PhD in non-volatile dual-mode optical memory for unconventional computing

The mission of the Department of Electrical Engineering is to acquire, share and transfer knowledge and understanding in the whole field of Electrical Engineering through education, research and valorization. We work towards a ‘Smart Sustainable Society’, a ‘Connected World’, and a healthy humanity (‘Care & Cure’). Activities share an application-oriented character, a high degree of complexity and a large synergy between multiple facets of the field.

Research is carried out into the applications of electromagnetic phenomena in all forms of energy conversion, telecommunication and electrical signal processing. Existing and new electrical components and systems are analyzed, designed and built. The Electrical Engineering department takes its inspiration from contacts with high-tech industry in the direct surrounding region and beyond.

The department is innovative and has international ambitions and partnerships. The result is a challenging and inspiring setting in which socially relevant issues are addressed.

Job Description

The exponential growth of computing capabilities has transformed nearly every aspect of modern society. Continuous advances in classical computer hardware architecture and semiconductor technology have enabled rapid progress in many fields of engineering and science. In many modern applications, particularly in advanced 3D imaging assisted characterization, sensing, simulation, vast amounts of data are generated and must be processed at extremely high speed in real-time. However, the rate of improvement in conventional computing hardware has begun to stagnate, creating a critical bottleneck with the slow-down in Moore’s scaling, limiting further performance gains. The bottleneck is in both operation speed but also the energy efficiency. Therefore, more efficient and faster compute hardware is needed. This PhD position contributes to such new hardware research.

Photonic computing hardware offers a promising alternative, leveraging the unique advantages of light for computation. Photonic processing could lead to low latency, low power dissipation, and fully utilize the intrinsic parallelism of light through wavelength or polarization multiplexing, enabling energy-efficient, high-speed, and massively parallel operations beyond the constraints of conventional electronics.

This PhD position aims to research new materials and tailor existing material properties in order to be used in a photonic memory concept for photonic computing. It should combine multi-level non-volatile storage with methodologies for both electronic and photonic read/write, resulting in the development of a novel 3D-stacked multilevel memory device, compatible with electronic and photonic chips. For that, you will use integrated photonics technology which is already shaping the future of our digital society. Ultrahigh bandwidth telecommunication, quantum and optical computing, AI datacenters, non-intrusive sensing, LiDAR, and intelligent manufacturing are all fast-evolving application fields utilizing integrated photonics, presenting opportunities for innovation and research.

The PhD position is funded through a grant awarded by Holland High Tech for a jointly proposed research from TU/e and company Motion Imager. This means you are able to connect research directly with the needs of industry within the project. This position will be in the Photonic Integration group at TU/e, leveraging years of expertise in integrated photonics technology and an established network in the field. The research group is working within several EU projects on the topic of photonic computing and you will be able to interact closely with other researchers and experts on this topic.

Job Requirements

• A master’s degree (or an equivalent university degree) in physics and engineering.
• Experience with semiconductors materials, photonics, electronics is desired
• Ability to work in an interdisciplinary team and to c