Although he thinks some people would claim the sector is already there, Prof Martijn Heck believes the next big thing in photonics is circuit-level design for photonic integrated circuits, and smart design for robustness.
He said: ‘Circuits are currently too much seen as a collection of device-level building blocks, mimicking a miniaturised optical table setup, and their interaction is not yet fully taken into account. Smart design to calibrate and control photonic circuits inline should further accelerate the uptake.’
Finding enough people who can drive the photonic integration technology does throw up challenges, however: ‘We will see a convergence of electronics and photonics, and talent that has a solid understanding of both fields is really scarce.’
Heck speaks from experience, having started a new academic group at Aarhus University in Denmark, without a cleanroom, without initial start-up funding, without a network, in a newly established department, without track record, and in a country he hardly knew. ‘After five years, the group was a solid ten people, with plenty of funding and a well-equipped lab,’ he said.
You can find Prof Heck online at https://www.linkedin.com/in/martijnheck/.
Organisation: Eindhoven Hendrik Casimir Institute, Eindhoven University of Technology
Role: Professor
Based in: Eindhoven, the Netherlands
Education: MSc in Applied Physics (2002), PhD in Electrical Engineering (2008), both at Eindhoven University of Technology, the Netherlands