Name of Intellectual Property: Optical Bandwidth Enhancement of Transistor Laser Operation with an Auxiliary Base Signal

Submitter: Lesley Millar, Director, Office of Technology Management, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Inventor Information: Professor Nick Holonyak, Jr inventor of the practical light-emitting diode (LED) and the first graduate student of Nobel Prize winning University of Illinois Professor John Bardeen — who invented the transistor in 1948 — along with Professor Milton Feng are two of the inventors of the Transistor Laser. Illinois Professors Holonyak and Feng are continually inventing in the compound semiconductor realm to elicit insight into faster transistors. Holonyak has received numerous accolades for his work, including the National Medals of Science and Technology, Japan Prize, Russian Global Energy Prize, and Lemelson-MIT Prize.

Milton Feng holds the record for fastest transistor, approaching 1THz in frequency. Their accomplishments are in two disparate, complimentary fields: the physical chemistry that makes lasers work and electrical engineering that creates circuitry to take advantage of the physical chemistry of lasers.

Non-Confidential Technology Summary: The Optical Modulation bandwidth of a transistor laser used, for example, in optical communication can be more than doubled from the typical 10GHz to about 22GHz. This is done by adding an AC signal to one terminal of the transistor laser. This AC signal addition serves to peak the photon output of the laser. This technique is much more convenient in comparison to optical methods to increase bandwidth.

Why is this important or intriguing? This increased bandwidth is fundamental to the cost and performance of optical fiber communication networks.

Synopsis of Business Opportunity: Optical Communication Networks are consuming hundreds of thousands of lasers annually, striving to find ways to increase bandwidth and content delivery over current infrastructure. This invention enables the industry to double its current content delivery.

Ownership: Wholly owned by the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois. Funding for research provided by DARPA. U.S. government rights will exist.

Patent Status: U.S. Provisional Patent Application filed for this application, plus U.S. patents pending for background art on Transistor Laser.

Contact Information:

Steven Wille
Senior Technology Manager
Office of Technology Management
University of Illinois
Ceramics Building, 105 South Goodwin Avenue
Urbana, IL 61801
USA

E-mail: stvwille@illinois.edu
Phone: 217-244-5956
Fax: 217-265-5530

Posted January 27th, 2009 under Communications, Hot IP. [ Comments: none ]