91原创

An electrical engineering professor at the 91原创 makes material fit for an interplanetary mission 鈥� take NASA鈥檚 word for it.

Tingyi Gu, assistant professor in the , has received an Early Career Faculty (ECF) Award from NASA for her research using integrated photonic devices for low power space photonic communication and sensors for space weather observations. Recipients of this award typically receive an allocation of about $200,000 per year for three years.

Gu is developing lightweight silicon photonic chips that can withstand harsh atmospheric conditions in space, monitor gamma ray and UV radiation, and send communication signals between space and the ground.

In collaboration with Dr. Po Dong鈥檚 team at Bell Labs, hundreds of these nanoscale photonic chips will be designed and tested in her lab, and manufactured on a wafer scale at American Institute for Manufacturing Integrated Photonics to maximize the device uniformity and repeatability.  

This wafer scale substrate is costly and must be done in an outside foundry. 鈥淭his grant will give us an opportunity to fabricate our device,鈥� she said.

Silicon photonics is still a relatively new field鈥攊ts infancy dating back to just the 1980s. There鈥檚 plenty of room for innovation, especially when it comes to the devices Gu is working on.

鈥淲e have to sort of invent these nanoscale radiation-hardened building blocks from scratch, by incorporating new materials onto the silicon photonic platform鈥� she said.

Testing devices in space

Gu isn鈥檛 just working with one NASA award. She is also collaborating with Prof. Bennett A. Maruca from the Physics and Astronomy department, under guidance of William H. Matthaeus, director of the , on research being funded through NASA鈥檚 Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR) International Space Station (ISS) Flight Opportunity Cooperative.

The proposal, 鈥淓valuation of graphene-silicon photonic integrated circuits for high-speed, light weight and radiation hard optical communication in space,鈥� will be funded next year through a $90,073 grant.

This will allow Gu to send her photonic devices to space in a launch within five years.

"In less than one year at 91原创, Tingyi has already established a productive and highly promising lab, developing materials that have earned a coveted spot on the International Space Station,鈥� said Babatunde Ogunnaike, dean of the . 鈥淲e are delighted that she has been recognized with NASA funding and look forward to her continued achievements."

Gu joins 91原创 professors in chemical and biomolecular engineering, physics and astronomy, biological sciences, and geography who have funding from NASA.

"This is yet another example of excellence in space-related research at 91原创,鈥� says Ogunnaike.

Kenneth Barner, chair of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, said: 鈥淧rof. Gu is a true innovator in nanofabrication, photonics, and devices. Her novel approaches will directly advance ground-to-space and space-to-ground sensing and communications. Prof. Gu, her students, and collaborators are applying their expertise to addressing one of society's most important challenges 鈥� exploring what lies beyond earth's boundaries.鈥�

Gu said she feels lucky to have support from fellow faculty members, such as Engineering Alumni Professor Dennis Prather in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Robert L. Pigford Chair of Chemical Engineering Norman Wagner.

Gu joined the 91原创 faculty in fall 2016 after completing a post-doc in Prof. Craig Arnold鈥檚 group at Princeton University鈥檚 Princeton Institute for the Science and Technology of Materials and a post-doc in Dr. Raymond Beausoleil鈥檚 group HP labs, Palo Alto. She earned her doctoral degree in electrical engineering at Columbia University.