Graduate Research Positions Available

Photonic Devices and Systems

Professor Rena Huang

Electrical, Computer and System Engineering Department

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Troy, New York, 12180

Professor Rena Huang specializes in advanced photonic devices, including light modulators, photodetectors, on-chip isolators, tunable optical switches, splitters, and integrated photonic systems. Her research is applied in optical interconnects on interposer for AI chiplets, photonic computing, and on-chip beamforming for phased array antennas. In 2024, three graduate-level research positions are available:

1. Photonic Device Design and Fabrication on Glass Substrate:
• Research focus: Mode converters, optical switches, optical resonators, and on-chip photonic networks on glass substrate and glass interposer packaging. Student will be provided cleanroom training for device fabrication.
• Candidate requirements:
• EE or Physics background.
• Have taken courses in photonics/optics during undergraduate and/or master studies.
• Master's degree is a plus.
2. Slow-Light Photonic Modulators and Systems:
• Research focus: Slow light Si modulator design, including impedance-matched electrodes, doping/loss design, Bragg grating, and photonic crystal waveguide modeling.
• Candidate requirements:
• EE or Physics background.
• Prior research experience in photonic crystal waveguide is encouraged.
• Master's degree is a plus.
• Experience in high-speed optical system testing is a plus.
3. Chip-Scale Photonic Computing:
• Research focus: Utilizing Si foundries for on-chip photonic tensor core computing (vector matrix multiplication).
• Candidate requirements:
• EE or Physics background.
• Strong math and algorithms skills.
• Prior experience in photonic device design is a plus.
• U.S. citizens are encouraged to apply (some research tasks are limited to U.S. citizens).

Training and Skill Development:

All graduate students will receive training in chip-level device characterization, fiber-to-chip coupling, polarization characterization, modulator and photodetector measurement, high-speed eye diagram and PAM4 testing, PN junction I-V, capacitance characterization, and more. Additionally, students will gain proficiency in simulation software packages such as Lumerical, Tidy3D, COMSOL, etc., for active and passive photonic device designs and photonic bandgap study.

How to Apply:

Interested students are invited to contact Professor Huang directly. Detailed information about Professor Huang's research interests can be found at her research page (https://sites.ecse.rpi.edu/~huang/).