Securing the Future: Photonic Systems Development

在过去的几年里，光子技术领域取得了巨大的进步，与电子技术相辅相成，电子技术使信息处理能力取得了巨大的进步。大量新的屏幕和投影显示技术已经开发出来，带来了更高的分辨率，更低的功耗操作，并实现了新的机器交互方式。生物光子学的进步为个人医疗保健带来了大量低成本产品。低成本通信技术的进步使收发器的单价在几年内从10万美元降至不到100美元，并且在过去两年中，并行光子学在计算中的大量使用已经实现。聚合物技术的进步不仅使连接的形成成为可能，而且使完全集成在电路板内的完整光学子系统成为可能，因此用户可以期望自己将定制的光子技术商品化，而不必求助于专业公司。这些进步为商业化活动的重大变化奠定了基础，光子学和电子学将在广泛的系统中融合。重要的是，光子学将成为传统领域之外更大范围用户的基础支撑技术，这些用户将反过来要求光子学技术人员接受更大程度的跨学科培训。简而言之，有必要教育和培训具有在电子和光子硬件和软件领域平衡技能的研究人员。申请人目前不知道这种能力。因此，这个博士培训中心（DTC）的提案旨在满足这一重要需求，建立在剑桥大学和伦敦大学学院研究活动的独特性之上，这些研究活动已经专注于基于聚合物和全息投影技术的新型显示器，光子通信在计算、个人信息系统和消费产品中的应用（通过板对板、芯片对芯片和后来的芯片互连）。光子学在工业加工和制造中的使用增加，以低成本推出光纤取代铜网络的技术，以光子光源取代许多传统照明产品，以及光子学在医疗诊断和个性化医疗中的广泛应用。许多这些活动将越来越依赖于更先进的系统集成，因此提议的DTC包括计算机系统和软件方面的专家。通过将这些互补的活动结合在一起，建议制定一项先进的培训计划，为下一代高素质的博士生提供所需的专业知识、商业和商业技能，从而为未来的新系统提供创新机会。应该强调的是，DTC将为学生提供广泛的学习方法，远远超出传统方法，使他们能够获得所需的技能。例如，除了讲座和研讨会之外，还将有定制的实验课程活动、阅读俱乐部、路线图绘制活动、借调合作者和商业规划课程。光子学很可能会更加深入到其他关键经济部门，因此DTC的受益者预计将包括涉及印刷、消费电子、计算、国防、能源、工程、安全、医药等行业，以及为金融、零售和医疗等行业提供信息系统的系统公司。这些行业将成为数字经济、能源、医疗保健和纳米技术领域的核心。因此，发展中国家培训中心的一个关键特点将是使其学员充分认识到现有机会的广度，并相信他们能够在其中产生影响。

Dramatic progress has been made in the past few years in the field of photonic technologies, to complement those in electronic technologies which have enabled the vast advances in information processing capability. A plethora of new screen and projection display technologies have been developed, bringing higher resolution, lower power operation and enabling new ways of machine interaction. Advances in biophotonics have led to a large range of low cost products for personal healthcare. Advances in low cost communication technologies to rates now in excess of 10 Gb/s have caused transceiver unit price cost reductions from >$10,000 to less than $100 in a few years, and, in the last two years, large volume use of parallel photonics in computing has come about. Advances in polymers have made possible the formation of not just links but complete optical subsystems fully integrated within circuit boards, so that users can expect to commoditise bespoke photonics technology themselves without having to resort to specialist companies. These advances have set the scene for a major change in commercialisation activity where photonics and electronics will converge in a wide range of systems. Importantly, photonics will become a fundamental underpinning technology for a much greater range of users outside its conventional arena, who will in turn require those skilled in photonics to have a much greater degree of interdisciplinary training. In short, there is a need to educate and train researchers who have skills balanced across the fields of electronic and photonic hardware and software. The applicants are unaware of such capability currently.This Doctoral Training Centre (DTC) proposal therefore seeks to meet this important need, building upon the uniqueness of the Cambridge and UCL research activities that are already focussing on new types of displays based on polymer and holographic projection technology, the application of photonic communications to computing, personal information systems and indeed consumer products (via board-to-board, chip to chip and later on-chip interconnects), the increased use of photonics in industrial processing and manufacture, techniques for the low-cost roll-out of optical fibre to replace the copper network, the substitution of many conventional lighting products with photonic light sources and extensive application of photonics in medical diagnostics and personalised medicine. Many of these activities will increasingly rely on more advanced systems integration, and so the proposed DTC includes experts in computer systems and software. By drawing these complementary activities together, it is proposed to develop an advanced training programme to equip the next generation of very high calibre doctoral students with the required expertise, commercial and business skills and thus provide innovation opportunities for new systems in the future. It should be stressed that the DTC will provide a wide range of methods for learning for students, well beyond that conventionally available, so that they can gain the required skills. In addition to lectures and seminars, for example, there will be bespoke experimental coursework activities, reading clubs, roadmapping activities, secondments to collaborators and business planning courses.Photonics is likely to become much more embedded in other key sectors of the economy, so that the beneficiaries of the DTC are expected to include industries involved in printing, consumer electronics, computing, defence, energy, engineering, security, medicine and indeed systems companies providing information systems for example for financial, retail and medical industries. Such industries will be at the heart of the digital economy, energy, healthcare and nanotechnology fields. As a result, a key feature of the DTC will be a developed awareness in its cohorts of the breadth of opportunity available and a confidence that they can make impact therein.