Rüschlikon / Loo, Zurich, Switzerland
At Lightium AG, we are establishing a production-grade foundry service for thin-film lithium niobate (TFLN) integrated photonics. The characterization team is responsible for developing robust test strategies for qualifying the Lightium PDK components and building the measurement infrastructure.
I am pursuing my PhD at the IBM Research Zurich Laboratory in the Neuromorphic Devices and Systems Group. The goal of the project is the develop a photonic chip for the efficient training and inference of artificial neural networks. Presently, digital transistor logic is used for the training of neural networks. Effectively, the neural network is emulated. The chip that we are developing can instead be viewed as a direct hardware implementation of the synaptic network. By avoiding emulation, machine learning algorithms can be executed efficiently. From a technical point of view; Von Neumann architectures are limited by a low IO-to-compute ratio, and we overcome this by integrating the memory with the compute logic. This project is part of the POST DIGITAL European Training Network, which consists of numerous research efforts into analogue computing. https://postdigital.astonphotonics.uk/
Improving the performance of the world leading lithography tool for semiconductor manufacturing is a complex and continuous process. In addition, this process is very important, for the semiconductor industry strongly depends on our DUV tools in order to manufacture the next generation of high performance & low power logic and memory chips. As a design engineer in DUV focus performance, I am part of a small team that possesses the knowledge on how specific aspects of our lithography equipment couple to focus performance. The task is then ours to ensure that focus performance specifications and goals are met for our current and future DUV tools. Within our team, I specialize in the optics of the machine. This includes the laser up until the projection lens. I design, perform, and analyze tests in order to verify that the machine is performing according to expectations. Being effective at my job requires the combination of deep theoretical knowledge with strong communication and teamwork capabilities.
Master's thesis in the Dirk Bouwmeester Lab, title: "A membrane-in-the-middle device for optomechanics." A traditional cavity optomechanical system consists of an optical cavity, and a mechanical resonator that comprises one of its reflective end-mirrors. However, an optomechanical system that features a translucent membrane resonator in the center of a optical cavity displays significantly improved optomechanical properties. The improvement of these optomechnical characteristics is important, for the feasibility of performing (macroscopic) quantum optomechanical experiments stresses these. I joined the Dirk Bouwmeester Quantum Optics Lab in order to develop such membrane-in-the-middle device. Foremost, my activities consisted of: developing an understanding of the corresponding optics (computationally & theoretically), specifying design parameters for our prototype device, introducing novel methods for device characterization, and demonstrating optomechanical coupling (including optical cooling of the fundamental mechanical eigenmode).
Master's research project in the Anh Tuân Phan Lab (Nanyang Technological University). The title of my report: "Helicase induced G-quadruplex unfolding studied by single-molecule FRET." I used single-molecule FRET in order to study the interaction of two types of helicases (enzymes) with G-quadruplexes (a secondary DNA structure). Based on my data, we were able to resolve controversy surrounding this type of reaction. Besides performing experiments, I was activily involved in the improvement of our methodology.