materials, broadband THz reflection and transmission detection of concealed objects, THz explosive identification, THz nanocomposite spectroscopy, and THz remote sensing.

Most existing terahertz sources have low power and rely on optical means of the terahertz radiation. THz quantum cascade lasers using over thousand alternating layers of gallium arsenide and aluminum gallium arsenide have achieved high THz powers generated by optical means. Improved designs and using quantum dot medium for THz laser cavities are expected to result in improved THz laser performance. Large THz powers are generated using free electron lasers or THz vacuum tubes.

Two-terminal semiconductor devices are capable of operating at the low bound of the THz range, with the highest frequency achieved using Schottky diode frequency multipliers (reaching a few THz). High speed three terminal electronic devices (FETs and HBTs) are approaching the THz range (with cutoff frequencies and maximum frequencies of operation above 1 THz and close to 0.5 GHz for InGaAs and Si technologies, respectively. A new approach called plasma wave electronics recently demonstrated terahertz emission and detection in GaAs-based and GaN-based HEMTs and in Si MOS, SOI, and FINFETs and in FET arrays, including the resonant THz detection. It has potential to become a dominant THz electronics technology.

Speaker: Various

This joint colloquium with the IET RF & Microwave, IET Antennas and Propagation and IET Electromagnetics Networks provides researchers the opportunity to present their latest research activities in the areas of millimetre-wave and terahertz engineering and technology. 

This event would be of interest to people who may have an interest or are working within the following areas: applications in science, engineering and technology that exploit the microwave, millimetre-wave, terahertz and optical regions of the electromagnetic spectrum. Key technologies are electronics and photonics.

Speaker: Dr Maciej Sypek

Abstract

The performance of modern THz systems can be improved by the use of sophisticated optics. Such optical elements can be used for better coupling of the THz radiation into detectors as well as for controlling beam profiles from THz emitters. Many THz sources can emit narrowband, spatially coherent radiation. In such cases the use of diffractive optics is feasible. Additionally, such optics can be utilized together with matrices of detectors. Different topologies of matrices with detectors can work as focal plane arrays (FPA), standard linear sensors, enhanced spatial resolution sensors or moth-eye like elements. The Orteh Company designs and manufactures standard matrices of detectors based on field-effect transistors (FETs) with signal processing done by fast FPGA circuits. The typical multiplexing technique is replaced by parallel pixel processing. This innovative solution enables utilization of the separate lock-in for each pixel to enlarge the dynamics and sensitivity for the registered signal. The static mode solution provides extremely fast image acquisition. Different modules are scalable and flexible and can be used in many applications for medicine, defense, security, avionics, nondestructive inspection etc. Several THz optical setups composed of diffractive elements and detector modules will be described, including specific designs and applications. Theoretical background, numerical simulations and practical applications will also be presented.

Biography

Maciej Sypek received his M.Sc., Ph.D. and habilitation degrees from the Warsaw University of Technology in 1987, 1992 and 2009, respectively. He is now the CEO of the Polish innovative company Orteh active in the areas of information technologies and optics. He deals with optical design and numerical simulations of propagation electromagnetic radiation in demanding configurations from the extreme ultra-violet to the terahertz range. He is an expert in the design and characterization of subwavelength elements. He is an author or co-author of more than 50 articles published in peer-reviewed scientific journals.

Speaker: Dr Cristian Bonato

Abstract

A sensor based on a single spin can be used to map magnetic fields at the ultimate limit in spatial resolution, down to the limit of few nanometers. In the past decade, ground-breaking experiments have demonstrated this concept using individual electronic spins associated to the nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centre in diamond. The NV centre effectively behaves as a single atom trapped in the diamond lattice and its electronic spin can be controlled and measured, up to room temperature, by a combination of optical and radio-frequency pulses.
In this talk, I will provide a general introduction to spin-based quantum technology with nitrogen-vacancy centres in diamond and will address the question of how the sensitivity of a quantum sensor can be enhanced by adaptive techniques. Given a quantum system, what is the best measurement protocol to extract the most information about unknown parameters? Given a sequence of measurements on a single spin, outcomes obtained by earlier measurements within the sequence could be used to optimize the settings for later measurements (adaptive estimation). What kind of advantage can this provide? Is adaptive estimation advantageous also in the presence of noise, decoherence and imperfect measurements? I will present an optimized adaptive protocol for quantum sensing that performs better than the best known non-adaptive protocol, leading to a record sensitivity (Nature Nano 11, 247 - 2016)

Biography

Cristian is Assistant Professor at Heriot Watt University. He studied physics at the University of Padova ("Laurea" degree, 2004 - PhD, 2008). In Padova, he worked with Prof. Paolo Villoresi on experiments leading to the first demonstration of single photon exchange between an orbiting satellite and a ground-based optical station. During his PhD, he spent two years at Boston University, in the lab of Prof. Alexander Sergienko, studying the spatial properties of photonic entangled states. After his PhD, his research interests shifted towards quantum optics in solid-state systems, in particular on the interaction between single spins and photons. He moved to the Netherlands for two post-doctoral positions, one in Leiden with Prof. Dirk Boumeester on cavity quantum electrodynamics with self-assembled quantum dots and one in Delft with Prof. Ronald Hanson on single spins associated with defects in diamond.

Speaker: Dr. Hoon Ryu

Abstract

Silicon(Si)-based quantum computing has attracted attention since Si is known to have the extremely log decoherence time that is suitable to conserve quantum information (Qubits). Rapid progress in the scanning tunneling microscope (STM) lithography opened the possibility for designs of the core cell of Si-based quantum computer as well as other novel devices such as ultra-thin interconnectors and extremely shallow junctions etc., by integrating Phosphorus (P) atoms in bulk Si with a 0.5 nm precision. Needs for the corresponding modeling researches, therefore, have been also increased to predesign such systems&devices with consideration of diverse atomistic effects. In this seminar, (1) we brief the core logistics of charge-based quantum computing using single P atoms in Si layers, (2) introduce the recent modeling works for physically realized P quantum dots in bulk Si and (3) highly doped P nanowires in Si that can be used as ultrathin interconnects in read-out circuits. (4) Finally, we introduce our in-house code and address the particular need for simulations coupled to the high performance computing, to guide designs of scalable Si-based qubit systems that integrate many P donors.

Biography

Hoon Ryu received BSEE in Seoul National University (Republic of Korea), MSEE and PhD in Stanford and Purdue University (USA), respectively. He was with System LSI division, Samsung Electronics Corp., and is now with National Institute of Supercomputing and Networking, Korea Institute of Science and Technology information (KISTI), where he works as a principal researcher. He was one of the core developers of 3D NanoElectronics MOdeling tool (NEMO-3D) in Purdue University, and now leads the Intel Parallel Computing Center (IPCC) in KISTI. His research interest covers modelling researches of advanced nanoscale devices, and high performance computing with a focus on parallelization and performance optimization of large-scale PDE (partial differential equation) problems.

Speaker: Prof. B. R. Mehta

Abstract

Studying the nature of interface between two dissimilar semiconductors has ever been a complex experimental and theoretical issue. Due to the extremely small thickness of 2D materials, studying the junction involving a 2D layered materials is even more challenging.  In this presentation, our recent CAFM and KPFM based experiments on understanding the nature of nanoscale interface formed between Graphene-Si, MoS₂-ZnS and CdS-CZTS junctions will be presented. Surface potential changes at the graphene-Si junctions under light conditions have been examined using Kelvin probe force microscopy investigations in surface and junctions configurations. Voc nanoscale maps derived from these measurements show that topographical impurities and wrinkled boundaries on the graphene surface affect junction performance. In a separate study, patterned MoS₂ 2D layers having feature size varying from 10 um to 1 um have been grown by a combination of stencil lithography and magnetron sputtering technique. Structural, optical and junction properties of composite layers having wide band gap ZnS films and 2D MoS₂ layers have been investigated. 2D heterojunction having mono and few layers MoS₂ thickness result in high interface photovoltage in comparison to bulk MoS₂ layer. KPFM based difference method has been used to observe the nanoscale changes in the junction behaviour at the grain boundaries with respect to crystalline grain in ZnO/CdS/CZTS/Mo device. A direct measurement and nanoscale mapping of an atomically thin junction in the final finished device without any adverse influence of contact layers, adsorbates and surface impurities are some of the important highlights of the present methodology.

Biography

Prof. B. R. Mehta is currently Schlumberger Chair Professor of Semiconductor Physics at Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, New Delhi, India. He is also Institute level Dean of Research and Development. He did his M.Sc. in Physics from Punjabi University Patiala, M. Tech in Solid State Materials and Ph. D in Physics from IIT Delhi. He has worked as post-doctoral fellow at University of British Columbia, Canada; guest scientist at University of Saarbrucken, Germany; and guest professor at University of Duisburg, Germany. His major research interests are; Science and Technology of Thin Films and Nanostructured Materials for Solar Cell, Resistive Memory, Thermoelectric and Gas Sensor Devices. He is the recipient of MRSI Medal (Material Research Society of India, 2002), DAAD Fellowship (Deutscher Akademischer Austausch Dienst, 2000) and Marie Curie International Fellowship (European Commission, 2006) and Material Science Prize of MRS India 2017. He is on the Editorial Board of Journal of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology and has about 200 journal publications. One of his projects-NanoSwitch- has been selected by European Commission as a Success Story project.

Speaker: Professor Alistair Duffy

Abstract: EMC data is increasingly multi-dimensional with, for example, ready access to simulation technology producing surface or volumetric analysis on modest computing platforms.  This means that a method to compare results of model iterations is now essential in EMC analysis.  This paper looks at a technique that can objectively quantify differences in this multi-dimensional data based on the Feature Selective Validation (FSV) method.  The talk provides an overview of the FSV method and then demonstrates how this can be applied to multi-dimensional data, with verification of performance based on image quality assessment.

Biography: 

Alistair Duffy is Professor of Electromagnetics and Head of Research and Innovation in the Faculty of Technology at De Montfort University, Leicester, UK.  He received the Bachelor’s degree in electrical and electronic engineering and the M.Eng. degree from University College, Cardiff, UK, in 1988 and 1989, respectively.  After receiving the Master’s degree, he joined the research group of professors Christopoulos and Benson at Nottingham University. There he worked on experimental validation of numerical modeling and received his Ph.D. in 1993.  Dr. Duffy completed his professional education in 2004 with an MBA from Open University, UK.  He is widely published, with over 200 technical papers and articles, mostly on his research interests of validation of computational electromagnetics; physical layer components, particularly communications cabling, and electromagnetic compatibility testing.  

Dr. Duffy has contributed to many successful conferences through refereeing functions or organizing committee responsibilities.  He currently serves on the Board of Directors of the International Wire and Cable Symposium, which attracts approximately 1,000 delegates annually.  He also serves on the Board of Directors of the EMC Society, taking up the role of Vice President for Conferences for the 2017 and 2018 sessions. He is an Associate Editor for the IEEE Transactions on EMC and an Associate Editor of the ACES Journal.  Other professional activities include standards body work in the UK (British Standards Institute) and in the IEEE, where he is currently Chair of the EMC Society's Standards Development and Education Committee (SDECom).  He is also the Society’s Global EMC Symposium Coordinator.  From 2008 to 2009 he served the IEEE EMC Society as a Distinguished Lecturer.  In 2015, Dr. Duffy was elected to the grade of IEEE Fellow for the development of validation methods in computational electromagnetics.

Dr. Duffy was a Series Editor for undergraduate textbooks published by Butterworth-Heinemann (now part of Elsevier) and SciTech Publishing (now part of the IET) on EMC.    He has supervised 20 Ph.D. students during his career.

Speaker: Prof Wei Zhang

Abstract: The latest development in Resistive Switching Memory (RRAM) device technology will be reviewed and its future development and application in neuromorphic computing for IoT and in programmable computing will be discussed. The latest results at LJMU will be presented, including the ones published at IEDM 2016 and VLSI Technology Symposium 2016. A novel Random-Telegraph-Noise based characterisation technique has been developed at LJMU, which, for the first time, provides non-destructive evidence to a range of switching and failure mechanisms in state-of-the-arts filamentary and non-filamentary RRAM devices.

Short Bio: Wei Zhang is a Professor of Nano-electronics at Liverpool John Moores University. He is the leader of the memory device research area at LJMU. He specialises in the quality and reliability assessment of novel dielectrics and structures in resistive-RAM memories, Flash memories, Si and Ge based MOSFETs, and GaN devices. Prof. Zhang has been the principal investigator and co-investigator of a number of research projects with a total value of over £2.5 million, supported by EPSRC and the world-leading IMEC Memory Device Consortium whose members include Intel, Micron, Samsung, SanDisk, SK Hynix and Toshiba. In 2007 he worked at IMEC for 6 months and has since led a successful collaboration with the consortium for 10 years on developing future generation memory devices.  His publications are predominantly in world-leading international journals with high ISI impact factors, including Applied Physics Letters, IEEE Electron Device Letters, IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices. He co-authored 9 papers in the flagship IEEE International Electron Device Meeting (IEDM) and 5 papers in IEEE Symposium on VLSI Technology (VLSI) since 2007. 

Tea/coffee + biscuits will be served. All welcome!

Speaker: Prof Marc Bescond

For almost two decades, the non-equilibrium Green's function (NEGF) approach has been intensively developed to perform realistic modeling of quantum transport phenomena in nano-structures and devices [1].  After a brief presentation of the NEGF method, the seminar will first address the impact of a single dopant impurity [2,3] and the access region geometry [4] in ultimate silicon nanowire transistors. In the second part, we will show that it is possible to treat electron-photon interactions and to apply this formalism to the modeling and optimization of III-V third generation solar cells [5]. We will discuss in the last section about an alternative treatment of inelastic interactions in NEGF [6] that significantly reduce the computational time.

[1] H. Haug and A.-P. Jauho, Quantum Kinetics in Transport and Optics of Semiconductors, Vol. 123 of Springer Series in Solid-State Sciences (Springer, Berlin, New York, 1996).

[2] H. Carrillo-Nuñez, M. Bescond, N. Cavassilas, E. Dib, M. Lannoo, J. Appl. Phys., 116, 164505 (2014).

[3] M. Bescond, H. H. Carrillo-Nuñez, S. Berrada, N. Cavassilas and M. Lannoo, Solid State Electron. 122, 1 (2016).

[4] S. Berrada, M. Bescond, N. Cavassilas, L. Raymond and M. Lannoo, Appl. Phys. Lett. 107, 153508 (2015).

[5] N. Cavassilas, C. Gelly, F. Michelini, M. Bescond, IEEE Journal of Photovoltaics, 5, 1621 (2015).

[6] Y. Lee, M. Lannoo, N. Cavassilas, M. Luisier, and M. Bescond, Phys. Rev. B 93, 205411 (2016).

Speaker: Prof Donhee Ham

As part of Prof Donhee Ham's visit to the School of Engineering he will deliver the Electronic Systems Design Centre Annual Lecture.

Abstract
We develop solid-state devices and circuits for applications in EE, biology, and physics. I will highlight these efforts with selected recent works:

(1) Dimensionality profoundly influences condensed-matter electron behaviors, with 2D conductors enabling discoveries of intriguing fundamental phenomena. One great effect of this reduced dimensionality concerns ultraslow plasmons. We obtained 2D plasmons 700× slower than free-space light. These ultraslow plasmons open up new exciting vistas for light manipulation, light-matter interaction, and bandgap-less gain. I will present a host of 2D plasmonic circuits that manipulate light in a broad variety of ways, and discuss 2D plasmonics experiments to measure the mass of massless graphene electrons and to obtain bandgap-less plasmonic gain.

(2) NMR spectroscopy that can elucidate structure and function of biomolecules at atomic resolution is a paramount analytical tool in biology and medicine and has proven enormously fruitful in pharmaceutical screening, structural biology, and metabolomics. But it suffers critically from inherently low throughput. I will share our program to develop a massively parallel––thus ultrahigh throughput––biomolecular NMR paradigm by exploiting silicon chip technology, and its applications in structural biology, drug discovery, and metabolomics.

(3) Another biotech work is to create, in collaboration with Prof. Hongkun Park, CMOS-assisted vertical nanowire arrays as a new neurotechnology tool that parallelizes intracellular access into neurons. Experimentations with this nano-bio interface will be discussed together with its applications in neurobiology, implanted technology, and brain machine interface.

Biography
Donhee Ham is Gordon McKay Professor of Applied Physics and EE at Harvard. He earned a B.S. in physics from Seoul National Univ., graduating atop the College of Natural Sciences with Presidential Prize and Physics Gold Medal. Following a military service in Korea, he went to Caltech for graduate training in physics; he worked on relativistic astrophysics while in physics, and later obtained a Ph.D. in EE winning the Charles Wilts best thesis award. His doctoral work examined the statistical physics of electrical circuits. He was the recipient of the IBM Doctoral Fellowship, Li Ming Scholarship, IBM Faculty Partnership Award, IBM Research Design Challenge Award, and Korea Foundation of Advanced Studies Fellowship. He was recognized by MIT Technology Review as among the top 35 young innovators in 2008 (TR35). He was a 4-time Harvard Yearbook Favorite Professor (2011-2014), and among 8 Harvard Thinks Big speakers in 2012 chosen by college-wide votes. Other experiences include LIGO, IBM Watson Research, consulting visiting professorship at POSTECH, distinguished visiting professorship at Seoul National Univ., TPCs in IEEE ISSCC and IEEE ASSCC, advisory board for IEEE ISCAS, guest editorship for IEEE JSSC, IEEE SSC Distinguished Lecturer, and associate editorship for IEEE Tbiocas.

Speaker: Prof Safumi Suzuki

Abstract
Compact and coherent source is a key component for various applications of the terahertz wave. We report on our recent results of terahertz oscillators using resonant tunnelling diodes (RTDs). The RTD is an InGaAs/AlAs double-barrier structure on InP substrate, and integrated with a planar slot antenna as a resonator and radiator. The output power is obtained from the substrate side through a Si lens. To achieve high-frequency oscillation, a narrow quantum well and an optimized collector spacer thickness were used. The former reduces the electron dwell time in the resonant tunneling region and the latter simultaneously reduces the electron transit time and the capacitance at the collector depletion region. The conduction loss of the slot antenna was also reduced with an optimized antenna length and an improved air bridge structure between the RTD and antenna. By these structures, fundamental oscillation up to 1.92 THz were obtained at room temperature. Oscillation above 2 THz is further expected in theoretical calculation. An oscillator with dipole antenna array, in which a Si lens is unnecessary, was fabricated. In a preliminary experiment, output power of 440 µW was obtained at 0.9 THz in a three-element array. Wireless data transmission using direct intensity modulation was demonstrated with the data rate of 34 Gbps and the bit error rate below the forward error correction limit. By integrating a varactor into the slot antenna, electrical frequency tuning was achieved with a tuning range of 580-900 GHz in an array device. Application of frequency-tunable RTD oscillators to measurements of absorption spectra was also demonstrated.

Biography
Safumi Suzuki received the B.E. degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering and the M.E. and D.E. degrees in Electronics and Applied Physics from the Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan, in 2005, 2007, and 2009, respectively. From 2009 to 2014, he was an Assistant Professor in the Department of Electronics and Applied Physics, Tokyo Institute of Technology, and was an Associate Professor in the Department of Physical Electronics from 2014 to 2016. He has been an Associate Professor in the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering since 2016. He is currently engaged in research on THz electron devices.

Speaker: Dr Umberto Gatti

Abstract
In some environments such as space and avionics altitudes, electronic components must have a certain level of radiation hardness in terms of Total Ionizing Dose and Single Event Effects (depending on the final application). Commercial integrated technologies do not have a sufficient radiation resiliency to guarantee a good reliability for all these environments, leading to the need to find new solutions. In this seminar the basic requirements, issues and solutions related to the design of custom digital ICs for these applications will be firstly discussed, with particular focus on the so-called Radiation-Hardened-By-Design (RHBD) techniques. The development of RHBD digital libraries using standard sub-micrometric CMOS processes (from 180nm down to 130nm) is briefly presented. The libraries include also rad-hard static memory cells which have been used to implement several SRAM memory devices, whose sizes range from 512kbit up to 4Mbit. Similar RHBD techniques have been propagated to mixed-signal ICs, since the main part of the available commercial analog components is made radiation resistant only by using dedicated packages or processes, with penalties on costs and area. A quick overview of issues related to the design and layout of data converters and auxiliary blocks are presented. A final section of the seminar is devoted to the description of the test techniques of the above circuits under radiations (namely Gamma ray and Heavy Ions) and related criticalities.

Biography
Dr. Umberto Gatti received the Laurea degree (summa cum laude) in Electronic Engineering and the Ph.D. in Electronics and Information Engineering from the University of Pavia, Italy, in 1987 and 1992, respectively. From 1993 to 1999, he worked in the Central R&D Lab of Italtel, Italy, and then in the R&D Lab of Siemens, Italy, as Sr. ASIC Engineer. Besides developing analog and mixed analog-digital CMOS/BiCMOS ICs for telecom (data converters, base-band wireless transceivers, burst mode PON interfaces), he was the coordinator of funded projects under the frameworks of FP and Eureka, focused on high-speed Nyquist rate and sigma-delta converters. In 2007 he joined Nokia Siemens Networks, Italy, where he was a Sr. Power Supply Architect for telecom equipment. Currently he is member of the Executive Staff of RedCat Devices, Italy, and also holds research cooperation with the University of Pavia. His present research interests are in the area of CMOS mixed-signal ICs, in particular in rad-hard digital libraries and static memories (SRAMs), data converters, power management and testing techniques under irradiations. He holds 2 international patents, is co-author of more than 60 papers and serves also as reviewer for IEEE magazines and conferences. He is also Member of the Information Technology Commission at Engineers Professional Association of Pavia, where he takes care of the organization of educational activities for Engineering Professionals.

Speaker: Dr Eun-Soo Nam

Abstract
Data center networks form the backbone infrastructure of many large-scale enterprise applications as well as emerging cloud-based services. This is in line with the rapid development in the field of Internet of Things (IoT). Core networks, including backbones and data centers, are expected to have the biggest increase in electricity consumption in the future, since their energy consumption is increasing almost proportionally to the traffic. Optical technologies are widely accepted as a future proof and cost-effective approach for supporting the future traffic demands and services at the lowest energy footprint possible. The future data center networks with optical interconnects are supported by several novel architectures, such as optical circuits, optical switching, optical OFDM, and others. In this talk, we extensively review recent research findings and emerging technologies, such as a Gallium-Nitride transistors (GaN), digital coherent detection and the flexible grid dense wavelength-division multiplexed channel technology for SDN.

Biography
Dr Eun-Soo Nam received a B.Sc. degree in Physics from Kyung-Pook National University, Daegu, Korea in 1983, and M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in Physics from the State University of New York, Buffalo, USA, in 1992 and 1994, respectively. In 1994, he joined the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI), Daejeon, Korea, where his research involved compound semiconductor devices, including GaAs and GaN based high frequency power device platform, long wavelength InP semiconductor photonic devices, OEIC (Optoelectronic Integrated Circuit) for microwave circuits, and SDN network devices. In 2006, he was a Visiting Scholar at the Division of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA. He is now Vice President, managing the materials and devices R&D in ETRI, Korea. He is the recipient of many distinguished awards and honors, including the 2014 Korean Prime Minister's award for global leadership, 2010 ETRI Outstanding Electrical and Computer Engineer Award, and Best Paper Awards. He has published more than 100 reviewed papers, and presented many plenary talks in international meetings. He is also a co-inventor of 90 international patents in the fields of RF devices and photonics. He is currently serving as the Korean Optoelectronic Society Vice President for Technical Activities.