Biography
Bahram Jalali is a Professor of Electrical Engineering at UCLA. He is a Fellow if IEEE and the Optical Society of America, and the Chair of the Los Angeles Chapter of the IEEE Lasers and Electro Optics Society (LEOS). His research interests include silicon photonics and techniques for ultra fast data generation and capture. He has published over 200 scientific papers and holds 6 US patents. He is the recipient of the 2007 R.W. Wood Prize from the Optical Society of America. In 2005, he was chosen by the Scientific American Magazine as the 50 Leaders Shaping the Future of Technology. His work in demonstration of the first silicon laser was cited by the MIT Technology Review magazine as the top 10 technology trends in 2005. While on leave from UCLA from 1999-2001, Dr. Jalali founded Cognet Microsystems, a Los Angeles based fiber optic component company. He served as the company’s CEO, President and Chairman, from its inception through acquisition by Intel Corporation in 2001. From 2001-2004, he was a consultant for Intel Corporation. Dr. Jalali serves on the Board of Trustees of the California Science Center. He has received the BridgGate 20 Award for his contributions to the southern California economy.

Research Interests
Professor Jalali's research focuses on RF photonics, fiber optic integrated circuits, integrated optics, and microwave photonics.

• Fiber Optic ICs: Electronics integrated circuits play a critical role in fiber optic communication networks. Traditionally, electronics has been used to perform the so-called 3R regeneration (amplification, reshaping and retiming) of the data. Our research is focused on more innovativ applications of electronic ICs in fiber optic systems that will offer improved performance, or new and previously unattainable functionality. For example, electronic signal conditioning can be used to extend the performance of optical transmitter and receivers. Our research in electronic predistortion has resulted in the first single-chip linearizers for analog fiber optic links. This technology enhances the information carrying capacity of optical networks. Currently, we are extending the capabilities of this technology by integrating adaptive capability into the analog ICs. Our approach is digital control of analog functions and will result in a linearizer that can adapt itself to the particular optical transmitter (laser or external modulator) and to the environmental variations.

• Integrated Optics: Optical devices and circuits can be made using patterned thin films, in a manner very similar to fabrication of electronic integrated circuits. Integrated optic research deals with the design of active and passive waveguide components, modulators and switches, materials and fabrication technology for planar lightwave circuits. These devices represent key building blocks of the Internet backbone. Our research exploits the unique optical properties of Silicon-on-Insulator (SOI). From a material and processing perspective, this technology is fully compatible with standard silicon processing and hence can be manufactured in silicon fab houses. In addition, owing to a strong index mismatch between silicon and SiO2 (or air) optical fields are tightly confined in SOI structures. This allows us to miniaturize the device and circuit dimensions. Our past research has resulted in the first SOI demonstration of virtually all building block components of fiber optic networks. Current research is focused on nano-scopic waveguides and resonators, nonlinear optics, and methods for rendering such devices practical. As an example of the latter, we are developing two-dimensional adiabatic waveguide tapers with which we can efficiently couple light from a normal optical fiber into nano-scopic devices.

• Microwave Photonics: The broadband, low loss transmission capability of optical fiber links has led to much interest in their use for the distribution and control of microwave and millimeter-wave signals. Application areas include antenna remoting for wireless data and cellular radio systems, optically controlled phased array antennas, microwave signal processing and broadband cable television distribution. Photonics brings new functions to microwave systems such as long delay lines, fast spectrum analysis, frequency conversion, probing and control of microwave devices, low phase noise oscillators and ultra-fast analog to digital converters. Our research is focused on using photonics to process microwave and millimeter wave signals. Both linear and nonlinear optical phenomena are used in such techniques. An example of ongoing research is photonic time manipulation (time stretching, compression and reversal) of electrical signals and their application to analog-to-digital (A/D) and digital-to-analog (D/A) conversion.