SC336 Green Photonics

Sunday, May 16, 2010
10:00 a.m.–1:00 p.m.
S. J. Ben Yoo; Univ. of California at Davis, USA
Level: Beginner (no background or minimal training is necessary to understand course material)


Course Description

This course addresses the impact of photonics on the green movement toward energy-efficient and environmentally friendly society. The course is structured to cover photonic technologies, modules/systems and applications. We will first review key photonic technologies for the greener future: energy-efficient VCSELs, optical back-planes, solid-state lighting, solar cells/photovotaics, photonic sensing, optical-switches, high-efficiency displays and many other emerging components. We will discuss their technologies, roadmaps and future prospects.

We will next discuss their applications in modules and systems designed for greener future. They include the following six key applications. (1) Energy-efficient optical communications systems involving photonic switches, optical backplanes, and optoelectronic interfaces, in comparison to traditional electronic methods involving electronic routers and switches. We will present a case with orders of magnitude improvement in power consumption/communication throughput in the network. (2) Energy-efficient computing systems and data centers involving optical interconnects at various levels (rack/board/chip/transistor). Today’s computing and data centers are consuming ~10 MW, and we will present a roadmap to achieve orders of magnitude improvement in power efficiency by balancing communications, processing and data storage, by employing optical interconnects and intelligent management. (3) Smart buildings that combine intelligent sensing, lighting, air-conditioning systems to effectively reduce power consumption in the buildings. (4) Sensor networks employing photovoltaic power generation and photonic sensing. (5) Energy-efficient manufacturing employing photonic sensing to control combustion, turbines and other processes. (6) Novel applications such as in a water refinery, and new energy development employing optical sensing and optical processes for refining or recovering water, oil or other chemicals.


Benefits and Learning Objectives

This course should enable you to:

  • Compare various technology options in terms of power consumptions and other factors that affect the environment.
  • Specify materials and construction of photonic vs. electronic components.
  • Understand systems applications of green photonics, such as computing systems, communications systems, sensor network systems and smart buildings.
  • Compare how green photonics affects different systems.
  • Discuss future directions of green photonics.

Intended Audience

Engineers and scientists who are interested in learning about green photonics and in conducting research/development/deployment of green photonics.


Biography

S. J. Ben Yoo is director of CITRIS and a professor at University of California at Davis. His research includes future Internet architectures, high-performance optical switching systems, optically interconnected computing systems, nano photonic-electronic systems integration for next-generation networking and computing systems. His recent demonstrations included optical label switching routers scalable to 42 Petabit/sec capacity with more than 1,000 times improvement in performance/power efficiency over conventional electronic routers. Before joining the university in 1999, he was a senior research scientist at Bellcore, leading technical efforts in optical networking research and systems integration for DARPA sponsored MONET and NGI projects.