Tag: SMU Department of Electrical Engineering

Wired: Lasers Power Pentagon’s Next-Gen Artificial Limbs

Post author By Margaret Allen
Post date November 4, 2011
No Comments on Wired: Lasers Power Pentagon’s Next-Gen Artificial Limbs

Reporter Katie Drummond with Wired magazine has covered the research of SMU engineers Marc Christensen and Volkan Otugen who are working as part of a consortium with industry and other universities to develop technology that will someday help amputees have “feeling” in their artificial limbs.

The research is funded through a $5.6 million grant from the U.S. Department of Defense and industry for a center led by SMU’s Lyle School of Engineering. The goal is to develop revolutionary technology for advanced prosthetic limbs that will help amputees returning from war in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Two-way fiber optic communication between prosthetic limbs and peripheral nerves will be key to operating realistic robotic arms, legs and hands that not only move like the real thing, but also “feel” sensations like pressure and heat.

Wired’s coverage published Nov. 3 in Drummond’s “Danger Room” column.

Read the full story.

EXCERPT:

By Katie Drummond
Wired
The Pentagon’s already got brain-controlled prosthetics, and they are a major improvement over old-school artificial limbs. The devices are far from perfect, however. They rely on metal implants, which aren’t compatible with the body’s tissues, and they can only transmit a few signals at a time — turning what should be a simple movement into a Herculean task.

Now, Darpa-funded researchers are convinced they’ve found a way to make prosthetics truly life-like: laser beams.

A team led by experts at Southern Methodist University is making swift progress towards prosthetic devices that rely on fiber-optics, and would offer a wearer the kind of seamless movement and sensation experienced with a flesh-and-blood limb.

“Already, we’re tantalizingly close,” Dr. Marc Christensen, the program’s leader, tells Danger Room. “We haven’t seen anything that’s been a deal-breaker yet.”

It all started in 2005, when researchers at Vanderbilt realized they could trigger a nerve using infrared light. The finding catalyzed a handful of research projects investigating the prospect of laser-powered prostheses, and Darpa last year doled out $5.6 million for the creation of the Neurophotonics Research Center, led by SMU, for the development of prosthetic devices powered by infrared lasers.

Read the full story.

SMU is a nationally ranked private university in Dallas founded 100 years ago. Today, SMU enrolls nearly 11,000 students who benefit from the academic opportunities and international reach of seven degree-granting schools. For more information see www.smu.edu.

SMU has an uplink facility located on campus for live TV, radio, or online interviews. To speak with an SMU expert or book an SMU guest in the studio, call SMU News & Communications at 214-768-7650.

Tags Lyle School of Engineering, Marc Christensen, SMU Department of Electrical Engineering, SMU Department of Mechanical Engineering, Volkan Otugen

Culture, Society & Family Health & Medicine Mind & Brain Researcher news SMU In The News Technology

KERA: Engineering Hope: Research To Aid Injured Troops

Post author By Margaret Allen
Post date October 10, 2011

Reporter B.J. Austin with Dallas area Public Radio station KERA has interviewed SMU engineers Marc Christensen and Volkan Otugen who are working as part of a consortium with industry and other universities to develop technology that will someday help amputees have “feeling” in their artificial limbs.

KERA’s coverage aired Oct. 10 as part of a larger series on “Engineering Hope: Groundbreaking Research That Could Change Our Lives..”

Read the full story and watch the video.

EXCERPT:

KERA News
This week, KERA 90.1 is airing a series of reports: “Engineering Hope: Groundbreaking Research That Could Change Our Lives.” In today’s report KERA’s BJ Austin visits a lab where researchers from North Texas universities are developing the next generation of prosthetic limbs for injured soldiers. It’s cutting-edge research that could allow amputees to move more naturally and sense feeling with their artificial limbs.

In a busy Starbucks, two things make 28 year old Clint Barkley stand out in the crowd: his clean cut good looks and his walk.

Barkley: We were just south of Fallujah in 2005. We ran over a land mine. I lost my left leg. Our gunner lost both of his feet below his knee.

The former Marine from Bedford walks unevenly, slightly stiff, but full of confidence. He wears a ten pound, titanium leg. It attaches mid-thigh and has a computerized knee.

Barkley: It reads your body weight, how you’re moving and it reacts accordingly. I put my heel down then as I go and put all the pressure in my toe it knows I’m taking a step so it releases and kicks the foot back forward for me.

But what it doesn’t do is allow a smooth, natural gait. And the leg does not allow him to feel the gravel in a driveway or the heat of an asphalt parking lot in August. But that could be in his future.

A consortium of scientists and engineers in North Texas and elsewhere are working on a way for the brain, the body’s nerve impulses and an artificial limb to “talk” to each other. That could allow an amputee to “think” about moving an artificial arm or leg and the limb would respond immediately and more naturally. Conversely, the artificial limb would talk to the brain, giving it sensory input, thereby allowing the amputee to “feel.” The research is being led by Marc Christensen, Professor of Engineering Innovation at Southern Methodist University. But, part of the project is taking place in a noisy, unassuming lab at the University of North Texas. That’s where Christensen talked about the research, being funded initially by a 5.5 million dollar grant from the Department of Defense.

Read the full story and watch the video.

Tags Lyle School of Engineering, Marc Christensen, SMU Department of Electrical Engineering, SMU Department of Mechanical Engineering, Volkan Otugen

Health & Medicine Mind & Brain Researcher news SMU In The News Technology

Popular Science: A New Interface For Bionic Limbs

Post author By Margaret Allen
Post date February 23, 2011

Light bridges the communication gap between man and machine

The monthly science magazine Popular Science covered the research of SMU engineers Marc Christensen and Volkan Otugen who are working to develop technology that will someday help amputees have “feeling” in their artificial limbs.

Popular Science’s coverage is in the March issue: “Talk to the hand: A new interface for bionic limbs.”

Read the full story.

EXCERPT:

By Morgen Peck
Popular Science
The Six Million Dollar Man’s robotic arm worked as seamlessly as his natural one. But in the real world, robotic limbs have limited motions and the user can’t feel what he or she is “touching.” a new approach using optical fibers implanted around nerves could transmit more data and let prosthetics speak to the brain.

Previously, scientists surgically connected electrodes to the nervous system, but they seemed to harm the body’s tissues, making the implant fail within months. In 2005, scientists discovered that they could stimulate a neuron to send a message by shining infrared light on it. Last September, DARPA, the Pentagon’s R&D branch, awarded $4 million to a project led by Southern Methodist University engineers to attempt to connect nerves to artificial limbs using fiber optics.

The team suspects that flexible glass or polymer fiber optics will be more flesh-friendly than rigid electrodes. In addition, optical fibers transmit several signals at once, carrying 10 times as much data as their electrical counterparts. “Our goal is to do for neural interfaces what fiber optics did for the telecom industry,” says electrical engineer Marc Christensen, who is leading the SMU group. Transmitting more information faster should give bionic limbs more lifelike movements.

Talk to the hand: A new interface for bionic limbs.

Tags Lyle School of Engineering, Marc Christensen, SMU Department of Electrical Engineering, SMU Department of Mechanical Engineering, Volkan Otugen

Health & Medicine Mind & Brain Researcher news SMU In The News Technology

CBS 11 DFW: Doctors using fiber optics for prosthetic limbs

Post author By Margaret Allen
Post date December 1, 2010

CBS Channel 11 in Dallas-Fort Worth covered the research of SMU engineers Marc Christensen and Volkan Otugen who are working to develop technology that will someday help amputees have “feeling” in their artificial limbs.

CBS Channel 11’s coverage aired Nov. 30: “Doctors Using Fiber Optics For Prosthetic Limbs.”

Read the full story.

EXCERPT:

By Keith Garvin
CBSDFW.COM
Imagine not being able to pick up a drink, a pen, or even hold a spouse’s hand. For thousands of North Texans living as amputees, that is reality. But, some local engineers are teaming up with medical science to help transform that reality and change lives.

Bernie Diamond of Fort Worth is the picture of health. The former fitness model turned hairdresser was on top of his game. But, three years ago, everything changed in a split second when he was randomly shot while standing outside a home in Dallas.

“I got shot at such a perfect angle that it shot through the wrist and blew out the entire back of my hand,” Diamond said.

After many surgeries and attempts to rehabilitate his left hand, Diamond and his doctors made the decision to amputate his hand just above the wrist.

“I remember I was crying the entire time saying please don’t take my hand, please don’t take my hand,” Diamond said.

He had to learn to function with a prosthetic replacement, which doesn’t allow for much movement. But, that’s what researchers at Southern Methodist University and the University of North Texas are trying to change.

“Today we have very sophisticated robotic arms,” explained Marc Christensen, chair of the electrical engineering department at SMU. “What we’re lacking is a good interface to control them.”

Dr. Gunter Gross at UNT, and Doctors Christensen and Volkan Otugen at SMU are working to create a system of fiber-optic wires and sensors that can replace the vast network of nerves inside a limb.

“It’s a link to send and receive information between the brain and the limb,” explained Dr. Otugen, chair of the mechanical engineering department at SMU.

Read the full story.

Tags Lyle School of Engineering, Marc Christensen, SMU Department of Electrical Engineering, SMU Department of Mechanical Engineering, Volkan Otugen

Health & Medicine Mind & Brain Researcher news SMU In The News Technology

New Scientist: Robot limbs to plug into the brain with light

Post author By Margaret Allen
Post date October 22, 2010

A new $5.6 million center funded by the U.S. Department of Defense and industry is led by SMU’s Lyle School of Engineering to develop revolutionary technology for advanced prosthetic limbs that will help amputees returning from war in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Journalist David Hambling in New Scientist magazine reported on the technology and the research center in the Oct. 17 article “Robot limbs to plug into the brain with light.”

The center is led by Marc Christensen, chair of the Department of Electrical Engineering in SMU’s Bobby B. Lyle School of Engineering.

Read the full story.

Excerpt:

By David Hambling
New Scientist
Imagine a bionic arm that plugs directly into the nervous system, so that the brain can control its motion, and the owner can feel pressure and heat through their robotic hand. This prospect has come a step closer with the development of photonic sensors that could improve connections between nerves and prosthetic limbs.

Existing neural interfaces are electronic, using metal components that may be rejected by the body. Now Marc Christensen at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, and colleagues are building sensors to pick up nerve signals using light instead. They employ optical fibres and polymers that are less likely than metal to trigger an immune response, and which will not corrode.

The sensors are currently in the prototype stage and too big to put in the body, but smaller versions should work in biological tissue, according to the team.

Whisper light
The sensors are based on spherical shells of a polymer that changes shape in an electric field. The shells are coupled with an optical fibre, which sends a beam of light travelling around inside them.

The way that the light travels around the inside of the sphere is called a “whispering gallery mode”, named after the Whispering Gallery in St Paul’s Cathedral, London, where sound travels further than usual because it reflects along a concave wall.

The idea is that the electric field associated with a nerve impulse could affect the shape of the sphere, which will in turn change the resonance of the light on the inside of the shell; the nerve effectively becomes part of a photonic circuit. In theory, the change in resonance of the light travelling through the optical fibre could tell a robotic arm that the brain wants to move a finger, for instance.

Signals could be carried in the other direction by shining infrared light directly onto a nerve — this is known to stimulate nerves — guided by a reflector at the tip of the optical fibre.

Read the full story.

Tags Lyle School of Engineering, Marc Christensen, SMU Department of Electrical Engineering, SMU Department of Mechanical Engineering, Volkan Otugen

Health & Medicine Mind & Brain Researcher news SMU In The News Technology

Dallas Observer: SMU, DOD Partner Again, This Time on Prosthetics That Feel

Post author By Margaret Allen
Post date September 24, 2010

The Dallas Observer on its Unfair Park blog took note of the SMU-led Neurophotonics Research Center being funded by the Department of Defense and industry with a $5.6 million grant.

In the Sept. 13 entry, Journalist Robert Wilonsky explained details of the project to Observer readers and quoted Marc Christensen, electrical engineering chair in SMU’s Lyle School of Engineering.

“Enhancing human performance with modern digital technologies is one of the great frontiers in engineering. Providing this kind of port to the nervous system will enable not only realistic prosthetic limbs, but also can be applied to treat spinal cord injuries and an array of neurological disorders,” Christensen is quoted.

EXCERPT:
By Robert Wilonsky
SMU and the Department of Defense are already partners on that paper-thin camera straight outta 1984 by way of Minority Report. Now the Hilltop sends word of its latest DOD partnership — a $5.6-mil Neurophotonics Research Center that’ll be run by Marc Christensen, electrical engineering chair in SMU’s Lyle School of Engineering. Its charge: to develop prosthetic limbs using fiber optics that actually feel things like pressure and temperature. Says SMU: “Lightning-fast connections between robotic limbs and the human brain may be within reach for injured soldiers and other amputees.”

Read the full story.

Tags Lyle School of Engineering, Marc Christensen, SMU Department of Electrical Engineering, SMU Department of Mechanical Engineering, Volkan Otugen

Health & Medicine Mind & Brain Researcher news Technology

SMU leads $5.6M research center for fiber optic interface to link robotic limbs, human brain

Post author By Margaret Allen
Post date September 8, 2010

DOD, industry fund $5.6 million SMU-led research center; Lyle School technology drives development of advanced prosthetics

Lightning-fast connections between robotic limbs and the human brain may be within reach for injured soldiers and other amputees with the establishment of a multimillion-dollar research center led by SMU engineers.

Funded by a Department of Defense initiative dedicated to audacious challenges and intense time schedules, the Neurophotonics Research Center will develop two-way fiber optic communication between prosthetic limbs and peripheral nerves.

This connection will be key to operating realistic robotic arms, legs and hands that not only move like the real thing, but also “feel” sensations like pressure and heat.

Successful completion of the fiber optic link will allow for sending signals seamlessly back and forth between the brain and artificial limbs, allowing amputees revolutionary freedom of movement and agility.

Potential to patch injured spinal cord

Partners in the Neurophotonics Research Center also envision man-to-machine applications that extend far beyond prosthetics, leading to medical breakthroughs like brain implants for the control of tremors, neuro-modulators for chronic pain management and implants for patients with spinal cord injuries.

The researchers believe their new technologies can ultimately provide the solution to the kind of injury that left actor Christopher Reeve paralyzed after a horse riding accident. “This technology has the potential to patch the spinal cord above and below a spinal injury,” said Marc Christensen, center director and electrical engineering chair in SMU’s Lyle School of Engineering. “Someday, we will get there.”

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is funding the $5.6 million center with industry partners as part of its Centers in Integrated Photonics Engineering Research (CIPhER) project, which aims to dramatically improve the lives of the large numbers of military amputees returning from war in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Currently available prosthetic devices commonly rely on cables to connect them to other parts of the body for operation — for example, requiring an amputee to clench a healthy muscle in the chest to manipulate a prosthetic hand. The movement is typically deliberate, cumbersome, and far from lifelike.

A link compatible with living tissue
The goal of the Neurophotonics Research Center is to develop a link compatible with living tissue that will connect powerful computer technologies to the human nervous system through hundreds or even thousands of sensors embedded in a single fiber.

Unlike experimental electronic nerve interfaces made of metal, fiber optic technology would not be rejected or destroyed by the body’s immune system.

“Enhancing human performance with modern digital technologies is one of the great frontiers in engineering,” said Christensen. “Providing this kind of port to the nervous system will enable not only realistic prosthetic limbs, but also can be applied to treat spinal cord injuries and an array of neurological disorders.”

The center brings together researchers from SMU, Vanderbilt University, Case Western Reserve University, the University of Texas at Dallas and the University of North Texas.

The Neurophotonics Research Center’s industrial partners include Lockheed Martin (Aculight), Plexon, Texas Instruments, National Instruments and MRRA.

Integrated system at cellular level
Together, this group of university and industry researchers will develop and demonstrate new increasingly sophisticated two-way communication connections to the nervous system.

Every movement or sensation a human being is capable of has a nerve signal at its root. “The reason we feel heat is because a nerve is stimulated, telling the brain there’s heat there,” Christensen said.

The center formed around a challenge from the industrial partners to build a fiber optic sensor scaled for individual nerve signals: “Team members have been developing the individual pieces of the solution over the past few years, but with this new federal funding we are able to push the technology forward into an integrated system that works at the cellular level,” Christensen said.

The research builds on partner universities’ recent advances in light stimulation of individual nerve cells and new, extraordinarily sensitive optical sensors being developed at SMU. Volkan Otugen, SMU site director for the center and Lyle School mechanical engineering chair, has pioneered research on tiny spherical devices that sense the smallest of signals utilizing a concept known as “whispering gallery modes.” A whispering gallery is an enclosed circular or elliptical area, like that found beneath an architectural dome, in which whispers can be heard clearly on the other side of the space.

Ultimate combination for two-way interface
The ultimate combination of advanced optical nerve stimulation and nerve-sensing technologies will create a complete, two-way interface that does not currently exist. “It will revolutionize the field of brain interfaces,” Christensen said.

“Science fiction writers have long imagined the day when the understanding and intuition of the human brain could be enhanced by the lightning speed of computing technologies,” said Geoffrey Orsak, dean of the SMU Lyle School of Engineering. “With this remarkable research initiative, we are truly beginning a journey into the future that will provide immeasurable benefits to humanity.”

A private university located in the heart of Dallas, SMU is building on the vision of its founders, who in 1911 imagined a distinguished center for learning emerging from the spirit of the city. Today, nearly 11,000 students benefit from the national opportunities and international reach afforded by the quality of SMU’s seven degree-granting schools. — Kimberly Cobb

SMU has an uplink facility located on campus for live TV, radio, or online interviews. To speak with Marc Christensen or to book a live or taped interview in the studio, call SMU News & Communications at 214-768-7650 or email news@smu.edu.

Tags Lyle School of Engineering, Marc Christensen, SMU Department of Electrical Engineering, SMU Department of Mechanical Engineering, Volkan Otugen

Technology

DOD funds tiny cave camera, iris recognition technology for military, homeland security

Post author By Margaret Allen
Post date March 17, 2010

Researchers are expanding new miniature camera technology for military and security uses so soldiers can track combatants in dark caves or urban alleys, and security officials can unobtrusively identify a subject from an iris scan.

The two new surveillance applications both build on “Panoptes,” a platform technology developed under a project led by Marc Christensen at Southern Methodist University in Dallas and funded by the Department of Defense.

Panoptes is a compact, lightweight, high-resolution smart camera that is named for the Greek mythological character Argos Panoptes, the giant sentry with a hundred eyes.

DOD is funding development of the technology’s first two extension applications with a $1.6 million grant to SMU.

Wired: DARPA’s Beady-Eyed Camera Spots the ‘Non-Cooperative’

Both the tiny cave camera and the iris recognition application will aid the military, border patrol, intelligence officials and airport security, according to Christensen and Delores Etter, a leading researcher in biometric identification.

Both are electrical engineers in SMU’s Bobby B. Lyle School of Engineering. The new applications may be ready for fielded demonstrations as soon as late 2011, said Christensen.

The Panoptes imaging system has been field-tested in tactical environment simulations by defense contractor Northrop Grumman and is currently in an independent test with Draper Laboratory.

“The Panoptes technology is sufficiently mature that it can now leave our lab, and we’re finding lots of applications for it,” said Christensen, an expert in computational imaging and optical interconnections. “This new money will allow us to explore Panoptes’ use for non-cooperative iris recognition systems for Homeland Security and other defense applications. And it will allow us to enhance the camera system to make it capable of active illumination so it can travel into dark places — like caves and urban areas.”

The new grant brings total DOD funding of Panoptes — short for “Processing Arrays of Nyquist-limited Observations to Produce a Thin Electro-optic Sensor” — to $5.5 million. The new applications have been dubbed AIM-CAMS, for “Active Illumination with Micro-mirror-arrays for Computational Adaptive Multi-resolution Sensing,” and Smart-Iris, for “SMU’s Multi-resolution Adaptive Roving Task-specific Iris Recognition Imaging System.”

Hi-rez “eyes” in caves, urban alleys

Panoptes initially was designed for military aerial drones and combat helmet cameras for use in daylight environments. The technology produces sharp, clear images without the size and weight of a conventional camera system because it doesn’t rely on a large, bulky, curved lens for high-resolution images.

Instead, arrays of agile and precisely controlled microelectromechanical system (MEMS) mirrors are integrated with low-resolution sub-imagers on a silicon base for the purpose of sampling a wide field of view. The analog steerable MEMS mirrors adaptively redirect plexiglas sub-imagers to zoom in on regions of interest. The captured images are stored in an onboard computer and restored to high-resolution by an information theory-based super-resolution algorithm.

The sub-imagers are tiny off-axis-shaped paraboloids, fabricated using injection molding. At 8 millimeters by 5.7 millimeters by 4 millimeters, the sub-imagers have an effective focal length of 4 millimeters and are tiny enough to fit on the surface of a small coin.

The honeycomb-shaped micro mirror array comprises 61 hexagonal mirrors, each with three actuators to mechanically move and control the mirrors. The usable circular aperture, the opening through which light travels, is 3.9 millimeters in diameter. The end result — a digitally restored image — while not super-resolution, approaches optical limit, the researchers say.

The flat sub-imagers can be tiled unobtrusively almost anywhere, from the underside of a small drone to the outside of a soldier’s helmet to the walls of a hallway.

The Panoptes architecture is unique in its ability to adapt its field of view to steer to a region of interest, capturing only images of value, Christensen said. That preserves computing power by eliminating uniform allocation of imaging resources, which is wasteful, he said.

Smart-Iris narrows from wide field-of-view to narrow field-of-view

To develop the biometric Smart-Iris, the adaptive resolution of Panoptes will be paired with iris recognition technology.

“It’s very challenging to get the resolution with a wide field-of-view camera, but with a zoom camera, it’s hard to find the iris because it’s like looking through a soda straw,” Christensen said.

Every iris is unique

Iris recognition — currently used worldwide by airports, prisons, laboratories, fitness clubs, hotels and other institutions — is the most accurate biometric available because no two irises are alike, said Etter, a former Deputy Under Secretary of Defense who leads SMU’s Biometrics Engineering Research Group. The technology is challenged, however, by interference when the iris is being scanned, she said. Problems can include glare, eyelashes, eyelids or dim lighting.

With Panoptes, the camera can start with a wide field-of-view at low resolution, find a face, then narrow to the area of interest — the iris. At the same time, Smart-Iris will extend the range of iris acquisition. Instead of one person cooperatively standing motionless with their eye pressed to a scanner, Smart-Iris will make it possible for people to pass through a standard doorway, each one getting their iris scanned — without so much as even pausing — by equipment mounted on walls or door frames. At the same time, the camera would maintain high resolution and more than 150 pixels across the iris.

Easier Smart-Iris scan is unobtrusive, but accurate

That could benefit the Department of Homeland Security. More than 600 million people pass through security to fly aboard commercial airlines each year, according to the agency. Homeland Security relies on the latest technology to monitor more than 700 security checkpoints and 7,000 baggage screening areas.

“Our goal is to develop an iris recognition system that is unobtrusive and accurate. We want to ensure that the right people have access, and that potential intruders are identified, all without impacting flow in high-traffic areas,” said Etter, who directs the Lyle School’s Caruth Institute for Engineering Education.

Into caves and dark alleys

To develop AIM-CAMS, Panoptes is being paired with new off-the-shelf pocket projector technology known as Pico. Pico projectors, often compared in size to a candy bar, make it possible to project digital pictures taken by cell phones and other portable devices onto any wall for large-format viewing.

Combining Pico with Panoptes will allow the low-resolution camera to be used in dark places, such as caves and urban alleys, providing troops with situational awareness, said Christensen, who is chair of the SMU Department of Electrical Engineering and an associate professor.

SMU is collaborating on the research with Santa Clara University in California, Northrop Grumman and Draper Laboratory. Funding came from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, Office of Naval Research and Army Research Laboratory.

Watch a news video about the Panoptes research

Tags Delores Etter, Lyle School of Engineering, Marc Christensen, SMU Department of Electrical Engineering

Technology

Will high-density PICs be the next big thing?

Post author By Margaret Allen
Post date January 5, 2010

Gary Evans in SMU’s Photonics Lab.

Lasers have the potential to improve and revolutionize human lives in many ways, from consumer electronics and communications to medical equipment and homeland security. Helping unlock the barriers to these advancements is the research of SMU Electrical Engineering Professor Gary Evans.

Evans has been recognized by his peers for his contributions to the development, design and fabrication of semiconductor lasers, microscopic manufactured devices that can amplify subatomic light particles called photons.

This technology, in turn, can lead to applications that transmit data, energy, pictures or sound.

The field of photonics already has many claims to fame: Laser pulses deliver information through glass fibers to create the high-speed Internet; certain wavelengths of laser light are used in cancer therapy; lasers read CDs and DVDs; and at industrial plants, lasers cut materials with precision.

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3D dinosaur track

Hunt for Higgs boson

But future development of high-power applications requires research advancements of the kind Evans is tackling in his laboratory: He is looking for a way to fit billions of lasers and other optical components atop a microscopic chip.

The challenge is similar to the one faced in the late 1950s by the engineers who developed the electronic integrated circuit. The revolutionary high-density electronic integrated circuit paved the way for powerful hand-held calculators, laptop computers and myriad microelectronic devices and technology that have transformed the world.

Evans and other researchers believe photonic integrated circuits (PICs) may have that same vast potential, but there are technical problems to resolve. One key to manufacturing high-density PICs, which can hold billions of optical devices, is an “isolator.” An isolator would allow photons to flow unrestricted in the forward direction, but would prevent any reflected light from traveling backward. Without an isolator, unavoidable reflections would cause instabilities and chaos in the PIC.

“An isolator allows integration of large numbers of lasers and other optical components to produce stable, robust photonic circuits,” Evans says. Since 1994 he and Jacob Hammer, a retired colleague from RCA Labs, have been working along with graduate students to develop an isolator.

“We have a good understanding of the theory and we realize what problems need to be solved to make an integrated isolator in a semiconductor,” Evans says. “But more theory needs to be done to understand the materials that need to be developed. The materials just don’t exist yet.”

He is seeking federal funding to continue collaborations with Hammer, the University of California, Santa Barbara and the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory to develop those materials.

Since 2001 the team has received $250,000 in federal funding for isolator research. Some funding for Evans’ research also has been awarded to Photodigm Inc., a company he co-founded. Photodigm specializes in photonics technology for communications, digital imaging, defense and medical device applications. The Richardson-based company has contracts with the U.S. Department of Defense, among others.

Evans joined SMU in 1992, the year he also received one of electrical engineering’s top honors: election as a Fellow of IEEE, the technology industry’s professional association. The association cited Evans for contributions he has made to the industry’s development, fabrication and understanding of semiconductor lasers.

Over the years, Evans’ research has been conducted in conjunction with others, including the larger SMU photonics team: Jerome Butler, University Distinguished Professor of Electrical Engineering; Jay Kirk, SMU electrical engineering laboratory manager and a co-founder of Photodigm; and Marc Christensen, chair and associate professor of the Electrical Engineering Department and a member of Photodigm’s technical advisory board. — Margaret Allen

Tags Gary Evans, Jay Kirk, Jerome Butler, Lyle School of Engineering, Marc Christensen, SMU Department of Electrical Engineering

Researcher news Technology

The 33 news: SMU developing micro camera for front-line soldiers

Post author By Margaret Allen
Post date July 9, 2009

Southern Methodist University researchers are taking a different approach to producing photo and video images for military surveillance cameras outfitted on unmanned aerial vehicles and helmets. Walt Maciborski of The 33 news broadcast in Dallas reported July 8 on research in the lab of Electrical Engineering Associate Professor Marc Christensen.

Watch the video

Excerpt:

By Walt Maciborski
KDAF: The 33
DALLAS — Cutting edge micro cameras are being developed in a basement lab at Southern Methodist University. The project is code-named Panoptes, more on its name later.

Associate Professor Marc Christensen says his undergraduate and graduate researchers at SMU’s Photonic Architectures Lab are about to take a giant leap into the future of photography.

“What we’re working on here is trying to develop the next generation of cameras,” Christensen says.

Christensen’s team is creating video and still cameras that are as thin as about two credit cards, covered with tiny mirrored lenses.

“The original program was driven by the department of defense, (because) they have a need to have tactical imagery, and they don’t want to only have it on platforms that are as large as a Predator UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle), ” Christensen says. “They would like to fit this camera on something the size of a model airplane or something that could fit in the palm of your hand.”

Read the full story.

Tags Lyle School of Engineering, Marc Christensen, SMU Department of Electrical Engineering

Researcher news

Christensen named 2008 SMU Ford Research Fellow

Post author By Margaret Allen
Post date May 30, 2008

Marc Christensen, in SMU’s Department of Electrical Engineering, has received an SMU 2008 Ford Research Fellowship.

Christensen, an associate professor and chair of the Department of Electrical Engineering in the Bobby B. Lyle School of Engineering, has built a nationally recognized research group in photonics and computational imaging.

His work in applications such as imaging sensors and micro-mirror arrays has been funded by entities ranging from the National Science Foundation to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, DARPA.

In 2007, he became a member of the first class of researchers to receive the DARPA Young Faculty Award for his work in active illumination for adaptive multi-resolution sensing.

Currently, Christensen leads a research project that also involves senior faculty from the University of Delaware, University of Texas-Dallas, and Sandia National Laboratory.

Established in 2002 through a $1 million pledge from Gerald Ford, chair of SMU’s Board of Trustees, the fellowships help the University retain and reward outstanding scholars. Each recipient receives a cash prize for research support during the year.
The University’s new Ford Fellows were honored by the SMU Board of Trustees at its May meeting.

Tags Lyle School of Engineering, Marc Christensen, SMU Department of Electrical Engineering

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