As communication data rates between photonic integrated circuits and advanced-node chips increase rapidly – currently at the few terabit per second level, but moving towards 100 terabits per second and beyond, Nick Harris believes it will force careful co-design and extreme packaging technologies.
‘Ultra-tight integration between advanced-node compute chips and silicon photonics is the next big thing,’ he said. ‘Laser solutions and fibre packaging costs hold the silicon photonics industry back. These are hard problems to solve, but we have some of the best minds in the industry working on them.’
Harris, who didn’t apply to university until pushed by mentors, recommends photonics researchers develop a deep understanding of electromagnetics and solid-state physics. ‘My understanding of electromagnetics was strengthened by quantum theory. When you go deep into physics and look back at lower concepts, they’ll make even more sense. There are only a handful of foundational concepts and the better you understand them, the more creative power you will have.’
You can find Harris online at twitter.com/theanalognick or https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicholas-harris-7114b233/. He plans to attend CLEO 2023.
Organisation: Lightmatter
Role: CEO and founder
Based in: Boston, Massachusetts, US
Education: PhD, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, MIT