Event Details

We present a novel application of silicon photonic integrated circuit (PIC) design for inertial navigation and free-space optical systems. Specifically, we focus on the integration of an inertial navigation system that combines fused silica hemispherical dual-shell mechanical oscillators with PIC-based optical signal processing, enabling compact and high-performance inertial navigation units. We propose and experimentally demonstrate a fully integrated vibrational sensor system that serves as an on-chip detection method, preserving the resonator’s high quality factor while allowing precise measurement of vibrational mode frequencies and picometer-scale displacement amplitudes with a linearity error below 5%. Fabrications are done at AIM photonic facilities. The system’s minimum sensitivity, noise limits, and dynamic range for optical readout of vibrational modes from 1 pm to 1 μm will be discussed. Furthermore, we explore the potential of silicon PIC transceiver architectures to mitigate rapid signal fluctuations caused by atmospheric scintillation in free-space optical communication and LiDAR applications.

November 21, 2025

Join Zoom Webinar

Host: Steve Crago
POC: Amy Kasmir

Speaker Bio

Dr. Ozdal Boyraz received his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, in 1997 and 2001, respectively. Following two years in industry at Xtera Communications in Allen, Texas, he joined the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) as a postdoctoral fellow in 2003. At UCLA, he led pioneering work in silicon photonics and optical signal processing techniques based on time-stretch systems. In 2005, he joined the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the University of California, Irvine (UCI) as an Assistant Professor, where he currently serves as a Full Professor. Dr. Boyraz’s research interests include silicon-based optoelectronic devices, microwave photonics, optical communication systems, optical signal processing, free-space optical communications, and LiDAR technologies. He has authored or co-authored more than 250 journal and conference publications and holds ten issued US patents. He received the DARPA Young Faculty Award in 2010 and is a Senior Member of Optica.